Muffin Thursday: peach muffs

Fresh Jersey peaches plus oats and brown sugar.  But not a whole lot of brown sugar.  Which makes this muffin not so bad for you.  Portable breakfast.  Like oatmeal you can hold in your hand.  I actually threw these together the other night after dinner while my friend's birthday cake was in the oven.  My peaches were about a day away from being too ripe so I recycled them into a muffin.

Peach Oat Muffins
Adapted from Alida's Kitchen

Ingredients:
(dry)

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup rolled oats

(wet)

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 peaches cut up and mashed

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray (or line with paper liners).  In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In a large bowl, combine all wet ingredients.  Fold wet into dry. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Muffin Thursday: Lemon Thyme Date Muffins

These are really excellent muffins. The recipe was for a loaf cake but I didn't feel like waiting that long for them to bake so I made muffins instead. Plus they're easier to share this way. :-)

This recipe comes from The Dinner Vine. I changed the whole eggs to yolks and the original recipe called for blackberries but I used dates instead.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
3 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp chopped, FRESH thyme
2 cups chopped dates
1/4 cup 2% milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup extra virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prepare muffin pan with papers.
In small bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, soda, salt, set aside.
In another bowl combine eggs, lemon zest, and sugar, beating well.
Add vanilla.
Beat in milk.
Add oil, gradually, mixing until incorporated.
Add dry ingredients, only stirring lightly.
Now gently stir in dates and thyme until combined.
Bake in muffin pan for about 20 min or until they bounce back to the touch.

Muffin Thursday: Sweet Potato Zucchini Muffins

This is a great recipe. I love a muffin with a lot of stuff in it. And anything that fills the house with cinnamon smell is a keeper.

The original recipe is from Bake-A-Holic. I made a few changes. I made it half whole wheat flour and half white, I quartered the sugar, subbed out some of the oil, and made the whole eggs into yolks because I eat the whites and save the yolks for baking.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup ap flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy milk or regular milk or OJ- whatever your preference
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 small zucchini- grated
1 small sweet potato- peeled and grated
1/2 cup nuts (I used pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup raisins or craisins (I used some of both)

Method:

Preheat oven to 450.
Combine first paragraph of dry ingredients in a small bowl, set aside.
Combine 2nd paragraph of wet ingredients in another bowl, set aside.
Add dry to wet and combine, don't over-mix.
Add grated veggies, seeds, and dried fruit, mix until just combined.
Divide batter into prepared muffin tin and throw them in the oven for 5 minutes at 450. Then bring the temp down to 400 and bake for about 18 or so minutes more until they are mostly done in the middle.
The zucchini is so wet they might be a little under in the middle, it's ok, they'll set up as they cool.

Muffin Thursday: Olive Oil Blueberry Muffins

This recipe comes to us from Giada De Laurentiis via Food Librarian.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oats

1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons 2% milk
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400.
Mix dry ingredients (1st paragraph) in small bowl.
Mix wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) in another bowl.
Mix dry into wet just until combined.
Fold in blueberries.
Put batter into muffin cups and bake about 25 minutes or until they bounce back to the touch and knife comes out clean.

Muffin Thursday: Strawberry Rhubarb Whole Wheat Corn Muffins

I picked up a huge bag of rhubarb this week at Produce Junction!! What to do with it? Obviously strawberries have to be involved, and I think it was Marie who suggested the corn muffin part. We have been trying to think of ways to use up the huge bag of masa corn flour that has been sitting on the shelf forever.

I used this recipe for the muffins but added about 1 1/2 cups of strawberries and 1 1/2 cups of chopped rhubarb. I made a few other changes to include the masa flour and balanced it out with whole wheat. I changed the butter to oil and instead of using all milk I threw in some buttermilk that I found in the fridge and a little skim too. I cut back on the sugar and used a giant muffin tin to bake them. I also doubled the ingredients from the original recipe because I wanted to use as much rhubarb up as I could and I still have some left sitting in the fridge.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup masa corn flour
2 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup canola oil
scant 1/4 cup sugar
2 egg
1 1/4 cup butter milk
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 pint strawberries, chopped
4 stalks or so rhubarb, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS
Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Stir the sugar into the oil.
Add the eggs and milks.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir, just to combine.
Pour in strawberries and rhubarb and stir just until dispersed.
Divide into 6 greased giant muffin cups.
Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are crusty and the muffins bounce back to the touch.
Let the muffins cool for a while in the pan- the masa flour makes them very brittle, if they look like they're going to stick heat the bottom of the pan and use a knife to loosen around the edges. They taste great even when the tops fall off!

