I’m going to make an educated guess here and say that you love muffins. I mean, come on. Everyone loves muffins! They are easy to make, delicious to eat, portable, freezable, and delectable. Delectable. I don’t think I’ve ever used that word before. I just really needed another “-able” word to round out that sentence. Forgive me.

Now, these muffins. I came across them in an old Taste Of Home magazine and I ripped the recipe out and stuck it in my To Bake Soon pile. All of my recipes are in the To Bake Soon pile. I don’t bother ripping out recipes that I don’t want to make as soon as possible. I’m wild and crazy that way.

Enough about the piles of papers littering my house, let’s discuss these muffins.

They did what every muffin should do, and that’s bake up nice and tall. I hate when I make a muffin that doesn’t achieve that beautiful round top. Flat muffins are bad, man. My kids loved these muffins, but I had one complaint. The orange zest in them gave them a bit of an odd flavor. Next time (and, yes, there will be a next time) I will make these without the orange zest. These were still very good and I still ate more of them than I care to tell you, I just found myself wishing I had left the orange zest out. If you choose to make these (and why wouldn’t you?), go ahead and add the orange zest if it sounds good, or leave it out if it doesn’t. The world will keep on spinning either way. True story.

This muffin recipe mixes up like most others, wet ingredients and then dry. Easy peasy.

I was supposed to end up with twelve muffins, but I had enough batter for twelve regular muffins and twelve somewhat skimpy mini-muffins.

The streusel topping is just flour, brown sugar, and butter. Cut the butter into the flour and brown sugar and sprinkle a little (or a lot) of the topping on the muffins before baking. You could also add a bit of rolled oats to the streusel topping if you want to feel all healthy and virtuous.

Bake these guys for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Your house will smell lovely.

Let the muffins cool on a wire rack and try your darnedest to keep your kids away from the streusel topping. Something about streusel topping just begs kids to pick it off.

Look at how tall and round and perfectly muffin-like they are?

I love muffin-like muffins. Am I still even making sense? Did I eat too many muffins and now I’m in the midst of some sort of pumpkin muffin overload and it’s causing me to type things without even caring if they make sense?

It’s totally possible.

Pumpkin Steusel Muffins
adapted from Taste Of Home

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

STREUSEL TOPPING:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cold butter
• 2 tablespoons rolled oats (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in pumpkin, buttermilk, eggs, molasses, and orange peel. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl and mix into the batter. Stir just until combined. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin tins 2/3 full of batter.

For topping, combine the flour and brown sugar and oats (if using)  in a small bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Spoon streusel topping over the muffins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Enjoy!

Oh, Lord, y’all. Have I got a recipe for you.

The other day I was flipping through my rather large stack of unread cooking magazines searching for recipes to tear out and save for later. I came across a recipe for Creamy Onion Garlic Bread and my heart stopped. The name alone was enough to make my mouth start watering. It wasn’t pretty.

I hurriedly ripped the recipe out, because with ingredients like onions and garlic it had to be good, right? Well, yeah, I’m sure it probably was a “good” recipe, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for. The list of ingredients included garlic powder, but no real garlic, and that, my friends, is a real tragedy.

I decided right then and there that I was going to save the world from eating mediocre garlic bread and, y’all, I don’t want to brag or anything, but this is the best bread I have ever eaten in my life. If you try just one recipe from this site, let it be this one. Seriously. Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe the creamy yumminess that is this bread.

Here’s what you’ll need: cream cheese, butter, mayonnaise (if you’re a mayo hater, just double the amount of cream cheese), parmesan cheese, garlic, garlic powder, green onions, salt and pepper. Oh, and a loaf of french bread.

The first thing you want to do is get out your butter and cream cheese. We need to bring them to room temperature. While that is happening, dice up some garlic and green onions. I chopped mine fairly small, because most people don’t like large chunks of onion or garlic. People are strange that way.

Get out a pan and drizzle about a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan and saute your garlic and green onions. Be careful not to the burn the garlic. You’re just cooking it until it gets soft and fragrant. When you are at risk of sticking your face in the pan to inhale that delicious smell, it probably means your garlic is done. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Dump your room temperature cream cheese, butter and mayo  into the bowl of your mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment) and start beating it together. Dump in some shredded parmesan cheese. The stuff from the green can would work, but freshly grated is really worth it. Now add in a bit of garlic powder and turn off your mixer.

Stir in the green onions and garlic, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and take a lick right out of the bowl.

