Baking Junkie

Tag: strawberry

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Strawberry Banana Bread with White Chocolate Glaze

Delish, delish, delish. Those are the first thoughts that came to my mind when trying to describe this bread. My go to banana bread recipe was given to me by my sister-in-law and I’ve never had a reason to try another one. I wanted to jazz the bread up a little and since it’s still summer I wanted to try adding strawberries. I kept thinking that would be a great combination, but I still wanted a little something more, so that’s when I decided to add the white chocolate.

Now I have to be perfectly honest, this was not my first attempt at making this bread. Let this be proof that I am far from perfect and have my fair share of baking fails. With the first attempt I adding sliced strawberries and a little strawberry jam, plus white chocolate chips. I baked it for about 50 minutes and when I tested it with a toothpick it came out clean, I swear!! I let it cool in the pan for a while and when I attempted to remove the loaf to take some pictures…giant banana bread mess It was not completely done in the middle, fell apart into pieces, and completely ruined my night.But, what good is a mistake if you can’t learn from it, right? I learned that I should leave out the jam and just stick with the strawberries so the baking time isn’t so long. I also learned that I just wasn’t getting as much of the white chocolate flavor as I was hoping, so I decided to leave the white chocolate chips out of the bread and instead use them in a glaze for the top of the bread (from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns). This time it turned out SO much better (and was fully cooked)! Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Bread with White Chocolate Glaze
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Bread:
1/2 cup salted butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
Dash of salt
3 over-ripe bananas, mashed
4-5 strawberries, sliced into small pieces

White Chocolate Glaze:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 stick salted butter
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium sized mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and sour cream, then cinnamon, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Save bananas for last, then mix in pieces of strawberries. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium low heat combine sugar, milk, and butter. Stir until butter is melted, plus one minute longer. Remove from heat and immediately add white chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.
Let banana bread cool for 10 minutes, then drizzle with glaze.

Tags: Banana, Bread, strawberry, White chocolate

Posted in Bread | 3 Comments »

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Strawberry Golden Oreo Cupcakes

Recipe by Aimee

Do you guys like Dairy Queen? While I have to admit that Cold Stone Creamery wins hands down for me, I still enjoy a good DQ blizzard every once in a while. Derek is a fan of all things strawberry, so when the blizzard of the month in June was strawberry golden oreo he was dying to try it. I took the advice of a coworker and ordered extra golden oreo, and it was delicious! Now, me being who I am, I of course thought “I bet I can make a cupcake out of this”, and that was how these were born.

Like all of the cupcakes I’ve created, I try to make them as simple as possible. I used a box of strawberry cake mix and made it according to directions. I got my idea for the oreo filling from Annie and quartered the oreos then placed them in the dough. I also considered just placing an oreo at the bottom of each cupcake, which I may try in the future. For the time being I was pretty happy with how these turned out. The frosting is a basic vanilla buttercream and I drizzled some caramel on top for extra flair.

I have to say that when I first bit in to the cupcake I was really surprised. When baked the golden oreos have a different flavor than I was expecting. To me, it was similar to maple syrup or french toast. This flavor combined with the strawberry, and the sweetness of the frosting and caramel was a really great combination (think french toast with strawberries and whipped cream!) Enjoy!

Strawberry Golden Oreo Cupcakes

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Cupcakes:
1 Box strawberry cake mix (I used Pillsbury)
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
24 Golden Oreos, quartered

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cake mix, water, oil and eggs. Mix in oreos gently to avoid breaking up the pieces too much. Pour into cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake approximately 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Frosting (adapted from Wilton):
1 cup shortening
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
6 cups powdered sugar (more or less to taste)
1 Tbsp milk
Hershey’s Caramel Syrup for drizzle

Cream together shortening and butter, then add vanilla. Add powdered sugar in one cup increments, mixing well after each addition. Mix in milk (add more or less until the desired consistency is reached). Frost cupcakes and drizzle with caramel syrup if desired.

