Zucchini 'n Stuff Muffins

I've made these with using honey instead of sugar; bananas instead of butter or oil; wheat flour in place of some of the white flour; gluten to add 'lightness'; wheat bran to add fiber; and chocolate chips ... for 'just because'.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups grated fresh zucchini
• 3 small bananas, mashed (equals 1 cup)
• 1 cup honey
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup wheat bran
• 2 teaspoons wheat gluten
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Another option:  You can omit chocolate chips and/or walnuts, and add 1 cup of raisins OR dried cranberries instead.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees (175-degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the honey, eggs, mashed bananas.
3. Stir in the grated zucchini.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the two flour(s), wheat gluten, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.  
5. Stir the dry mixture into the zucchini mixture.
6. Add walnuts, chocolate chips if using.
7. Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray.  Use a spoon or 'cookie scooper' to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up to within 1/2" of top.
8. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 t0 30 minutes.  Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done.  Set on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.  Remove muffins from the tin and let cool for another 20 minutes.

NOTE:  If you are including walnuts and other 'good stuff', you will likely have more batter than is needed for just 12 muffins.  I got 15 of the LARGE-sized muffins from this batch.

Easy Peezy Peach Cobbler

I hit the jackpot on Tuesday when I bought six peaches at Woodman's in Appleton.  This time, I got lucky!  These were just perfectly ripe, juicy and sweet.  I should have bought a lot more!  Yesterday, I googled for a peach cobbler recipe* and settled on this one.  (I think I may have been lured to it by the words "Southern Living".)  In the past, I have had peach cobblers made with more of a "biscuit dough" topping that made it more necessary to eat it when fresh and warm.  I find that THIS recipe yields a cobbler that is STILL so very good even the next day when it is NOT fresh from the oven and warm!

Yield:  10 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs. baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 4 cups sliced peaches, peeled, OR unpeeled.  (I used five peaches.)
• 1 more cup of sugar
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• Sprinkling of cinnamon or nutmeg, optional

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt butter in a 13x9-inch baking dish.
2. Combine flour and first 1 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt.  Blend together.  
3. Add milk to above dry ingredients and stir only until everything is moistened.  Pour this mixture of batter evenly over the melted butter in the baking dish.  Do NOT stir it.  Set aside.
4. Bring to just a rolling boil the second cup of sugar, the four cups of peach slices and the lemon juice while stirring constantly.  It forms its own juice.
5. Remove boiling peach mixture from heat and spoon the hot mixture evenly over the thin batter in the baking dish.  Do not stir.
6. IF desired, sprinkle top very lightly with cinnamon OR nutmeg.
7. Bake at 375-degrees (or less if your oven runs hot) for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Note:  I baked mine at 350-degrees for 40 minutes and it ended up as seen below.
8. Serve this cobbler while warm OR cold.

Above:  Shown with a very light sprinkling of 

cinnamon on top before baking.

* I followed the recipe just as I found it here:  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/easy-peach-cobbler.  If you wish, you can go to that website and read through the 286 different "reviews" before you make one for yourself.