Slattery Strawberry Bread

I know what you're thinking...I only posted once last week, but trust me, I had a very good reason for my absence...

I went home last week for 5 days of wedding/bridal/bachelorette festivities complete with menu tasting, invitation finalization, decoration planning and a wonderful "showerette"(a bridal shower followed by a bachelorette party coined by Fefe) that my amazing bridesmaids put together.

I'm lucky enough to still be ridiculously close with both my high school girlfriends and sorority sisters so orchestrating 14 girls was no easy task.

I not only received some fantastic gifts (plenty to be used to bring you all sweets!), but had a blast with all my girlfriends later that night too. I still can't believe I'm getting married in less than 100 days!

In honor of my beautiful best friend and MOH I wanted to showcase her mother's famous Strawberry Bread- this stuff is absolutely delicious and flies off the plate as soon as its served.

Strawberry Bread

2 10oz packages of frozen (or fresh) strawberries, defrosted 

4 eggs

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 cups AP flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 and grease loaf pan.

In a small bowl, combine strawberries, eggs and oil until blended.

In another bowl whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. 

Add strawberries mixture to flour mixture and stir until blended.

Transfer batter to loaf pan and bake for about an hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes before removing and cooling completely.

 

Happy Baking!

Monkey Bread Muffins

I mentioned a little something sweet on the brunch menu to go along with the frittata and Asiago and Rosemary Scones and this is it. I took the wonderful recipe that is Monkey Bread and transformed it into muffin form.

My wonderful roommate in grad school introduced me to Monkey Bread a few years ago and I almost immediately fell in love. How had I gone almost 23 years through life without having this? For someone who loves everything cinnamon it was almost sacrilege! I found myself pulling piece after piece of the ooey-gooey, cinnamon-y, biscuit based bread, until my stomach ached from all the sugar.

Biscuits, cinnamon, brown sugar, and butter? Heaven.

Normally, Monkey Bread is made in a deep baking dish or a bundt pan, but for brunch I wanted to do something that was easy to serve so I decided to a muffin pan to make individual, portion sized muffins.

Monkey Bread Muffins
Oven: 350 Bake time: 20 min
Makes 6 Jumbo muffins or 12 regular

1 can jumbo biscuits
1/2 cup white sugar
1-2 TBS cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 TBS butter

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tin with parchment paper or just spray with Pam.
Pop biscuit can and cut each biscuit into fourths.

Roll pieces into balls.
In a small bowl, mix white sugar and cinnamon (make it as cinnamon-y as you like).

Roll biscuit balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture until fully coated.
Place cinnamon-sugar coated balls (6 in each) in individual muffins.
Add brown sugar and butter to bowl of cinnamon-sugar mixture and place in microwave for about 45 seconds to 1 minute or until butter is melted. Mix until combined.
Pour about a tablespoon of brown sugar mixture over each muffin.
Sprinkle with extra cinnamon and sugar if inclined.
Transfer to oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before serving.

Oh and guess what else?!

I've come to find that Central Texas is full of markets and festivals which is awesome because it's always fun to check out the local digs. After devouring these muffins we headed to the Salado Art Festival and Craft Days where we found some fabulous deals. While there, we walked by an old red barn that happened to be sponsoring the local public library and their book sale. For $5 you could fill a reusable grocery bag with as many books as could fit and guess what I found?? A cookbook section...

All these for just FIVE DOLLARS! These were just half of what I could have taken home.. my issue? I don't have the shelf space for them! Hopefully that'll be changing soon though- MM and I are going to start looking at houses to rent :)

Happy Baking!