{ Florean Fortescue’s Butterbeer Ice Cream }

I've been talking about it for months and months, I instaspammed you on instagram, and I even wrote up a long post about it. However, it may have skipped your notice that I was at THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER two weeks ago. Two weeks ago? It feels like FOREVER ago. Fo-evah. Sad panda.

While there, as I mentioned in my post, we went to Florean Fortesuce's Ice Cream Parlour.

It. was. delish. So, so good. The signature ice cream, of course, is Butterbeer. Of the four of us, do you know how many got Butterbeer flavor? Um. Zero. Perhaps because we'd already had Butterbeer to drink? I'm not sure, but we all opted for more unique (and ah-maze-ing) flavors. I had Stick Toffee Pudding, Darla had Salted Caramel Blondie, Bean got what Florean gave Harry- Strawberry Peanut Butter, and the girl got Chocolate Raspberry.

The HUGE hard packed scoops are 4.99 served in a cup or $5.99 in a waffle cone.

Other hard packed flavors include: Chocolate Chili, Apple Crumble, Vanilla, Chocolate, Clotted Cream, and Earl Gray and Lavender. They also have soft serves, which none of of tried, but the flavors are: banana, chocolate, granny smith, mint, pistachio, vanilla, orange marmalade, toffee, toffee apple, and strawberries and cream. You can also get the Eton Mess, which is a huge sundae in a souvenir glass!

Every one of us loved our ice cream. So, so good. I wish I had some now.

So, I made some. And so did Darla (more info below).

I, of course, made butterbeer.

To make it, I started with a custard based ice cream. I find them much creamier than recipes made without eggs.

I used a bottle of Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer (made by Reed's) for flavoring. If you can't locate this, use Darla's recipe to achieve a very similar taste.

I then reduced the butterscotch beer by 1/2. Reducing basically means cooking the water out. So, just add the soda (I'm from Ohio, man that word is hard to type. We call it POP here) to a pan. Over medium heat cook it, stirring often, until it's about 1/2 of what it started as.

After making the custard, I added this cooled (but not cold) syrup to it.

You know what else you can make?

Butterbeer Floats!

Can't you almost see Ron and Hermione sipping on one of these in The Three Broomsticks? Two straws, please!

I like to sprinkle my Butterbeer ice cream with a tiny bit of turbinado sugar for a pop of crunch! I'm sure it would be great with chocolate too, or many other toppings (although I think it stands great on it's own). It's still a very vanilla flavor with a hint of butterscotch. Apparently, unmistakably Butterbeer flavored too. I made Bean taste it and tell me what flavor it was. It took him a minute, but he got it right!

Making homemade ice cream is easy, and the bonus is that you know every ingredient that went into it. None of that weird xanthan gum or anything.

And the taste of homemade ice cream? Magical!

(I'm not even sorry for the pun.)

Want more? You know you do! Zip on over to Bakingdom to see Darla's recipe for Florean's Chocolate Chili ice cream. Spicy chocolate? Want.

Tina

See all of my Harry Potter posts here. Food, crafts, and 2 massive parties.




Butterbeer Ice Cream
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
⅔ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
6 large egg yolks
6 ounces of Butterbeer syrup (see above)- cooled to room temp
1 teaspoon imitation butter flavoring

In a small pan, simmer cream, milk, sugar and salt until sugar completely dissolves, approx 5 minutes. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks together. While whisking constantly, slowly add about a third of the hot cream into the yolks. Whisk the yolk mixture back into the pan with the cream. Return pan to medium-low heat and cook, stirring often, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees).

Remove from heat, and carefully strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool mixture to room temperature. Whisk in the butterbeer syrup & butter flavoring. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Directly from the machine will give you a soft serve consistency, or store in freezer until needed.

Yield: About 1 1/2 pints


Adapted from this recipe found in the New York Times

{Soft Iced Pineapple Cookies}

I know I've mentioned my BFF Lori on the blog before. She's even behind some of the recipes here, like Strawberry Filled Cupcakes, Holy Moses Dip, and she introed me to the current most popular recipe on my blog, Buckeye Bites.

For a long time, she has told me about her great grandmother's Pineapple Cookies. Sounds good, eh?
These are a definite memory for Lori. She says she cannot remember a time when she went to visit her grandmother that these were not present.

