PUMPKIN MUFFINS WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING

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Welcome to my favourite muffin EVER. 

Think I'm exaggerating? Think again. 

These beauties are the epitome of fall. One bite whisks you away to a glorious fall walk through the park, stepping on freshly fallen leaves as you clutch your PSL and burry your face into your cashmere scarf....oh fall!!

I've been baking these muffins for FOUR years now. I know. I've been holding out on you. 

Now just warning you...there is not a single healthy thing in these muffins. They are gluten-packed, sugar-abundant and have cream cheese filling for all you lactose lovers.

Yes...I did say cream cheese filling.

These darlings are packed with a healthy amount of that purely golden cream cheese filling.

mmmmmmhmmmmmmm.

And after you fill the muffin liners up you sprinkle a generous helping of the butter/sugar/flour/cinnamon topping.

Yep you're welcome.

PUMPKIN MUFFINS WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING

makes 26 muffins

INGREDIENTS

For the filling:

• 1 package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar

For the muffins:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I googled how to make this)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:

• ½ cup sugar
• 5 tbsp. flour
• 1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• 4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

DIRECTIONS

1. Start by making the cream cheese filling. (Sometimes I'll do this the night before). Combine cream cheese and icing sugar in a mixer and mix until smooth. Place a quarter of the mixture on a piece of saran wrap and shape into a log about 1"-1.5" thick. Wrap the log with the plastic wrap then wrap tinfoil around it. Repeat until you have 4 cream cheese logs. Place the logs in the freezer and freeze for at lease two hours. 

2. To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F and line your muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda. Combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil in an electric mixer and then mix on medium-low speed until blended. Turn down (for what!!) the mixer speed to low and then add in the dry ingredients.

3. To make the topping, whisk together the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Place topping in your fridge until you need it.

4. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin liner with a small amount of batter (about 1-2 tbsp). Cut the log of cream cheese filling into 26 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin cup then cover the cream cheese with the rest of the batter. Finish with a generous sprinkle of the sugar/flour/butter/cinnamon mixture.

5. Bake for 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

6. Enjoy!

recipe slightly adapted from Annie's Eats 

So happy I still have half a dozen of these in my freezer!!!

Happy muffin making :)

xo,

s.s. ♥︎.

ROASTED YAM AND GARLIC SOUP

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So I made you something tasty AND healthy. Yes, healthy!!! I first made this soup a few years ago when I was doing the Daniel Fast. I felt like I was dyiiiing and I needed something to fill me and that's what this soup did. Oh and it's also gluten free, dairy free, sugar free and all that jazz ya know. Yaaa, girl, it's healthy and soooo good. 

It's the perfect soup for those grey fall days (yes, I'm over summer). A perfect Saturday afternoon activity.

ROASTED YAM AND GARLIC SOUP

Ingredients:

• 6 cups vegetable stock
• 3 large yams
• 2 garlic bulbs
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 red peppers
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp minced sage
• 2 tbsp minced oregano
• 2 tsp ground coriander seeds
• 1 tsp ancho chile powder
• pinch allspice
• 2 tsp chipotle puree (I pureed one can of adobe chilles!)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Wash yams well then poke a few holes in each one with a fork. Cut off the tops of the garlic bulbs, drizzle with olive oil, and wrap in tinfoil. Place yams and garlic on a baking tray and roast for about 45 mins. The yams might need longer than this, but you'll want to take the garlic out. When the yams are tender, cool slightly and remove skins. Squeeze flesh from the roasted garlic bulbs.
2. Halve and seed peppers. Place peppers and whole tomatoes on an oiled baking tray and roast until the skins begin to puff and brown (about 15 mins). Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 10 mins. Peel away the skins and set aside.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a large soup pot. Add onions and saute until translucent. Add garlic, spices and herbs and cook until the garlic is golden. Stir in the peeled, roasted vegetables (you might want to chop them up a bit too), the stock and the chipotle chiles. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 mins.
4. Puree the soup until smooth. And then eat it up!
5. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Rebar Cookbook

Delish hey? And it makes a TON so enjoy it for days :)

Love you long time,

s.s.♥︎.

P.S. Sorry for the no post on Monday. Work has been full (but AWESOME), I've been studying for my Pneumatology midterm & other exciting things which I can't talk about yet...(not pregnant, ha!)

Thank you for following along. I'm so excited to share with you more of my favourite fall recipes (pumpkin on pumpkin on pumpkin) but for now you should really make these cookies.

S'MORE COOKIES

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Remember how I've been saying constantly "I want this summer to last forever????".....well, I kinda cheated on my massive love for a never-ending summer by DRINKING MY FIRST PSL. What on earth is a PSL, you ask. Let me help you out...Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Fall in a cup.

I wasn't planning on having one this early but Starbucks (those marketing geniuses!!) had this online scavenger hunt thing where if you solved the puzzle, you'd get the code to unlock the PSL at your nearest Starbucks. I got the code last night so of course I had to get one. I ventured to a store on my walk to work and guess what? I was the first to unlock the code...it was pretty awesome and I documented it on insta (obvs)!! And on a crazier note (don't worry I'll get to the cookies soon...) I had a dream two nights ago that I ordered a "PSL" (yes I actually said PSL in my dream) and the barista gave me one even though the drink hadn't officially launched yet. So of course I had to fulfill that prophecy.

But anyways on to cookies......!

