Except for a brief few months when temperatures climb and climb and climb, I don’t consider a dinner complete without a loaf of bread, breadsticks, pretzels, rolls, focaccia, or some other form of bread to go with it. Muffins, other quick breads, and coffee cake make frequent breakfast appearances.
I didn’t have too think too hard about adding this slim bread-focused paperback cookbook to my collection. I enjoy making muffins and other quick breads so much. How could I not pick this one up?
Jump to the Raspberry Jam Dandy Muffin recipe using the Table of Contents below or settle in for a bit of cookbook talk.
About Pillsbury’s Bake-Off Breads Cook Book
What a fun vintage bread cookbook. Who couldn’t use more bread in their life? Some recipes include a high altitude adjustment for those of you who live way up there.
Chapters include: Basics, Terms, Measures, Frostings and Glazes, Spreads, New Method of Bread Making ,Yeast Breads, Shaping a Loaf, Dinner and Luncheon Rolls, Shaping Rolls, Batter Breads and Rolls, Coffeetime Breads and Rolls, Quick Breads, and Snacks.
Yes, a few of these recipes begin with a Pillsbury boxed mix of some kind, but the majority are homemade recipes to keep your carb-loving self happy. Smoky Barbecue Buns, Golden Onion Rolls, Scandinavian Rye Bread, and Cinnamon Crunch Coffee Cake appeal to me oh-so much. With 145 pages, you can bet there are more where that came from.
Inside Pillsbury’s Bake-Off Breads Cook Book
If baking homemade bread throws you off, then be sure to check out the beginning chapters. With color images, this book demonstrates the bread making steps and how to shape a loaf. For a book from 1968, they do a terrific job with it too. It’s a smart inclusion.
I do love the rest of the images in this cookbook about bread too. The colors are wonderful and the props are awesome. It isn’t crammed with images, but I’m happy enough with what they’ve done (and I love seeing the table settings).
Menus are some of my faves (as you know, if you’ve been on this site for very long) and here, too, you’ll find a few. Located in hot pink callout boxes, these menus appear on many pages. While only the bread recipe will pertain to this cookbook, it’s kind of neat to get ideas of other items, and to dig up your own recipes for such things. I personally love the “Before-The-Game Tailgate Party” menu on page 62 and the accompanying image on the opposite page.
What’s on the tailgate party menu? Barbecued Frankfurter’s, Potato Chips, Oven Baked Beans, Relishes, Half-Time Spoon Rolls (found on the same page below the callout box), Savory Spoon Buns, Brownies, and a Beverage. I’m not being funny here, it honestly reads as “beverage.” The image features various picnic accessories on the back of a green vehicle. You can see other cars and a building in the background in all their retro glory.
Baking Raspberry Jam Dandy Muffins
This raspberry muffin recipe is particularly fast to fix because you don’t need to mess with butter. Instead, you’ll cut in shortening, pour in the milk and egg, and mix to blend.
I do think you will want to do more than press a teaspoon of jam into the top of the muffin. I kind of think these would work best if you fill the greased muffin cups with batter, add in the jam, top with the rest of the batter, and then use a knife to swirl it in there (while avoiding the sides of the tin).
Even with the teaspoon in the top and kind of swooping the batter over it, they turned out quite nice. These are “company’s coming” muffins, yet simple enough for a before school kind of breakfast. My sons enjoyed these muffins—but we all enjoyed them even more with a simple powdered sugar glaze. I threw a little confectioner’s sugar in a bowl, added a little vanilla, a little milk, and drizzled it over the tops. That extra blip of sweetness added so much. With or without the glaze, this muffin recipe is a definite keeper.
Raspberry Jam Dandy Muffin Recipe
Raspberry Jam Dandy Muffins
Equipment
- 1 Pastry Blender
Ingredients
For the Raspberry Jam Dandy Muffins:
- 1 2/3 Cups Flour
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg or Cinnamon
- 1/3 Cup Shortening
- 1 Large Egg
- Jam: Raspberry, Apricot, Your Choice
- Chopped Nuts Optional
- Turbinado Sugar
Vanilla Icing:
- 1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 1-2 Tablespoons Milk
- 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract Optional (it's not crucial, but it's nice)
Instructions
For the Muffins:
- 400* oven.
- Grease 12-cup muffin tin with Baker's Joy or Pam for Baking with Flour and set aside.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and the nutmeg (or cinnamon) in a bowl.
- Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender until you see small pieces of shortening, not large lumps.
- Mix in the milk and the egg, but only until combined. DO NOT keep mixing the heck out of it.
- Spoon an even amount into each muffin tin, add in 1 teaspoon of raspberry jam, then top with the rest of the muffin batter. Use a knife to swirl it a little.
- Sprinkle with chopped nuts or do like I did, and top it with turbinado sugar. Or, you can use the icing recipe below and THEN top the iced muffins with the sugar to make it extra lovely.
- Bake 400* for 18-25 minutes or until the top springs back when touched lightly in the center.
- Serve warm.
- When completely cooled, store in a covered container. Since they are best warm, only frost the muffins you need, for easier (and less messy) reheating.
Vanilla Icing:
- Combine the confectioner's sugar with the milk and the vanilla.
- Drizzle over slightly cooled muffins (as in, do not take the muffins out of the oven, and immediately glaze them. Give them a few minutes to cool down so the glaze won't melt on them).
Get Pillsbury’s Bake-Off Breads Cook Book
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