I can see why.

They are soft and lightly citrusy.

When I say soft, I mean, I want to curl up and use one for a pillow. They are tender and delicious.

I made a 1/2 a recipe. I live with picky people, folks. 2 days later and there are 5 cookies left. FIVE. Even a 1/2 of this recipe makes A LOT of cookies (about 3 dozen).

Gone. People. Gone.

So, saying they were a hit, well, now that would be quite the understatement.

I believe these will be a new summer standby cookie. A soft sugar cookie with a pineapple twist? Perfect for summer.

Tres yummy.

Thanks Lori!

I'll be buying stock in pineapple after this!


Tina



Soft Iced Pineapple Cookies
Recipe by Margaret Cameron


 Cookies
1 Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Cup crushed pineapple (drained)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 Cup flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 Tablespoon pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup nuts ( optional )

Cream butter and sugar together. Add well beaten eggs. Beat in crushed pineapple and vanilla. Add baking soda which has been dissolved in 1 Tablespoon pineapple juice. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Gradually add this to the other ingredients. Mix in nuts, if desired. Beat well. Drop by teaspoon onto greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. bake at 350* for 12 mins.

Icing
1/3 Cup softened butter
1/4 Cup pineapple juice
2 Cup powder sugar

Melt butter, stir in pineapple juice and powdered sugar. Whisk until glossy. Spoon onto cooled cookies or dip tops of cookies into the glaze.

{ Weasley is Our King Cakes}

(See all my Potter recipes & parties here)

*

Guess who's birthday it isssssssssss??

One of my very favorite (fictional) people's birthday!

Ron. Weasley.

I love Ron. He's the long suffering youngest son in a family of seven, six of them sons. He's hilarious, he's sweet, he can be a jerk. He can be a brat.

I love that about him. I love that J.K. Rowling wrote such flawed characters. It made them so much more three dimensional than most book, or heck, tv/movie characters. 

In other words, it feels like Ron is my for real friend.

I love to make items for my 'friends'.

I've made things for Hermione, Snape, Fred & George, and I made something for Ron last year.

Then of course, there's Harry. I didn't really MAKE him anything. Instead, I threw him an EPIC birthday party.

Oh, and I like to make Harry Potter things for my flesh and blood friends too. Like this Hogwarts Letter Cookie I made for my friend Darla.

I'm not sure why Ron is one of my favorite characters. Like I said, he's just so real. Maybe that is the whole reason. Of course, he's an adorable ginger too. That doesn't hurt.

When Deathly Hallows came out (the book), a town about an hour away threw this amazing festival. Actually, they did it for Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince too. We didn't know about it when OotP came out, but we were there for the HBP party as well. It was amazing. They shut down an entire city block, there were skits, scavenger/Death Eater hunts, owls, lizards, wizard food, and the wizard rock band The Whomping Willows. Not to mention thousands of Potter geeks. It's truly one of those memories that we will treasure forever. Amazing.

The Bean, being a little ginger himself, decided he wanted to go as Ron. Easy enough, right?

No.

It's never that easy. He wanted to be Quidditch Ron. Well, out there in costume land, there is ONLY Quidditch Harry. Enter my super talented mother-in-law. At the time, Quidditch Ron had never been in a movie, so we didn't know what number to make him. I decided to go with 6, since he was the 6th Weasley. When the movie came out, he was actually number 2, but ironically, Ginny was 6. So, I at least I picked a Weasley, eh?

So, here's my little cutie, then 10 years old. I totally made him wear it for Trick or Treat too, it wasn't cheap or easy to make!

 Strangers stopped him at the festival and asked to take photos. It was so much fun and he felt like a rock star.

So, if you haven't figured it out yet. I love Ron Weasley.

Since it's his birthday, I decided to make him a cake. Well, cupcakes. I totally wanted to do a play on a King Cake for Weasley is Our King.

(If you want to know the  history behind Weasely is Our King, read here. )

And so, I did.

This is not a pastry, like the regular King Cake, this just has some of the flavors of a King Cake. It just pays homage to it, it's not meant to duplicate it.

These start out with a yellow cake mix. I only made 12 with the little Duncan Hines "cupcake mix" boxes. If you want to do a full 24, just double the recipe.

