Peach Muffins

This is an all-time favorite of mine. It's a great basic recipe that can be adjusted to different fruits. I love that I can use frozen peaches, which means that I have all the ingredients on hand most of the time. These muffins are always a hit at playdates! However, my kids don't like them, of course. They're not particularly healthy, but they are good for a once in a while treat ;)  I would like to try to make them more healthy, but they are so YUM! that I'm hesitant to mess with a good thing!


Peach Muffins
12 muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup chopped fresh or frozen peaches
1 cup chopped pecans

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour and baking powder; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in peaches and pecans. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pan to a wire rack. 

my notes:
*i use frozen peaches, but i make sure to thaw them first
*i've never made them with pecans, but i'm sure that would be awesome!
*i usually make mini muffins, which cook for about 15-16 minutes.  this recipe makes about 26 mini muffins.

Strawberry Bread

I made this bread for our Valentine's Day party with our playgroup. It was submitted to a cookbook for a fundraiser we did for my husband's last ship. It was pretty good and was eaten up, but it was not my favorite. I WAS hoping for a more reddish/pinkish color, which I could have achieved with red food coloring, but...I didn't :) The "strawberry" comes from strawberry jam, which makes this easy to make in a...wait for it...JAM, but I think I would stick with other quick breads before I made this one again. I might make this again specifically for a Valentine's treat, but that's about it! In full disclosure, while I do LOVE strawberries, I am not really a fan of strawberry jam. If you are, this could be perfect for you!

Strawberry Bread

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup strawberry jam
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
2-3 drops red food coloring (optional)

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time. Add sour cream and jam. Add small amounts of dry ingredients and mix well after each addition. Pour into greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done. Makes 3 2lb or 6 1lb loaves.

my notes:
the "makes 3 2lb or 6 1lb loaves" part completely confused me. i even googled the terms to find out what that meant, but didn't get any helpful information. so, i halved the recipe and wound up with one "regular" (haha, whatever that means!) loaf pan, which is exactly what i wanted.