Grab your french bread and slice it in half lengthwise. I had about four serving spoons worth of the topping, so I just plopped two spoonfuls on each slice of bread and spread it all out.

(If you are really hungry, and I don’t blame you one bit if you are, go ahead and pop both of these into the oven. If, however, you prefer to save one of these loaves of bread for another time, just pop it into the freezer for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes the topping should be frozen enough not to smear all over the place. Wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and freeze until needed. Bake it straight from the freezer at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it, though, you won’t want it to get too brown and crunchy.)

Alright, now pop your loaf of bread into the oven at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

Oh my word. Would you look at that?

I sprinkled mine with a bit of chopped parsley, just to make it prettier. You can do the same or you can just shove the entire loaf in your face. Either way, you won’t regret it.

Mm. Lunch. Don’t tell my kids, but I fed my salad to the cat and ate another slice of bread.

Creamy Onion Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

Loaf of french bread
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic
2 bunches green onions
1 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste
parsley, for garnish

1. Finely dice the green onions and garlic. Drizzle a large pan with olive oil and saute onions and garlic for 1-2 minutes, until garlic is soft and fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together cream cheese, butter and mayonnaise. Mix in parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

3. Pour in the onion and garlic mixture and stir together with the cheese mixture.

4. Slice the french bread in half lengthwise and spread the cut side of the bread with the mixture.

5. Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 5-10 minutes, until the top is slightly browned and the bread is a bit crunchy.

It’s kind of odd that I named my blog Buns In My Oven. I don’t often make buns or bread or any other delicious yeasty goods. Every time I do, though, I remember. I remember that oh, yes, it absolutely is worth the time and oh, it most certainly is worth the effort. And, who am I kidding here, effort? I put the ingredients in my kitchenaid, attach the dough hook, and flip the switch on. Baking bread is easy! Why don’t I do it more?

I don’t suppose I’ll be allowed to buy sliced sandwich bread that often anymore after letting my son get a taste of this Honey Wheat Bread. He’s addicted. Poor thing, only nine years old and already he needs an intervention.

(I’m in a hurry today and didn’t take pictures of the actual making of this bread. I promise you didn’t miss much.I’m also going to skip the step by step instructions and my general non-stop talking. I know. It’s inhumane! It’s rude! It’s, well, all I have time for today.)

Honey Wheat Bread

1 cup warm water (around 110 degrees farenheit)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water and add honey. Using the dough hook on your stand mixer (or do this the old fashioned way) stir in the whole wheat flour, vegetable oil and salt. Slowly add in half of the all purpose flour. Knead the dough for a few minutes adding more flour as needed until it all comes together. You may not need to use the entire two cups of all purpose flour (or you may need to use more, depending on The Bread Baking Gods, also known as The Weather.) The dough should form a ball and be slightly sticky to the touch. Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled, about 60 minutes. Punch down dough and shape into a loaf. Place in well greased 9×5 loaf pan and allow to rise until the dough is about 1 inch above the pan, about 60 minutes.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

A few notes: I used too large of a pan and mine didn’t rise above the edges. It still tasted fine, but didn’t look as pretty. I also baked this on a rainy day, which is, apparently, a big no-no in bread baking. Something about the humidity, blah blah science blah. My bread still turned out. Also, when dough needs to rise, I turn my oven on low for a minute or two and then turn it off and stick the dough in the oven to rise. It seems to rise a bit better that way. One last thing: Carbs are yummy. You should eat them as often as possible. Preferably covered with butter.

My husband is not one to get excited about food. I know. I don’t know what I was thinking when I married him. I mean, IT’S FOOD. What’s not to get excited about, right?

There are three foods that I have heard him talk about with any sort of excitement. Number one is the steak we had on our wedding night. It was a filet mignon and it had a big blob of butter on top. He loved that steak. He still dreams about it.  Number two is sausage egg rolls. He loves those things. They are a pain in the butt to make though, so he doesn’t get them often. Number three is a cheeseball. He likes cheeseballs. He’s a simple man.

The other day I made this scrumptious banana coffee cake with chocolate chip streusel and do you know what my husband said about it? HE TOLD ME I SHOULD SELL THE STUFF. Sell it. For money. Because it’s just that good. This is quite possibly the nicest thing my husband has ever said about my food before.

I’m certainly not going to start selling the stuff though, so why don’t you make your own and tell me what you think?

