Poundcake Muffins

These muffins are delicious as is.  Served with sliced strawberries and whipped cream (or ice cream) they would be even better!

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease nine 3 x 1¼ inch muffins cups (or use paper liners).

In a small bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until well combined. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until well blended. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Beat in dry ingredients just until combined.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups; bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.

Remove muffins tin to wire rack. Cool 5 minutes before removing muffins from cups; finish cooling on rack.  Serve warm or store completely cooled muffins in an airtight container at room temperature. Note: These muffins freeze well.

Banana Sour Cream Muffins

These super moist muffins freeze well. The recipe can also be baked as a loaf.

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

½ cup canola oil

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1½ cups over-ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 large bananas)

1 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two regular-size muffin tins with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil and sugars together until combined. Stir in the vanilla, bananas, and sour cream. Add in the eggs, one by one, stirring after each addition.

Stir the dry ingredients into the banana mixture until combined. Fill each paper cup ¾ full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out clean.

Let cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before serving. If you want to freeze them, cool completely and place in a Zip-loc freezer bag.

Note: If baking as a loaf of banana bread, allow about 50-60 minutes.

Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

The cookies were supposed to have a slight flavor from the ice cream (I used Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia). My family and I didn't detect any of the cherry flavor, but boy, were they good!

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

⅓ cup sugar

½ cup light brown sugar, packed

½ cup full-fat ice cream (use your favorite flavor)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Note: This dough requires chilling.

Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl. While still hot, add both sugars and mix on low until combined. Add ice cream and mix until smooth.

Add egg and vanilla, mix for just a few seconds, then add baking soda and salt. Mix until smooth, then mix in flour slowly. Mix dough just until it comes together, then stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop 2 tbsp balls of dough onto a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheets covered with parchment paper. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until they start to get golden around the edges. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheets before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 1 month.