Cream Cheese-Stuffed, Streusel-Topped, Cranberry Orange Mini Muffins

A few years ago, I started hosting a Christmas brunch for my family every Christmas. It's always so much fun, and I try to keep the menu very simple so it doesn't become stressful. I make a Crock pot breakfast casserole and some muffins, and my sister brings her French toast casserole. I serve things I can make ahead of time, and never have I been more glad about that than last year.

I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but last Christmas Eve, I was struck with a horrible, terrible, no-good stomach bug. It was so awful. I was stuck at home in bed, feeling miserable, while my family was celebrating without me. Thankfully, I'd prepared everything for our brunch the next morning earlier in the day before I got sick, so I didn't have to cancel it. I didn't feel like eating much on Christmas morning, but I was so happy to just be with my family at that point!

Sorry for talking about sickness in a post about food, but all of that was to say: I made these muffins for Christmas brunch last year, and they were ah-mazing. Like seriously, seriously delicious. As I mentioned, I like to keep things easy for this particular celebration, so these muffins start with boxed mix that is jazzed up with the additions of a sweetened cream cheese filling and a delectable orange-pecan streusel. I don't typically bake muffins from a box, but I was so surprised by how well these came out and how fresh they tasted. They're the perfect balance of sweet and tart and such a festive way to start Christmas morning...or any morning, really.

Cream Cheese-Stuffed, Streusel-Topped, Cranberry Orange Mini Muffins

slightly adapted from StoneGable

For the muffins:

 

1 box cranberry-orange muffin mix (I used Krusteaz Light)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon orange zest

For the filling:

 

8 ounces cream cheese

3 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon orange zest

For the streusel:

1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
6 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon orange zest 

1. Preheat oven according to muffin mix recipe. Spray two 24-cup mini muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray. Mix muffin recipe as directed, adding vanilla and orange zest. 

2. In a seperate bowl, add all filling ingredients and beat on high with a mixer for 1 minute. 

3. In a third bowl, mix all topping ingredients with a pastry cutter or fork. The butter should be well-incorporated and the topping should be crumbly. 

4. Add a tablespoon of the muffin batter to each mini muffin cup (about half full). Add 1 teaspoon of the filling to the center of the muffin batter in the cups. Top with another tablespoon of the muffin batter. Top each muffin with crumb topping. 

5. Bake according to box directions, minus about 5 minutes for mini muffins. When done, cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Take muffins out of pan and let cool completely.

 

Autumn Chopped Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

Like a lot of people I know, I’m addicted to Pinterest. I enjoy it not just for recipes, but also for crafts and home decoration ideas. But mostly, if I’m being completely honest, for recipes. The recipes I may actually do something with. Finding the time to craft and redecorate is much harder. But finding the time to make this salad was easy!

I absolutely loved all the flavors of this salad. It’s composed of pears, bacon, quick-candied pecans, dried cranberries, and feta cheese, all tossed with crispy romaine and drizzled with maple vinaigrette. The pears and pecans provide sweetness, the bacon and feta give it saltiness, and the cranberries and the vinaigrette provide another level of tangy sweetness. What a delicious ode to the flavors of autumn.

Joe was pleasantly surprised by the salad, too. I don’t think he expected to like it, but he really did – especially the dressing, which I threw together on a whim instead of using the poppy seed dressing and balsamic vinaigrette called for in the original recipe. I thought the maple would work really well with the other flavors, and it did. We both loved this, and we’d planned to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day…but there were none. That’s how good it was!

Autumn Chopped Salad with Maple Vinaigrette
salad adapted from Espresso and Cream; dressing is my recipe

For the salad:

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Pinch of cinnamon
8 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 medium pear, thinly sliced
1/2 pound thick-cut bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled
1 cup dried cranberries
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

For the maple vinaigrette:

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add pecans and cook until lightly toasted and fragrant. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Cook until slightly caramelized. Remove from heat to cool.

2. In a large bowl or on a serving platter, combine the lettuce, pear, bacon, cranberries and feta cheese. Stir in pecans.