This has a brown sugar/butter bit that you will swirl in.

What you'll end up with is this

Here's how you do that.

Fill your cups. Now, here I did 2 swirls, one in the middle and one at the top.

I recommend only doing the top.

The middle swirl sank and made the cake pull apart at the bottom.

(if you want dual swirls, I recommend using this cake as your base. As you can see, the batter is much thicker. Use just the cake recipe, and follow my swirl/icing directions.)

At any rate, spoon a bit on.

Then swirl with a toothpick. 

I topped these cupcakes with a Cinnamon Buttercream, King Cake style sprinkles (in Gryffindor colors, of course)  and tiny fondant crowns.

To make the crowns, you need a bit of yellow fondant.

Roll it out to about 1/8" thick. Then cut it so the edges are squared off.

 

I used this Pampered Chef ruffle cutter to make the points on the crown.

I added a little edible glitter to this, but Disco Dust or Luster Dust would have been much better.

Sadly, I had neither.

Then I added silver dragees & rolled them around to make the crown. I sealed the edges together with a bit of water, then allowed them to sit out a dry a bit so they were firmer.

I sat them on the side of the cupcakes to look a little jaunty.

Cute, right?

So, there ya go. Cute little Weasley is Our King Cupcakes.

Happy Birthday, Won Won!

I hope you have a wonderful 33rd birthday!

This graphic was not made by me. I'm not sure who the author is, but I found it on the Facebook Fan Page:
We Owe JKR Our Childhood.

Ever your fan,

Tina

O.S.,

(That's Owl Script. You know, like Post Script for Owl Post.)

Guess who else is making Ron a special treat today??? You'll never guess!

Darla!

Wait, you guessed? How'd ya know?

Check out what she's made for him here!


If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.

*

*

Weasley is Our King Cupcakes

Recipe by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Preheat oven to 350.

Cake

Yellow Cupcake Mix 

(makes 12- double the following ingredients if you are making 24)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

dash nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Prepare cake mix according to package.

Beat in the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and lemon zest.

 Scoop batter into a prepared pan, lined with cupcake papers.

Filling

2 Tablespoons melted butter

3 Tablespoons dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla into the butter. Whisk until fully combined.

 Place a teaspoon of the mix onto the  top of the cupcake batter. Swirl with a toothpick.

Icing

1 stick butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

milk or heavy cream

Beat the butter for a few minutes, until fluffy. Add the sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix until well combined. If too thick, add milk/cream 1 Tablespoon at a time until you come to a good consistency.

Swirl on to the top of cupcakes.

Sprinkle with red, yellow, and white sugar.

Top with fondant crowns.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

{Candy Man Cookies}

Tomorrow is the premiere of my favorite TV show.

Note, I said MY favorite TV show. This time last year, when I made these Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes,  you'll note I said OUR favorite show.

The other day, I said to the Bean, "omigosh, our favorite show is coming on in a few days!!!".

To which he relied, "You mean YOUR favorite show".

A little piece of me wilted right then. A little piece of me that will never been green and happy again.

Kids are mean.

Now, granted, his favorite show is pretty dang cool. I mean, it's Doctor Who. However, he went on to tell me that Sherlock was number 2. Ok, gosh dern it, I LOVE Sherlock too, but when did this happen? When did we grow soooo far apart? I mean, my favorite show is now his third favorite? People, are you picking up what I'm putting down?

Or, it's possible I'm being overly dramatic. 

Scratch that. That cannot be true. 

Anyway, MY favorite show comes back on tomorrow. The problem with watching these cable shows is the fact that they are a literal YEAR from one season to the next. Network shows have a 3-4 month hiatus in the summer, but cable? A full year. That's just meanness.

However, in a little over 24 hours, I will be sitting down to watch the adventures of Shawn, Gus, and the Blueberry.

Psych is coming back!

photo property of USA Network

Now, if you don't know what Psych is, refer to my above link about the cupcakes. I tell a little about it there. It's a witty show, full of mystery, a fake psychic, real crimes, and oodles of 80s references.

What's not to love.

In the Season finale (in APRIL OF LAST YEAR, FOLKS), Gus had gone candy crazy. He was shoving it in every chance he got. So much so that this exchange took place:

Shawn: "You have a problem, Candy Man."

