What's Baking This Weekend??

What are you doing this weekend? Are you interested in making some easy yummy breakfast treats? I made the following sweets for my Aunt and Uncle's recent visit to Happy Valley! I am a huge fan of making things using regular ingredients that I always have in my cabinet. 

During my recent vacation to Avalon, I enjoyed lemon curd at PK McCools. I decided to make my own lemon curd to go with my favorite lemon scones. Remember those scones? I made them for Easter morning. You can find the recipe on Familyfun.com - click here. This is the picture from Easter...this time I did not add the icing because I was making the lemon curd.

I was surprised at just how easy making lemon curd can be! Plus it is SO delicious. It's thick and creamy and sweet and a little tangy. I love the sweet lemon flavor. It's such a great way to start the day! You can also make lime or orange curd too! 

I used Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network. Click Here for the recipe breakdown. Just a side note...I think the next time I make this recipe, I'll omit the lemon zest. I did not care for the texture it added in the spread. I think the lemon juice is sufficient in flavoring the curd. I also do not enjoy pulp in my OJ - so if you're like me, you might want to omit it too.

The ingredients are simple... lemons, eggs, butter and sugar.

First, mix the egg yolks and sugar together (I saved the whites for an omelet).

I whipped it until smooth...like this.

I zested the lemons and juiced them. (this is my juicer from Pampered Chef - the only PC tool I've ever used on a regular basis)

I just put the zest right in the bowl of the juicer. It worked fine for me!

I poured the juice and zest into the egg and sugar bowl and put it on the saucepan, double broiler style.

The recipe said to stir for 8 minutes. So I did, but I think I had too much liquid from my lemons. I decided to stick to the recipe. My next step was adding the butter, one pat at a time...letting it completely melt before adding the next.

Then I poured the lemon curd into jars.

The recipe yielded two...one for me and one for my family.

But wait! Remember that I said mine turned out too thin? The next morning I opened the jar and the spread was not thick enough. No worries. I got out my bowl and saucepan and set up the double broiler again. I just cooked it down for a few more minutes and it became the right consistency. I knew because it made a nice coating on my spatula. After sitting in the fridge and cooling it became the creamy, thick consistency.

We are still enjoying our jar. We used it on the scones and now we are using it on English muffins. Our muffins never tasted so bright and sunny!

Because the lemon curd recipe involved a lot of stovetop time, I did it after my little girl went to bed...but I also like projects that my little helper can do with me. She LOVES to be my assistant in the kitchen.

We had 3 overly ripe bananas and instead of pitching them, we decided they were just perfect for a banana muffin recipe. We made a Banana Muffin with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Streusel Topping. They were delicious...especially since I wanted to make something without nuts. These were a great hit with my aunt and uncle.

I found the recipe on allrecipe.com. Click Here to view it!

Here are the basic steps.

First...find an adorable assistant still in her rainbow jammies.

Next, mix your dry ingredients in a bowl.

Then peel your bananas. Mash them up a little and mix with your wet ingredients. 

Add the wet to the dry and give it a good stir. Don't worry about the lumps...it's ok.

Mix the butter, cinnamon and sugar and add the streusel topping to the muffins.

Pop into the oven and Poof! A delicious breakfast treat the whole family will enjoy.

Ok. If you have a Topher in your house. There could be one more step. Grill em!

Toph popped his on the grill to warm it up the day after. He thought it was awesome!

Check out those grill marks!

If you try one of these recipes this weekend...but sure to let me know what you think! They really are so easy that a 2-year-old can do it!

Have a sweet weekend!

Anne