Morning Glory Muffins

Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (April 2011)
Recipe Source: Cook's Country TV (same link)

I was starting to write my review in my head while I was baking these, assuming they would get a grade lower than an A. The prep on these muffins takes quite a while. Grating carrots, peeling grating an apple, squeezing liquid from the apple and pineapple, toasting the walnuts and coconut, then processing in food processor! That is a lot for a muffin. And because I always try to multi-task I burned some of the coconut when toasting. I tried taking the burned pieces out and toasted a bit more. There was a burned coffee smell in my kitchen and I was sure these wouldn't taste good.

But I was really happy when I tasted one. The texture was perfect. One of the best I've ever made. These are not super sweet, so really a good muffin for breakfast. I have never tried to make these muffins before because all recipes I saw had walnuts and raisins which I don't like. But since these walnuts are ground up, I thought it would be ok, and it was. I think they added nice flavor to the muffin.

These are definitely some work, but I think they are worth it to have in the freezer for a quick breakfast that is a little less sweet than most muffins, but still very tasty.

The only change I made to the recipe was to replace 1 cup of the all-purpose flour with 1 cup of white wheat. I still used 1 1/4 of regular flour. It worked well.

This recipe is currently available for free on Cook's Country website since it was feature during the current season of Cook's Country TV, so grab it now if you are interested.

Dream Bars

Crust Prep Time: 8 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes
Topping Prep Time: 8 minutes
Bake Time: 35-40 minutes
Cool Time: 2 hours

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Best of America's Test Kitchen 2010

I'm not sure where this recipe first appeared.  The author was from Cook's Country but I don't find this on that website. It may be from this Baking book.

I found a copy of the recipe here: Dream Bars

Anyway, these were absolutely delicious.  You must like coconut to enjoy these.  They are rich and delicious.  I have to admit to skipping the pecans in the topping.  I did add them to the crust.  I don't love pecans and I actually burned them during toasting, since I left the kitchen and forgot!  They were fine without, but the nuts probably added a little structure. 

The recipe is super simple.  It takes a bit of time to go through the steps, but only 16 minutes of work.  (Although probably actually more if want to toast the pecans and not burn them.)

I'm not sure how well these freeze yet, but if that works, this might go to an A+ recipe.

7 Layer Bars

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: B+

Make Again: Maybe w/ changes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (February 2007)

These are a little bit different than the easy recipe from on the can of the sweetened condensed milk. The recipe adds toffee bits to the crust (good change), toasts the nuts and coconut (good), adds milk chocolate and rice krispies (fine, but couldn't tell the diff) and also used twice as much condensed milk (maybe not such a good change). I felt like these were just a little bit too gooey. And while I didn't mind the extra chocolate, I'm not sure it added much, so I might skip that step along with the cereal. Of course they tasted good, but just not sure all the updates are necessary.

Coconut Scone

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Whole Grain Baking

These are pretty good, but the coconut flavor was not strong for me. One problem was my coconut was kind of old, and I did not have any coconut extract. If I make again, I will need to get some extract. I'd like to try making these with light coconut milk instead, so I would definitely want to use the extract for that version.

It was 2/3 white whole wheat and 1/3 white flour, and you truly cannot tell that there is whole wheat. After my initial whole wheat biscuit, I was thinking the whole wheat versions of biscuits and scones wouldn't be that good. But I'm finding the ones that add a little regular flour are very good.

Banana-Caramel Coconut Cream Pie with Dark Rum

Prep Time: 46 minutes
Cool Time: 3 hours
Grade: B

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 2004)

I didn't feel like making this look pretty, so I skipped the whipped cream and coconut on top. It was good, but I don't think it would be my first choice for a cream pie. (That would be the chocolate version.) I love coconut, but I'm not sure if I love coconut cream. I did really like the crust with the bananas and caramel. I actually ended up not eating much of the cream part, because it just wasn't too exciting to me (or worth the calories.)

The prep time would have probably been less, or included a break while waiting for things to cool. I took longer because I burned my first caramel. I've only done caramels two times before (the Turtle Brownies and Caramels) and both times I didn't cook the caramel enough. The problem though, is that this was a small amount, so didn't take much time at all to make.

I tried to use all the correct ingredients since it was my first time with this recipe, but I didn't want to get unsweetened coconut when I had sweetened on hand. Also, my rum wasn't dark.

I should mention I made a half recipe and put it in a 7.5" pie plate. I thought the crust might not be enough so I used a few extra animal crackers. This was a mistake, because the crumbs were a bit too dry and I couldn't make the crust as sturdy as I would have liked. It was also too thick on the sides, so a simple half recipe would have worked fine.

This is a good recipe, but not an "A" for me just because of my taste buds more than anything else.

Oatmeal Snack Cake

Prep Time: 18 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Frosting: 15 minutes (with cooling)

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 2008)

This is a very yummy simple cake (said from someone who doesn't love cake.) It is very moist, and I really liked the frosting. I don't have a perfect 8x8 pan, and choose to use my 9x9 pan instead of the one that is really 7.5x7.5. This was fine, just had to cook a little less. However, the frosting did not cover the cake. I hoped it would, because I can usually get away with a less thick layer, but there was not enough. I quickly made a half recipe of the frosting and that was enough. I'd probably use the smaller pan next time.