Gus: "I make the world taste good."

which is funny, cause of this song.

Get it. hahahahaaha.

 

So, I made some cookies for Gus.

I think he will appreciate them, they are chock FULL of candy.

I started with a basic, buttery cookie, to which I added over 2 cups of candy.

Cause. Candy.

I love this recipe. I have used it for years. I use to to make chocolate chip cookies, of course. I sub in some oatmeal to make an oatmeal chocolate chip, I use it to make M&M cookies, Butterscotch cookies, some cocoa powder to make double chocolate chip cookies, it's a great blank slate of a chewy, buttery cookie.

For these cookies, I added a ton of candies. As I mentioned, over 2 cups.

I used M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, Nestle Crunch, Butterfinger, Heath Bar, and a Hershey Bar.

I also used Milk Duds, but there is a trick to them. Cut them in 1/2 and place them in the center of your ball of dough. If they get to close to the edge of the cookie, they will goo out and make a bit of a mess.

Any Psych fans out there?

Do you think Gus would approve?

Cause my guys sure did.

I had to eat one (or 11) to deal with the emotional trauma inflicted on me by the Bean's declaration that we no longer share the same favorite show.

Growing up is hard.

I hear it is for the teenagers too.

Tina

*

Candy Man Cookies

Adapted from this recipe at AllRecipes

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

 2 cups all-purpose flour

 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

 1 egg

 1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract
 2 cups candy of your choice, chopped, if bars

Preheat oven to 325. 

Line sheet with parchment or a silpat mat or grease the sheet.

Add your melted butter in a mixing bowl along with the sugars, until well combined. Beat in the egg and egg yolk. Add the vanilla. Mix in the soda and salt. Add the flour about a 1/2 cup at a time.

Mix in the candies.

Bake for 13-16 minutes

Allow to sit on sheet for a few minutes before moving to cooling racks.

{Hogwarts Letter Cookies}

(See all my Potter recipes here & my HUGE Potter Parties here: 2012 & 2013)

*

You know what today is?

It's my best bloggy friend's birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darla, of Bakingdom, LOVES birthdays, so I wanted to be sure and do something for her today. Something more than shipping a gift across the country (I totally got her the 10th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver), something that took time and a lot of thought.

I wanted to have a party for her!

So, I gathered up another one of her friends, the amazingly talented Heather Baird of Sprinkle Bakes. Heather has a treat for Darla today on her blog too, be sure to check out this Firefly cake inspired by Kaylee's Dress. It's GORGEOUS, of course: Kaylee's Dress Cake.

By the way, be sure to check out Heather's book, Sprinkle Bakes (no, she didn't tell me to mention her book. I mention it because I have, and love, it. It's just beautiful). 

I went through a lot of geek ideas for Darla's birthday.  TARDIS cupcakes? Red Shirt Red Velvet cake? Hunger Games Oatmeal cookies?

Then, I stumbled upon this idea from Glorious Treats.

And a noise in my head, people, it was audible, I swears, went DING. 

What does Darla often talk about never receiving?

Her Hogwarts Letter!

The cookie I made here is BIG. It's a good 7"x4". You could make them smaller, but your letter would have to be either smaller (text is tiny as is) or you'd have to fold it more.

You'll make 3 cookies of the same size, like shown on Glorious Treats. For the middle cookie, you will remove the center of it before baking.

As you assemble it will look like this

(ignore the powered sugar on my counter, kay?)

Put the bottom and middle cookies together with a royal icing.

Then, put your letter inside. A little more royal icing and add the top cookie.
Be sure to fold your note to one side (I folded mine in 1/2 again after this photo), so it will not get torn when you break/cut into it).

Glorious Treats did a great job making her cookies perfect and even. If you can do this, you can probably pull off using the Flood and Fill method with Royal Icing.

I was not so successful as you can see in this photo.

Enter fondant. I used an easy Marshmallow Fondant. It's by Darla herself.

Cover with your fondant and allow it to sit out and dry for a bit. This will make it easier to write on with a food writer.

And there you have it. 

A cute, addressed cookie. You can add your real address, of course. I don't think that Darla would have been to excited if I'd published her home address on the internet though ;)

Other things you can add are things like "the Cupboard Under the Stairs", "The Smallest Bedroom", "The Bedroom at the End of the Hall", etc.