Tags: Buttercream, Oreo, strawberry

Posted in Cupcakes | 12 Comments »

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Peanut Butter & Jelly Shortbread Cookie Bars

Recipe adapted from Picky Palate

I’ve been getting some really good feedback about the blog lately…thanks for the love!
I’m really glad that you all are enjoying the recipes. I’m really enjoying myself as well, and the best part is that I always have an excuse to bake!

What I have been enjoying the most is searching for and trying new recipes. One of my new favorite blogs is Picky Palate by Jenny. She blogs about both baking and cooking, and let me tell you…her stuff looks amazing! There are several of her recipes I’m dying to try, but I started with these amazing little treats.

I’ve eaten shortbread cookies a few times in my life, but until now I’ve never had any desire to bake them myself. Let me just say that I am IN LOVE with this shortbread recipe and can’t wait to play around with it some more! The recipe is very basic and easy, just 5 ingredients! The dough gets very thick, so if you are using a hand mixer this may get tough at the end.

Jenny used only half of the dough and froze the other half, but I made 2 pans (the more the better, right?). I used strawberry freezer jam, but any jam or jelly should work. When I sampled the first bar (ok ok, first of many) I thought the strawberry taste was a little overpowering, but with later samples I thought it was perfect. These could be served with or without the glaze, but trust me they are much better with. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Shortbread Bars

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Bars:

4 sticks salted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

½ tsp salt

3 ¾ cups flour

½ cup creamy peanut butter

½ cup strawberry jam

Glaze:

4 Tbsp melted butter

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter, sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Slowly add in salt and flour until combined (dough will get thick). Line 2-8×8 inch pans with foil and coat with cooking spray. Press half of dough into each pan. Melt peanut butter and jam (separately) in the microwave for approximately 20 seconds, or until they are smooth and easy to pour. Pour half of peanut butter over each shortbread, then top with half of jelly in each pan. Using a butter knife gently swirl peanut butter and jelly (do not cut into dough). Bake for 30-35 minutes or until edges start to brown and centers are cooked through.

Remove and cool completely before topping with glaze.

To make glaze, add vanilla to the melted butter, then add powdered sugar. Stir until combined. Add milk to thin. If glaze is not thin enough you can add more milk until desired consistency. Drizzle over bars.

Tags: Bars, peanut butter, strawberry

Posted in Bars | 1 Comment »

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

These are the lovelies that are pictured at the top of this blog. I’m not much for drinking anything besides water (I know I know, pretty boring), but in the summer I do enjoy a good lemonade every once in a while. Make it strawberry lemonade and it’s even better!

There are plenty of versions of this cupcake floating around out there but I decided to just play around with my own. I will admit I do not actually like lemons so I never have any on hand. Derek hates drinking plain water, so we always have a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge. I decided to just add that to the cake mix until I got the lemon flavor I was going for. You could certainly use the juice of a fresh lemon in any amount until you get the flavor you are looking for.

I used my basic vanilla buttercream recipe (adapted from Wilton) and added some strawberry freezer jam (any strawberry jam should work). Same principle as above, just add the jam until you get your desired taste.

**A note on buttercream: I used to be afraid to make my own frosting (I have no idea why?), but now that I have discovered making buttercream I will NEVER use store bought frosting again. The flavor is so much better, and it really is simple. You can play around with the powdered sugar and milk until it becomes the consistency you are looking for (adding more sugar will thicken, adding more milk will thin). Don’t be afraid to take the leap!*

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
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Recipe source: Me

Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)

1/3 cup water

1 1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs (instead of three as listed on the box)

3 Tbsp lemon juice (more or less to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all ingredients. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

1 cup shortening

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 tsp vanilla

6 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp milk

Strawberry jam (I used about ¾ cup)

Cream together shortening and butter, then add in vanilla. Add powdered sugar in 1 cup increments, mixing well after each addition. Add milk then jam to taste. Frost cupcakes and enjoy.**

**I frost my cupcakes with a Wilton disposable bag and 2D tip. These are inexpensive and can be found at any crafting store. Swirl from the outside in to get the pattern shown. You can also swirl from the inside out to get more of a rose pattern**

Tags: Buttercream, Cupcakes, strawberry

Posted in Cupcakes | 3 Comments »