The first thing we need to do is preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

And then butter an 8×8 baking dish. And don’t worry. I won’t start carrying on about my love of butter.

For the streusel topping, we’re going to get a small bowl and dump in 1 cup of chocolate chips, 2/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

Stir it all up and then spend a couple seconds picking out chunks of brown sugar and eating them. I like chunks of brown sugar.

Set your streusel topping aside before you eat all the brown sugar.

At this point the recipe says you should sift together 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. But, me? I don’t DO sifting. I dump everything in the bowl and then I stir it. That’s good enough, right?

Take a fork and mash your bananas. I only had two bananas. The recipe called for three. I’m sure this would be tastier with three bananas but I didn’t let it ruin my day.

Next, beat together 1 stick of softened butter, 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 large egg until the mixture is nice and creamy. Take a lick. Go ahead. I dare you.

Add in your mashed bananas and either 3 tablespoons of buttermilk OR 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt. (I ended up using 5 tablespoons yogurt to make up for the missing banana.)

Slowly add in your flour mixture and blend well.

Spread half of this mixture into your 8×8 baking dish and sprinkle half of the streusel topping on top. Lather, rinse, and repeat with the remaining batter and streusel. Er, maybe just repeat.

(I forgot to take a picture of the layering process. Please forgive me.)

If you have a short person nearby, let her poke at the topping and listen attentively while she whines about her tummy grumbling. Tell her that if she doesn’t quit whining you’ll toss her in the oven along with the coffee cake.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let this cool for just as long as you can stand it.

Don’t be like me and get impatient. Don’t take a bite right out of the whole cake. It’s not polite. It’s rude. You’ll regret it.

Oh, who am I kidding? You won’t regret it.

Oh, yum.

Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Streusel Topping

Adapted from here and here.

• 1  cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk or plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and an 8×8 inch baking dish.

Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside.

Sift together (or just STIR TOGETHER) all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, and egg in a large bowl until fluffy. Mix in mashed bananas and buttermilk or yogurt. Add flour mixture and blend well.

Spread half of batter in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake coffee cake until toothipick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes and serve.

Who doesn’t love a good hamburger? Or, better yet, a good juicy cheeseburger? Nobody! That’s who! Unless you’re a vegetarian and if that’s the case, well, I’m real sorry. Real sorry you’re gonna miss out on this most delicious experience.

I usually buy the pack of eight hamburger buns that are on sale for a dollar. I know. I’m cheap and I’m stingy and I really need to change my ways.  Turns out that I can make my own hamburger buns that taste better and cost less than those (cheap, sad, pathetic) store bought ones. You should try it too.

You probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen right this minute. So what are you waiting for?

Sugar, all-purpose OR bread flour (I used a mixture of all purpose and wheat, but didn’t get a picture of the wheat. I forgot, okay? And bread flour would be better, but I was out.), milk, butter, eggs, salt, and active dry yeast. You’ve got all that, right? And if you’ve got some garlic powder get that out too. Halfway through making these I thought to myself “You know, I’ll bet these would be fantastic with some garlic powder tossed in!” I do that a lot. It’s a sickness.

Now that you’ve got all your ingredients out and lined up, let’s get baking. Grab the bowl for your KitchenAid, or if you’re one of those sad little people that don’t yet own a KitchenAid, just grab a regular bowl. And I’m not hatin’. I was one of those sad little people up until a few months ago.

The first thing we need to do is warm up our milk. You’ll need 1 and 1/4 cups of milk heated until its warm, but not hot. If it’s too hot you’ll kill the yeast and that would be mean. If it’s too cold your yeast will just sit there and wonder what the heck your problem is and never get around to doing whatever it is that yeast is supposed to do. Stick your finger in there and test it. Just don’t forget to wash that finger first, okay?

Now dump the warm milk in your bowl along with 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast. If you have a packet of yeast like I did, do NOT dump in the whole thing. Measure it, man. Measure it.

Now we’re going to let our yeast “bloom.” Don’t ask me why they call it that. There will be no flowers sprouting from this bowl.

Leave it be for about ten minutes and you’ll be ready to add the rest of your ingredients. The yeast will cover the top of the milk and turn it a nice yeasty brown shade. Or something. I really don’t know what color “yeasty brown” is, but it sounds good, so let’s just go with it.

Crack your egg into a small dish and beat it.

I’m just showing off my ability to crack eggs with one hand here. Pretty cool, right? Beat your egg with a fork and then add it to your bowl of milk and yeast.

