At work this week we had another double birthday. To prevent total treat overload we split the celebration out into two days of muffins – Lemon Poppy-Seed one day, and Double Chocolate Chunk the next! I’m not going to beat around the bush – these are amazing. Dense like a muffin. Chocolatey like a cupcake….
Tag: brunch
Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Every year one of my colleagues asks for a lemon poppy-seed dessert for his birthday. I’ve made everything from a classic pound cake to lemon poppy-seed cookies, and nothing has been quite right. Sometimes it’s the texture, other times they’re too dry, other times they’re simply not lemon-tastic enough. This year I think I’ve finally…
Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake
My mum invited the whole family over for brunch last weekend, and even though she said I shouldn’t bring anything, and even though we’ve been super busy with home renovations, I still couldn’t take no for an answer. Everyone really likes the coffee cakes I perfected during the Quest for Brunch Excellence, but when I…
Mini Double Chocolate Muffins
February is a busy birthday month in my office, so while most of the time we celebrate with cake or cupcakes, February gets a little more variety. Last week I made an assortment of scones, and this week it’s double chocolate mini muffins! Chocolate muffins are a great birthday treat for an office – they…
Quick Cranberry-Orange Scones
During The Quest for Brunch Excellence, I deemed developing a great scone recipe something of utmost importance. I went through 3 or 4 techniques, and after trying to serve fresh scones for my guests, it became clear that a key feature of any scone recipe is simply how quickly they come together. This research paid…
No-cake Birthday: Mini Pies – Apple and Rhubarb-Raspberry
My husband’s birthday was last week, and while he’s always up for cake, his real idea of a treat is a nice fruit pie. The day of his birthday, I procrastinated a little and planned on heading to the grocery store right after work, but mother nature had other plans and dumped us with 6…
Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
On my mum’s side of the family, it has recently become a tradition to celebrate Christmas together in early January. Everyone is so busy with their nuclear families on the actual holiday, and as an extended family, our primary reason for getting together is reconnecting with one another, so the date can be a little…
Family Christmas Cookie 5: Grandma Ruth’s Apple Fruit Cake
Each year, my husband’s family anxiously awaits the arrival of grandma Ruth’s apple fruit cake, which is another favorite from the family cookbook. I love this fruitcake for three reasons – most importantly, it reminds me of my favorite grandmother-in-law, secondly, it has a lovely sweet flavor without the bitter bite of citrus rind that…
Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake
It dawned on me that once I mentioned my Quest for Brunch Excellence, that I should probably make good on sharing some of those wonderful recipes. This morning we had friends coming over for a little vacation planning, which I thought was a perfect excuse for breakfast coffee cake! As I’ve mentioned before, my favorite…
Cinnamon-Nutmeg Coffee Cake
I have mixed feelings about Daylight Savings Time. On one hand, I really love the long summer nights – there’s something so freeing about having 3 or 4 hours of daylight after work. On the other hand, twice a year I am left feeling like a zombie for a couple weeks while my sleep schedule…
Ginger Pear Blueberry Crisp
Remember that fridge and freezer cleanout I was talking about? Turns out there were even more mediocre pears left (I guess that’s the downside of Costco, when it’s bad, it’s really bad) so I was thinking I’d try to repeat the success of that lower sugar pear crisp, but then I found a pint of…
Raw Cherry Chia Jam
Every fall I start making great big batches of soup to freeze into individual portions for wonderful winter work lunches or a quick dinners, and every fall, I need to clear out the deep freezer to make room! This year, at the bottom of the freezer I found an unopened bag of cherries, and I…
Pear Crisp
Last weekend we stocked up on pears for something a little different to spice up our lunches and late night snacks. Sadly, they looked much better than they tasted. Not wanting to let them go to waste, I whipped up a nice lower-sugar fresh pear crisp. Dessert in our house is a complicated topic –…
Zucchini Bread
Well, it’s that time of the year again – we’re most of the way through summer and it’s zucchini mania. I honestly have a refrigerator full of the stuff. I hadn’t even realized there were so many out in my garden until our neighbor pointed out a particularly huge one that she said was perhaps…
Banana Crunch Bread
I don’t know about you, but when summer rolls around, we go a little produce crazy and end up at the local farmer’s market each and every weekend. Right now our countertops are stacked with a beautiful array of local fruits and vegetables. Sometimes this makes it hard to keep up on our old grocery…