Salted Pecan Butter

November 7, 2014 by Mackenzie

In classic Mackenzie fashion, the weeks have slipped away and its been a few weeks since my last post! I was hoping to stay more on top of things but of course… that didn’t happen. But I’m perfectly okay with that – blogging is something I do for fun and if there isn’t time for it, that means I’m busy with school or other, more fun things!

The last few weeks have been a little bit of all of both! School has been busy but exciting. I love my classes and although I am taking a heavier than usual load, this has been one of my favorite semesters. I’m deep in the midst of writing my senior honors thesis – it’s an exciting process and call me crazy, but I reward myself at the end of each week with “time” to work on my thesis. Ha! With the end of the semester rapidly approaching, it’s time to crack down and make some serious progress… fun fun! I have all 24 interviews transcribed into a 118 page document and a massive, glorious spreadsheet to start my analysis. This week I’ve been coding the data and I’ll start writing this weekend!

And what have I been up to in the kitchen? Well… I made a crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup a few weeks ago that was delicious! And so easy! Sadly, the photos I took were just terrible and so I’ll have to make it again before I post it 🙂 But I did hit a home-run with this Salted Pecan Butter!

Libby came home from the farmer’s market last weekend with a tiny jar of pecan butter. It was nutty, creamy and absolutely amazing – so naturally, I had to recreate it. I found a recipe from Cookie and Kate and gave it my own little twist with some extra salt and a dash of cinnamon – and boy, do I have a new favorite treat! It’s a bit unfortunate that pecans are so expensive, but if you can buy them in bulk it would cut down on the price! Regardless, I’m definitely going to be making pecan butter all winter long!

Salted Pecan Butter

Recipe Type: Butter, Side, Spread

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 1.5 cup

A nutty spread with a hint of a salty undertone and a dash of cinnamon to sweeten it up.

Ingredients

2 cups pecans
Sea salt, to taste
Cinnamon, to taste
Maple syrup, to taste

Instructions

Toast the pecans in a medium skillet over medium heat for 4-7 minutes. Once toasted and fragrant, transfer to food processor.
Blend in a food processor until it is creamy and smooth, like peanut butter! It can take awhile, close to ten minutes, so be patient! Scrap down the sides often!
Once it is smooth and creamy, add a pinch or two of salt, a dash of cinnamon and a teaspoon or two of maple syrup. Blend and taste and adjust flavors to your liking! I added extra salt and LOVED the combination of the nutty spread with salty undertones and a sweet cinnamon finish. Pour into a small jar, seal with a lid and enjoy with toast!

Pumpkin Gingerbread with Pumpkin Spice Glaze

September 20, 2014 by Mackenzie

Guess who is headed to New York today??? EEEEK!

I’m volunteering at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting – and absolutely cannot wait! (See this post that I wrote a few weeks ago for all the details!) I can’t wait to see who I may get to meet, to connect with other inspiring young adults, and hang out with Obama and the Clintons 😉 Plus, I’m never going to complain about taking a week off of school and work! Although that did make this last week quite horrendous… And I don’t even want to think about what will happen when I get back. But for now, I’m jumping on the plane and jetting off to NYC!

Before I leave though, I have to share with you this amazing pumpkin bread recipe. I’m not sure how I had time to make it but Thursday afternoon arrived, I finished my classes for the week (and for the next ten days really!), and I decided I just really, really needed a baking break 🙂 I also had yet to bake with pumpkin this year – so I was ready to officially usher in fall.

This recipe is from my great-grandmother although I added my own spin with the pumpkin spice glaze. My grandma gave me my great-grandmother’s recipe card several years ago and I have been making this bread each fall since!

When Libby came home, she walked in the door and said “What have you been making? Please tell me it’s pumpkin bread!” She said each year, her mom would surprise her and her siblings with pumpkin bread one crisp fall day and that always signaled that fall was here! Well Libby, here you go!

Pumpkin Gingerbread with Pumpkin Spice Glaze

Recipe Type: Bread, Fall, Breakfast, Dessert

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 10 mins

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

Serves: 1 loaf

Recip from my Great Grandma Mildred

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup (or more if necessary) powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
2 drops pumpkin spice extract (or add some of the spices above!)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar, oil and eggs until light in color, about 2 minutes. Beat in pumpkin.
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and spices. Alternately add the dry ingredients and water into the pumpkin mixture, maxing in between additions. Do not overbeat.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for ten minutes and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
In a small bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, milk and pumpkin spice extract. Drizzle over the bread and allow to set.

Sweet Potato, Kale & Black Bean Hash

August 30, 2014 by Mackenzie

Well week one of my senior year is over! It’s crazy to think how quickly this semester will fly by and then I’ll be on the downhill slide to graduation! This was a wonderful week of seeing all of my old friends, sharing stories from my wild summer, and celebrating my birthday! Libby and I will be baking an elaborate cake this weekend as a belated celebration – it should be fun! I’ll share pictures soon!