You’ll also add in 1/4 cup of sugar (this will make the buns a bit sweet, if you prefer you can use less sugar), 2 tablespoons of softened butter and a couple pinches of kosher salt. You could also use regular table salt, but I’m out. In fact, I’ve been out for about three weeks now. My husband keeps begging me to buy him some “regular damn salt,” but I’m forgetful. Besides, kosher salt makes me feel fancy.

This is the part where I decided that these would be fabulous with some garlic powder thrown in. I added about 2 tablespoons. You can add more or less (or none!) depending on how much you like garlic. You could also add in dried minced onion and turn these into onion rolls. Unfortunately I married a man who doesn’t like onion. I know. It was a mistake, but I don’t believe in divorce so I’m trying to tough it out.

Now we’re going to start mixing this together. Using your dough hook on your KitchenAid (or just use your hands), start mixing it on slow. Slowly add in 3 and 3/4 cups of flour. I used 2 cups white flour and 1 and 3/4 cup wheat. You do what you want. Make ‘em your own, man. I don’t mind.

After your dough is kneaded into submission you’ll transfer it to an oiled bowl to rise until doubled. Your dough should be sticky when you touch it, but not glopping off on your fingers. You want to feel some resistance when you pull your fingers away, but the dough shouldn’t come too, ya know?

Put your ball of dough into an oiled bowl and roll it all around to coat the dough. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and leave it to rise until doubled, about an hour. If you’re like me you’ll put the bowl in your oven. I think it rises faster in there. This may or may not be true, but that’s what I choose to believe, okay?

See that? That’s doubled. I think. I’m real bad with math. Either way, I’m tired of waiting and it’s nearly time for lunch. Let’s make some dang hamburger buns. Ready for the fun to start?

Punch your dough. Punch it hard. Just once. Now that your dough knows who is in charge, we’ll make us some hamburger buns.

Normal people would probably flour their counter top a bit and roll this dough out before they let it rise. They would roll it out, cut it, and let it rise. I’m not normal, but if you are, you go ahead and do just that. Roll it to about 3/4 of an inch thick, grab a biscuit cutter and cut your buns out. Put ‘em on a greased pan, let them rise for about an hour and then pop ‘em in a 350 degree oven.

If you are NOT normal then you’ll understand what I mean when I say that I avoid flouring my counter tops at all costs. It’s messy and it puts me in a bad mood. I just broke chunks of dough off, shaped them into a ball and flattened them out a bit with the palm of my hand. It’s not perfect, but it works.

Pop your buns into your pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. They should get nice and brown and crusty. Crusty. That just doesn’t sound good, does it? But, when it comes to buns, crusty is good. Trust me.

And would ya quit inspecting my oven? It’s not clean, okay? I know it’s not clean, you know it’s not clean, everyone knows that my oven is not clean. Let’s just move on.

Ooh, look! The buns are done! And it’s about time, too.

Now you’re ready to eat! Hope you’ve got a cheeseburger nearby. I loaded mine up with ketchup, mustard, lettuce and tomato. My husband? He put peanut butter on his. And while he was doing that I was reminding myself that I don’t believe in divorce, I don’t believe in divorce, I don’t…

I’m sorry. What was I saying? Something about cheeseburgers and divorce. I’m afraid I got distracted by that big beautiful burger up there.

My buns came out pretty dense, but I liked them that way. If you prefer a lighter, airier bun then you should definitely stick with bread flour. If you like your bun to be pretty darn substantial then go right ahead and be like me. I’m a pretty cool girl in case you didn’t know.

Now get outta here and make yourself a cheeseburger. You deserve it after listening to me ramble on for so long.

Homemade Hamburger Buns

• 1 1/4 cups milk (around 80 degrees F)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 pinches of salt
• 3 3/4 cups bread flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• garlic powder, to taste
• oil for oiling the bowl

Heat the milk to around 80 degrees, add yeast. Let mixture rest about 10 minutes. Add sugar, salt, butter, beaten egg and garlic powder (optional). Knead with hands or using a dough hook on a stand mixer until dough is soft and smooth. Oil a bowl and roll the dough to coat all sides with oil. Let rise until doubled, about an hour. Punch dough down, break off pieces into whatever size bun you would prefer. A bit larger than an egg will give you a standard size bun. Shape your dough pieces into balls and flatten into discs. Let rise another 30 minutes and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until done. Slice and enjoy!