Now, you have a big darn fondant covered cookie. They will have no idea what lies inside though.

Oooh, what's that peeking??

(this photo was for demonstration only, you can see it was clearly folded again in the middle so it would not get torn in half when cutting into the cookie)

Congratulations, Hogwarts wants you!

You can make this in lots of different shapes, Glorious Treats has done a pumpkin, Christmas Drums, & the heart I linked above, but I thought that this Hogwarts letter was perfect for my geeky, Potter obsessed friend.

Happy Birthday, Darla, I hope your day is as wonderful as you are!

Stop over to Bakingdom or Bakingdom's Facebook to wish her a happy day! Tell her Heather & Tina sent ya! :)

Tina :)

If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.

(See all my Potter recipes here & my HUGE Potter Parties here 2012 & 2013)

Things needed for this project:

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe OR

Royal Icing Recipe*

Food Writer

Hogwarts Letter (made by you)

*you will still a stiff icing to assemble the cookies even if using fondant to cover, but you will need a very small amount.

Linked up at Bakerette's Show Us How You Rock Link Party

{ The Big Cheesy Dip }

 The Bean has the Flu.

No, he didn't get the shot. No, I don't want to discuss that. ;)

For the last 4 days, he's been planted on the couch. Whenever he is sick, he pulls the coffee table up next to the couch, adds a few (or 12) pillows, a couple blankets and declares "A nest has been established". Then he barely moves.

The cat must sit with him when he's sick. All. The. Time.

In those last 4 days, I will tell you that we have definitely gotten our money's worth of Netflix Streaming. We've watched The King's Speech, Good Will Hunting, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Sahara, The Decoy Bride, and several episodes each of Mr. Bean, Firefly, Doctor Who, The Vicar of Dibley, and The West Wing. Not to mention all of the DVRed shows we've watched.

And yes, we do have a penchant for watching British shows. Is it any wonder over 1/2 of the suggestions Netflix makes for me are British?

The Bean is doing better. Still achy, dizzy, with a sore throat, and very tired, but no more fever or chills! Yay! 

He's improving. Except when I tell him to do his make-up work for school. Then suddenly he is SO sick. Tragic.

We are not football people at all. In fact, I have no idea who is playing on Sunday. All I do know is that the coaches are brothers. I saw that on the news today at noon. Didn't catch the team names though. Oops.

However, we were going to go to a Super Bowl Party with our Youth Group on Sunday.

We are staying home instead. Keep the flu germs all here in the house.

You know, so I can get it next week.

I was going to take this to the party, but... no.

I made this dip on New Year's Eve.

We very often have a party food, that my mom makes called Hanky Panky (unfortunate name, I know). I asked her to make them for NYE, but she didn't  have any of the cocktail bread required. 

So, I made it into a dip. The Bean L-O-V-E-D it.

Look, I know there are lots of Cheeseburger Dips out there. Many involving ketchup in the dip.

This is not one of those. This is, however, a very unhealthy dip, ie, it's really yummy.

Let me just tell you, there are some things in life that can't be made without the creamy, orange loaf.

This is one.

If you are opposed to a little Velveeta, this recipe is NOT for you. 

Scroll down. Banana Muffins. Goooooooooood. (No Velveeta involved).

This is a super simple recipe.

Just brown up hamburger & sausage with onion, dice up some Velveeta, plunk in a crock pot, add a lil milk. Done.

Serve with Tortilla Chips or Fritos (Scoops are best).

I severed this with a round loaf of Rye Bread, but it's much better with chips. Of course. 

This is a hearty dip, great for Super Bowl (and lots of other) parties!

Get your game on. Go, fight, win.... um, one of those brothers. I feel like awkward holidays await them, as the one flashes his Super Bowl ring and the other seethes in the corner. 

Maybe not, maybe they are fabulously well adjusted and will hold no grudges.

Whatever.

Happy Snacking!

The Hopefully Flu Free Tina

The Big Cheesy Dip

By Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1/2 pound ground beef

1/4 to 1/2 pound ground Italian Sausage *

1/4 cup finely chopped onion (optional)

1 pound Velveeta, diced

1/4 to 1/2 cup milk **

Fry the burger, sausage, and onion in a skillet. Do not salt (the cheese and chips will add plenty of salt to the flavor).

