Coconut Rock Buns

Coconut rock buns, also known as rock cakes in the Caribbean, are similar to scones. They are crunchy on the outside yet chewy inside. Perfect for breakfast or snacks. The recipe calls for Demerara sugar which is a light brown, large sugar crystal with a caramel-like flavor. If you can not find Demerara sugar, which is an optional ingredient to sprinkle on top of the buns before baking them, you could replace it with either turbinado or organic cane sugar. Both sugars have bigger sugar crystals than regular brown or white sugar. 

Photo: Care2

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
• ½ cup butter diced
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon grated orange
• ¼ cup raisins
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon grated orange
• ¾ cup shredded coconut
• Demerara sugar to sprinkle (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, grated orange, nutmeg and salt
3. Work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly; it’s OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated.
4. Whisk together eggs and vanilla
5. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holds together (like a ball)
6. Put dough on floured surface, and pat (gently!) with your hands only.
7. Fold dough over on itself about 5 times, and then gently press down.
8. Shape into 8 – 10 rocks or you may use a cookie cutter. Sprinkle with demerara sugar.
9. Place on baking sheet.
10. Bake at 400° for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned
11. Remove, let it cool and serve

For picture instructions, please visit African Bites

Easy Peach Cobbler

Some people stay away from baking because of the messy clean up and/or the thought of mixing and blending too many ingredients together. If you are one of those people, I've got a really easy yet terrific peach cobbler recipe. This is one of my family favorites. Come summer when peaches are in season and sweet, I make it every week and we never get sick of it. It's that good! It also goes great with ice cream.

Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1½ teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup whole milk
3 medium peaches

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350ºF, with a rack in the middle. 

Place the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place it in the oven for 5 minutes, or until melted. Remove the dish from the oven, tilting the dish to evenly coat the bottom with the butter.

Whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the milk. Pour the batter evenly over the butter in the baking dish. Do not stir.

Cut the peaches into wedges and place them in the batter. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the top of the peaches. Bake the cobbler until it is set and golden on top, 35-40 minutes. Cool slightly on a rack.

Serve the cobbler warm or at room temperature.

Recipe by: Ian Knauer

Awesome Banana Bread

Making this moist banana bread has become a monthly routine for me. Great for breakfast when I don't have time to cook up something for the kids. The best thing is you don't have to pull out your electric blender or any fancy baking equipment so clean up is easy. I love this recipe for 2 reasons. Firstly, it is not overwhelmingly sweet. Second, although it is moist, it also has a nice dense balance.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup sugar (Lisa uses 1 1/2 cups, which makes for an even moister loaf)
• 2 eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup milk mixed with
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (not needed if using salted butter)
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix sugar into softened butter using a fork.
3. Add eggs; mix well.
4. Mash bananas and add to batter. Add vanilla.
5. Add vinegar to milk; add sour milk to batter.
6. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
7. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix well.
8. Add nuts, if using.
9. Bake for one hour, until toothpick comes out clean. It’s important to do the toothpick test with banana bread, as often it looks nice and brown outside but still needs a few more minutes to cook fully inside.

Recipe by: Chinese Grandma

Perfect Blueberry Muffin

For those of you who prefer your blueberry muffin dry, more like biscuit dry, I found this terrific recipe at Smitten Kitten.

Makes 9 to 10 standard muffins

Ingredients

5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces or 71 grams) unsalted butter , softened
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces or 191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon (7 grams or 1/4 ounce) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces or 105 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. 

2) Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then yogurt and zest. 

3) Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift half of dry ingredients over batter. 

4) Mix until combined. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears. 

5) Gently fold in your blueberries. The dough will be quite thick (and even thicker, if you used a full-fat Greek-style yogurt), closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups. You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more, so you might only need 9 instead of 10 cups. 

6) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean (you know, except for blueberry goo). 

7) Let cool on rack (ha), or you know, serve with a generous pat of butter.

Recipe by: Smitten Kitten

Best Moist Blueberry Muffin

My girls love blueberries. I always buy a big box and add them to waffles, pancakes, and cereals. I found this amazingly moist blueberry muffin recipe by Jacklyn at Cooking Classy. I like my muffins moist and this recipe certainly did not fail! If you prefer your muffin dry, you might like this recipe better.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 7 Tbsp vegetable oil* (the easiest way to measure: measure 1/2 cup remove 1 Tbsp)
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbsp sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Crumb Topping
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 Tbsp chilled butter, diced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Raw Sugar

Yield: 14 muffins

Directions

• Prepare crumb topping by combining 1/3 cup flour, 1 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar and 2 1/2 Tbsp butter in a food processor. Pulse just a few seconds until combine, it should be very fluffy (if you pulse it too much it will become dense). Pour crumb mixture into a small bowl and whisk in 1 1/2 Tbsp raw sugar (please do not leave this ingredient out, it's the crowning jewel of these muffins, it's a MUST), set aside.
• In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a seperate mixing bowl, using a wire hand whisk (no electric mixer allowed here =), mix together 1 cup granulated sugar, buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg and sour cream for 1 minute. Gently whisk in dry mixture just until combine, batter should be slightly lumpy (do not over-mix, key to fluffy muffins). Fold in blueberries with a spatula. Divide mixture evenly among 12 - 14 paper lined muffin tins. Allow muffins to rest at room temperature 10 minutes, meanwhile preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• After muffins have rested, fluff crumb topping with a fork and sprinkle each muffin evenly with 1 Tbsp crumb topping mixture (if doing 14 muffins you will want to do a scant tbsp). Bake muffins 19 - 23 minutes until lightly golden and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool several minutes in muffin pan before removing to wire rack to cool.

Notes

*If you want the cupcake to be a bit denser, use 3 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil and 3 1/2 Tbsp melted butter. I've tried both ways and love both I just prefer it a bit fluffier so I use all vegetable oil.

Recipe by: Cooking Classy

Vegan Blueberry Bread

No dairy, no eggs. This delish blueberry bread uses soy or almond milk (your choice) with lemon juice to keep it moist rather than milk and vinegar. Agave nectar is used to sweeten up the bread instead of sugar. Healthy and packed with antioxidants. Did you know that blueberries have more antioxidants than any other fruits? Antioxidants are essential to maintaining healthy immune system. Blueberries are also rich in manganese which is important for bone development. Other health benefits of blueberries include:

- heart health
- eyes health
- inhibit cancer growth
- lowers blood sugar

Here's what you need to make the vegan blueberry bread:

3 large over-ripe bananas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup of your choice of soymilk, almond milk, or apple sauce -- whichever flavor you prefer
1/2 cup agave nectar,
2 cups whole wheat flour or (I went the gluten-free route for my recipe and used 1 1/2 cups Multi-Blend Flour from Authentic Foods, a cup-for-cup style gluten-free flour blend. Works perfectly.)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1 1/2 cups blueberries

For step by step instructions with pictures, please visit Tree Hugger

Sources:

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/10_health_benefits_of_blueberries.html