I made these cookies because I didn't want summer to end.

When I imagine the perfect summer, s'mores are definitely in the picture.

Oooey, gooey, chocolatey goodness squished between two graham crackers. mmmhmmm, how can you beat that?

But you can. Because And someone had the genius idea to take s'more and throw them into a cookie...BRILLIANT. I did not come up with this concept. I merely followed a recipe (by Baked by Rachel). She uses a mix of cake flour and bread flour.

The next time I bake these, I think I will try regular flour, little chunks of graham crackers (instead of crumbs) and browning the butter because you can't go wrong with browned butter...ever. But they were incredibly delicious and we devoured them on our Parksville Girls' Weekend.

So go, bake these cookies and tell me what you think!

And enjoy these last few weeks of summer!

xo,

s.s.♥︎.

GRILLED PEACH SALAD WITH HONEY GOAT CHEESE DRESSING

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Mmmmmhmmmmmm.

Yes, I have a salad for you that is going to win hearts.

Seriously, it will win you friends.

And it takes a whopping 10 minutes to make.

I know right? #rejoice

I made this salad for a family bbq last weekend. Things usually take me a loooong time to make. I don't like to be rushed in the kitchen yet because I never give myself enough time, I often find myself rushed in the kitchen.

I (as per usual) didn't give myself a ton of time that afternoon and I found myself rushing to the grocery stores (yes stores, I like to get my veggies from one store and all the rest from another, ha) to get all the ingredients. I got home and realized I had 30 minutes to make the salad and get ready. #storyofmylife

But you guys. 

I was able to assemble the salad (with a little help from James on the grilling of the peaches) AND get ready with time to spare. #winning 

So there you have it. A quick and easy AND delicious salad.

GRILLED PEACH SALAD WITH HONEY GOAT CHEESE DRESSING

Ingredients needed:

for the dressing-

• 150 g Goat Cheese (at room temperature)
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 tbsp Water

• Dash of Salt & Pepper

for the salad-

• 8 cups Spring Mix
• 6 Ripe Peaches sliced in quarters.
• 1/4 cup Walnuts

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine the goat cheese, honey, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, water and salt & pepper. Mix well. If it's too thick, add a little bit more water.
2. Heat grill to medium heat and then grill peaches until char marks appear (about 3 minutes).
3. Place salad in bowl. Add in grilled peaches and walnuts. 
4. Serve salad and drizzle dressing over top.
5. Enjoy!!!

Happy Wednesday!

I'm heading to Whistler for the FIRST TIME EVER tomorrow! I'd love to know your must see sights & restaurants & coffee shops! If you've been, please let me know in the comments :)

xoxo,

s.s.♥︎.

BANANA SCONES WITH BROWN BUTTER GLAZE

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I'm all about bananas baby. 

I also just sang that OUT LOUD to the tune of Puff Daddy's, "All about the Benjamins"...except I had to pronounce bananas ba-nana-nas to make it work. (OK, I've been spending a lot of time by myself on this vacation so please don't mind my crazy talk...)

Ok back to bananas...

Banana bread. Banana smoothie. Banana oatmeal. Banana slurpee....(FYI James and my first spark occurred over our shared love for banana slurpees..)

Yes, I'm all about bananas baby. I'm also all about brown butter. So when I came across this recipe for scones, I HAD to make them. And if you're all about bananas and brown butter then you can make them too.

Just please do not make them with frozen bananas like I did...because the extra liquid makes them very dense aka not a good flaky scone. Thank goodness brown butter glaze covers a multitude of errors but still..don't use frozen bananas!

BANANA SCONES WITH BROWN BUTTER GLAZE

Ingredients Needed:

scones-

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• Dash of nutmeg
• 8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into squares like above picture
• 1½ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3-4 large bananas..DO NOT USE FROZEN BANANAS!!)
• 1 cup sour cream

glaze-

• 8 tbsp. butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 3 tbsp. milk, plus more as needed

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400˚ F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.  

• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Give it a whisk then stir in the pieces of cold butter and cut into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

• In another bowl, add the mashed banana and sour cream then stir to blend. Add the banana mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold together gently with a spatula until a dough begins to come together. 

• Lay out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead a few times to ensure even mixing. Pat the dough out into a slab about ¾- to 1-inch thick. Cut out rounds of dough using biscuit cutters or a small glass (like I did in the above picture).  

• Place the dough rounds on the prepared baking sheets about two inches apart. 

• Bake the scones, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until the tops are golden brown and the scones are just set, about 16-18 minutes total for large scones then let cool on a wire rack.

• When the scones are cooling, make the glaze by heating the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. We're going to brown this butter baby!

• Melt the butter and continue to cook, swirling occasionally with a whisk until the butter is a deep golden brown colour (you'll see the brown specks at the bottom of the pan). Set aside to cool slightly. Transfer the browned butter to a bowl and whisk in the icing sugar. Whisk in the milk until the mixture is smooth. 

• Spoon or drizzle the glaze over the scones and let set before serving.

• Enjoy!

Recipe adapted by the mother of all baking..Annie's Eats.

And there you have it, banana scones with brown butter glaze for everyone!

Hope you have a marvellous Monday! I hear Victoria is getting a bit of a heat wave...Enjoy that 25 degree weather...I'll be melting away in 45 degree weather..HA. 

xoxo,

s.s.♥︎.