When fully cooked, drain any excess grease and transfer to a Crock Pot. Add the velveeta & milk.

Allow to cook on LOW, for about an hour.

Crock Pot times vary greatly, so check it occasionally, and stir if needed.

*You can add more or less of the sausage, depending on the flavor you want.
**You can add more or less milk depending on how thick you want the dip.

{ Banana Streusel Muffins }

Confession: I'm a Crazy Cat Lady.

Well, I mean, can you be a Crazy Cat Lady with one cat? I think you can. Therefore, I'm pretty sure I meet the criteria.

Our cat is nearly 12 years old. We got him when the Bean was four. The Bean had, at the time, a little black cat that lived outside. His name was Sam. Sam had a best friend. He was a bunny named George. I know that sounds unlikely and weird, but it's a true story.

We would let George Bunny out of his cage and he and Sammy would play. They were just the funniest lil things.

Well, Sammy was young, George Bunny was old. George passed away. The hubs and the little Bean put George in shoebox and buried him in the backyard. Sammy followed them and meowed the whole time. Then, when they were finished Sam laid on George's grave. It was so sad. That evening, Sam went across the road, which he had never done ever, and got ran over. I'm convinced the cat committed suicide. It was the most bizarre thing. Extremely tragic for our 4 year old as well.

A couple months later, we found a lady giving away kittens at the county fair. The Bean picked out a kitty and his heart was just set on him. Only him. I just had to let him have him. That is where our kitty, Fairley (middle name Bueller, haha) came from. The Fair. Fairley. The Fair cat. We love him.

He is the sweetest cat on the planet. I might be biased, nah, that's crazy talk, he really is the sweetest cat on the planet. I love him. I love love love love love him.

I'm on instagram. I post photos of my cat. Too. Much. TOOOO MUCH.

I AM a crazy cat lady. 

Recently, I've started posting pics of him on my lap at night while we watch TV together.

I'm crazy.

Here are photos. There are lots.

I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not.

 Pretty Fairley

Fairley at Christmas (see the stockings?)

He's JUST SO FLUFFY!

Here we are watching Downton Abbey

 FRIENDS here.

 Watching a little Glee

Some Firefly

Downton Abbey again!

 Gilmore Girls! Fairely loves Gilmore Girls.

We were watching Bunheads last night. This photo is is from yesterday. I'm doing Geek Photo A Day through Instagram #geekphotoaday , check it out! You can follow me and all of my cat adventures. I'm SugarBeanBakers.

I'm also slightly unstable.

KITTY! <3

CRAZY. CAT. LADY.

We should really talk about something else. ANYTHING else.

How about Banana Muffins? Or better yet, Banana Streusel Muffins.

The original recipe for the muffins (without streusel), I THINK is from the old Betty Crocker cookbook. I've used it so long though, I am not positive.

We love banana muffins around here, but you know what makes em better?

Streusel.

So, Banana Streusel Muffins is it.

Just mix up the ingredients for the muffins, put in muffin tins, sprinkle the stresuel on top, and bake.

I think precious few things make your house smell better than banana bread.

Yummy.

Tina

I'm sorry. I tried to stop myself from posting another. But... with this face??? Resistance is futile.

Banana Streusel Muffins

adapted by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Muffins

1 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1/3 Cup Butter, Softened

1/3 Cup Water

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-4 mashed RIPE bananas*

1 2/3 Cup Flour

1/2 Cup chopped Walnuts or Pecans (optional)

Streusel

1/2 Stick Butter, cold

1/3 Cup packed Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Quick Oats

1/2 Cup Flour

*the riper the banana the better the bread. The ones in the photos above are not nearly ripe enough for me. Brown to black bananas make the best bread.

For the muffins:

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until fluffy. Add in the water, eggs, and mashed banana. Mix well. Add in dry ingredients and mix slowly until well combined.

Grease a muffin pan, or use paper liners, and fill cups 2/3 full.

For the streusel:

Cut the dry ingredients into the butter using a pastry cutter or a fork (or a food processor) until the mixture looks like peas.

Sprinkle over muffins (you may have slightly more than you need for this recipe).

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (check at 20). A toothpick will come out clean from the muffin, but a bit of streusel may still cling to it. Makes approx. 16 muffins.