But today, I’m sharing this super easy, healthy and delicious sweet potato, kale & black bean hash. I made it several times last year and only just realized that I never posted it to the blog! So here you go – finally! This can be for any meal – it is hearty and filling for breakfast and quite satisfying for lunch or dinner too! You can eat it either warm or cold but I prefer it warm 🙂

I also love this meal because it is CHEAP. I think you can probably get all the ingredients for less than $5 – and it serves three!

Sweet Potato, Kale & Black Bean Hash

Recipe Type: Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 3

Ingredients

3 medium sweet potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Olive oil
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups kale, chopped
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
Black Pepper
Avocado

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread diced sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle well with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes until cooked through.
When sweet potatoes are done, coat a large skillet with olive oil and saute the sliced green onions for 3-4 minutes, until soft. Add sweet potato and sea salt and cook for another 3 minutes until potatoes have softened. Add the black beans and kale, folding it in gently. Cook it all together for a few more minutes until the kale has wilted.
Serve with avocado slices and enjoy!

Pumpkin Millet Muffins

November 4, 2013 by Mackenzie

Halloween may be over, but cooking with pumpkin is most definitely not! I couldn’t possibly wait a whole year to post these because they are mouth-wateringly delicious!

I love these muffins for two reasons. 1) they are exceptionally moist, which is a characteristic I value highly in my muffins! And 2) the addition of the millet gives these muffins a unique texture that I love. In case you’ve never had millet, it is a grain that has a slight crunch to it, even when fully cooked. I’ve never had it in baked goods so was very curious to try it here and I loved the complexity it added! I’ll definitely be trying out millet in some of my other baked goods recipes.

And no, these do not ascribe to my clean eating/real foods lifestyle that I try to live by. But I am completely okay with an occasional treat 🙂 And luckily, I live in a building full of college students who love to eat the fruits of my baking endeavors!

Pumpkin Millet Muffins
Recipe from Whole Foods Market
Makes 14 muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 cup millet
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place paper liners in a muffin pan.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add millet and toast until golden brown, stirring occasionally. You’ll hear the millet begin to pop after 3-4 minutes and that’s when it’s toasted. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together egg, sour cream, milk, melted butter, pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, add all the dry ingredients, (flours, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, spices and cooled millet) and stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.

4. Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling cups almost to the top. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. They are delicious warm!!!

G-team Banana Bread

September 6, 2013 by Mackenzie

Last weekend, we (the WU golf team) traveled to Michigan for our first tournament of the year! We played really well and won the tournament! Yeah Bears! Now, I knew that we needed a little something extra to get us through an 8-hour bus ride so I brought along some banana bread. As a team well-known for our bottom-less stomachs and endless appetite for dessert – I knew the bread wouldn’t last long. And it certainly didn’t – they loved it! Since we won the tournament, maybe this bread needs to become a tournament tradition 😉

G-team Banana Bread
Makes 1 loaf
Recipe from my Grandma Mary

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups flour
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, salt and vanilla and mix well. Mix in the baking powder and flour, then add the mashed bananas. Mix until just combined. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour!

Banana Walnut Muffins

April 27, 2013 by Mackenzie

Classes are over so let the cooking and baking begin!

I made these for breakfast yesterday and boy were they good! The recipe is from Fine Cooking’s “Breakfast and Brunch” special magazine. There are so many good recipes inside so get ready to see a lot more!

These muffins were especially good because they were BIG. Not your puny little muffins that you have to eat three of to feel full – but those big, wide-topped muffins that you see in a bakery window and just have to have… Plus, bananas and walnuts are such a satisfying combination, then you top it with a cinnamon glaze? Sheesh, I’m sold!

Banana Walnut Muffins
Makes 12-16 muffins
Recipe from Fine Cooking’s “Breakfast and Brunch” magazine

Ingredients:

Muffins:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup
10 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup skim milk, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced bananas
3/4 cup walnut pieces, toasted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Melt the butter and get it cooling. Set out the milk, sour cream and eggs so it can get to room temperature. (Do this way ahead of time! Its the key to the recipe!) Toast the walnut pieces.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F and line your muffin tins with muffin baking cups. I also sprayed the muffin tin so the muffin tops would be easy to get off. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, butter, milk, sour cream, eggs and egg yolk until well-combined.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold gently until just moistened. Gently fold in the banana pieces, walnut pieces and vanilla. Do not overmix – leave the batter a little lumpy.
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, mounding the batter 3/4 inch higher than the rim of the cups. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Let cool for 15 to 20 minutes on a wire rack.
5. When cool, whisk the powdered sugar and cinnamon with 4 tablespoons of water (or however much you need for the right consistency). Pop the muffins out of the tin and place on a rack with foil underneath. Pour the glaze onto the tops of the muffins, using a pastry brush to spread it. Let the glaze dry for 15 minutes and then enjoy!

Mackenzie

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