Sour Cream Orange Muffins

We normally have bagels during the week for breakfast. But I woke up yesterday morning knowing we didn't have any in the house so I decided to make muffins. I took a quick look through the pantry and fridge to see what I could bake. And I came up with Sour Cream Orange Muffins. They reminded me somewhat of the sour cream cookies I make also. Only difference was the little citrus hint throughout the muffin.



SOUR CREAM ORANGE MUFFINS

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 cup of sour cream - I used light because it is what I had on hand
1/4 cup milk
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar

Heat oven to 375. Line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with paper baking cups (or spray with cooking spray.)

In a large bowl mix 1/2 cup sugar, oil, egg, almond extract and orange zest. Add sour cream and milk and mix until just blended. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Divide batter evenly between 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle batter with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Serve warm or cold.

Toffee and Caramel Cheesecake

We are going to some friends for dinner tonight and so we volunteered to bring dessert. So I made this cheesecake....I might add a picture of just a slice tomorrow.



Gingersnap crust
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups ground gingersnap cookies
1 cup ground pecans
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar

Cheesecake
4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
5 large eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup toffee bits (Heath Bits O'Brickle)

Caramel topping
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup heavy whipping cream

OR

Mrs. Richardsons Caramel topping or your favorite caramel topping to save yourself the trouble of making homemade caramel which can at times be a little tricky

1/3 to 1/2 cup toffee bits


Photos of the toffee bits just in case anyone wanted to know what to look for at the supermarket

For Crust: Preheat oven to 350°F. Finely grind ground cookies, pecans and sugar in processor. Add melted butter and blend until combined. Press crust mixture onto bottom of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides.

For cheesecake: Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in flour and butter, then eggs, 1 at a time, until just blended. Beat in vanilla. Pour 1/2 of batter over crust in pan. Sprinkle 1/3 cup toffee bits over the batter. Then pour remaining batter over the bits. Place a large roasting pan or jelly roll pan on lower shelf of oven. Pour water 1/2 way to the lip of the pan. Place cheesecake pan on middle shelf. Bake cake uncovered for 15 minutes at 350. Turn oven down to 250 and bake 30 minutes. Bake 350 for another 15 minutes and then turn down and bake at 250 again for another 15 to 30 minutes. The edges will puff up and the center moves slightly when pan is gently shaken. Total bake time is 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Slide a knife around the sides and then cover with foil and refrigerate 6 hours to over night.

For topping: 2 hours before serving stir sugar, water, and lemon juice in large saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; boil without stirring until mixture turns deep amber, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with wet pastry brush, about 9 minutes. Add cream (mixture will bubble). Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until reduced to 1 1/4 cups, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Chill until thickened but still pourable, about 15 minutes.

Spoon caramel over top of cake just to edges (do not allow caramel to drip down sides). Garnish top edges with chopped English toffee. Chill at least 2 hours.


Tips:
* Adding flour helps it not to crack
* Make sure the cream cheese and sugar are really beaten well before adding eggs. Over beating eggs will add air which causes cracks.
* I never do a waterbath as it always made the crust soggy when I tried so I have done the water in the pan below. Supposedly the moisture in the oven helps to prevent cracking also.
* The reason I do the weird turn up and down of the oven temperature again is to prevent cracking and also over baking the cheesecake.
* Doing this cheesecake 24 hours before eating is always best. It just seems to taste better even better after 24 hours in the fridge.

Lemon Bars

A friend recently introduced me to the Smitten Kitchen and I have quite a few recipes bookmarked to try. Michael isn't big on lemon but I love it. I remember growing up I didn't like cake for my birthday because I wasn't really a cake person. It was texture and frosting thing. There were 2 cakes my Mom made that I liked sour cream cake and chocolate chip oatmeal cake. But there was this bakery that my Mom would get cakes from for special occasions. They had a lemon filling cake. It had a sweet tart lemon filling between layers of moist white cake and whipped cream frosting. Usually decorated with candied lemons.

I celebrated my 40th birthday this past year and didn't want a cake but I briefly thought of that cake my Mom used to get because I haven't had in about 20 years. I moved away from the area so haven't had a chance to have anything like it since.

But I still enjoy lemon in baked goods. So seeing the recipe and photos over on Smitten Ktichen of these lemon bars made me decide to try them out.



The only thing I would change is cutting the baking time for the crust. It was over cooked by the time the lemon filling set. The crust came out a little too hard which made it difficult to cut through. But the filling came out quite good.



Lemon bar recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

I made the thick version although mine don't look quite as thick as hers which is probably again altitude. I did grease my pan because I always do as I found when cooking in high altitude it is a MUST.



They were so good! The lemon bars are tart but the crust is sweet so it is best of both worlds.