3. To make the dressing, whisk together the vinegar and maple syrup. Whisk in olive oil until thoroughly combined. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Drizzle dressing over salad.

One year ago: Mint cookies and cream ice cream

Cranberry Orange White Chocolate Chip Muffins

That’s right: another muffin recipe. What can I say? Muffins are one of my absolute favorite things to bake. They’re so simple and delicious and, even if they’re very sweet, you can totally get away with having them for breakfast -- which is what I’ve been doing with this particular batch for the last week or so.

The flavors of cranberry, orange, and white chocolate go so well together. In these muffins, the tart cranberries, bright oranges, and sweet white chocolate combine to make a flavorful, moist, perfectly balanced muffin. They’d be perfect for brunch on Christmas Day!

Cranberry Orange White Chocolate Chip Muffins
adapted from Allrecipes

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins or line them with paper liners.

2. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add orange juice, vanilla, and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and orange zest. Gradually add to wet ingredients. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips.

4. Pour into muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until brown. (Yield: 14 to 18 muffins)

Pork Loin Chops with Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

This is another recipe I’ve wanted to try for at least a year. After Thanksgiving, when I found myself with half a bag of cranberries left over in the fridge, I knew this was how I was going to use them up.

We all absolutely loved the cranberry-pomegranate (cranegranate?) sauce on top of the pork chops. The sauce would be delicious on its own, in fact, as an alternative to a more traditional cranberry sauce. It also would have been delicious on top of mashed potatoes, which I’d intended to make with this meal and would have had I remembered to buy potatoes (d’oh!). The sauce is tart and tangy and sweet and just has tons of flavor.

The original recipe calls for pork tenderloin that is baked in the oven. I decided to fry mine up in olive oil instead, but I think either method would be absolutely delicious. This is a flavorful, relatively healthy meal with very few ingredients, and it couldn’t be easier to prepare!

Pork Loin Chops with Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce
adapted from About.com

1 pound pork loin chops
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup pomegranate juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries

1. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper and add to pan. Cook until pork chops are caramelized.

2. Meanwhile, heat pomegranate juice, sugar and cranberries in a small saucepan on medium high until boiling, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to medium low and cook until sauce thickens and reduces.

3. Drizzle sauce on top of pork before serving.

Cranberry Butter

I know that most of you have already completely planned out your Thanksgiving feasts, which is why the recipe I'm sharing today is something really quick and easy that you can whip up to add to your spread in 10 minutes: cranberry butter. With less than 24 hours to go until most of us are eating The Big Meal, it probably doesn't sound like the wisest idea to add yet another item to your list, but trust me: You should definitely make this. It's sweet and tart and so much more interesting than plain old butter on your rolls. Best of all? It's absolutely delicious. I snuck a little bit of the batch I made last night to put on my toast this morning, and it was divine. It's going to taste even better on homemade rolls tomorrow!

Cranberry Butter
source: Fun Foods on a Budget!

3/4 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup chopped fresh cranberries

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1. In a small mixing bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and honey until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add cranberries and walnuts; beat 5 minutes longer or until butter turns nice and pink.

2. Transfer to a sheet of plastic wrap; roll into a log. Refrigerate until chilled, then unwrap and slice to serve.

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cranberry and white chocolate is another one of those classic recipe combinations, and it's one that I absolutely love. The balance of sweet and tart is just so wonderful. I've had this particular recipe bookmarked for quite a while, and a Christmas cookie exchange at work gave me the perfect opportunity to try them. And I love them. And the best part? You can eat them for breakfast! They're just like a granola bar, with the oats and the dried fruit. (Okay...I am totally just trying to justify the fact that I had three of them this morning. So sue me.) I added a few ingredients to the cookies which worked very well, and they're reflected below in purple.


Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Allrecipes

2/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/4 cups dried cranberries
2/3 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate (I used a full cup of white chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add vanilla. Combine oats, flour, salt, baking soda and orange zest; stir into butter mixture one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate.

3. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.