Muffin Thursday: Whole Wheat Rhubarb Muffins

It's that time again. Time to be late for Muffin Thursday and time for rhubarb. Marie loves rhubarb, and apparently Lauren does too because she yelled at me for not bringing her one.

I adapted a recipe from Smitten Kitchen that has a streusel topping. I wasn't feeling very streusely so I left that part off. I also changed out the butter for apple sauce and olive oil. This recipe didn't have a lot of sugar in it to begin with so I didn't have to back off on it. I made these in my giant muffin tins so they are almost like little cakes. The tartness of the rhubarb and the earthiness of the whole wheat is really nice. They are just subtly sweet. I really like that Smitten Kitchen didn't over-do the sugar here.

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup diced rhubarb, in 1/2-inch pieces (I used 2 huge stalks)

Method:

Preheat oven to 400

Whisk egg in the bottom of a large bowl with both sugars. Whisk in apple sauce and oil, then sour cream. In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking powder and baking soda and stir them into the sour cream mixture, mixing until just combined and still a bit lumpy. Fold in rhubarb.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until muffins bounce back to the touch and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean. Rest muffins in pan on cooling rack for two minutes, then remove muffins from tin to cool them completely.

Muffin Thursday: Pear Almond Chocolate Spice Muffins

Christmas has come early!! Muffin Thursday has arrived a whole day early this week. Instead of studying for a huge test that I have tomorrow- I can't look at my notes anymore I'm going insane- I decided to make cookies and these delish muffins. From Pastry Affair, these muffins have the perfect balance of spice and cocoa powder.

Unfortunately I was halfway done the recipe when I realized my mom didn't have any cardamom, so I changed the recipe to ginger and nutmeg. And I threw in some allspice and extra cinnamon. I'll try to remember all of the changes I made. I also halved the sugar. Remember- muffin not cupcake. I think this same basic recipe would be really good with cranberries and walnuts or chocolate chips and hazelnuts instead of the pear and nuts. The basic batter recipe is really easy and lends itself to a lot of different flavor possibilities. It's easy to take cake recipes and make them into muffins by backing off on the sugar and changing the bake temp from 350 to 400 and the bake time from an hour to around 25 mins.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2-3 pears, diced (I used Red Pears)
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put muffin papers in a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder until cocoa is dissolved.

In another small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil together. Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract. Alternatively add the flour and cocoa mixtures, mixing gently between additions. Don't mix too much. Using a spatula, fold in the diced pears and chopped almonds.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

And now back to pretending to study.

Muffin Thursday: Mandarin Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

So muffin Thursday is being blogged on Friday morning this week. This recipe from Brooklyn Gallery is supposed to make an orange quick bread but I adapted it to be a muffin recipe by changing the cook temp from 350 to 400. Mikey said this was one of the best muffins I've ever made- almost as good as the Jewish Honey Cake he loved so much. And Mole and my Aunt Nan visiting from NYC liked them too!!

Makes about 10 muffins...

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter (melted in microwave)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup hot water
zest of one orange
zest of one lemon
1 1/2 can mandarin oranges
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a large bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix the butter, sugar, egg, OJ, water, and zests.
Pur the dry bowl into the wet and mix until almost combined.
Add the mandarin oranges and chocolate chips and finish stirring, just until combined. You don't want to over-mix a muffin or it will deactivate the baking soda and powder and you'll have a flat dense muffin. Grosssssssss!
Portion your muffins into a regular-sized muffin pan and add a few extra chocolate chips or some sprinkled sugar to the top.

Bake for about 15-20 mins until they are golden and bounce back to the touch. Watch out these cooked quicker than I thought!!

Adapted from James Beard’s American Cookery

Muffin Saturday: Honey Orange Cornmeal Muffins

This recipe is adapted from Eat Good 4 Life's Cornmeal Cake Recipe. So I guess muffin Thursday turned out to be muffin Saturday (right before I had to go into work). I made the chocolate chunk cookies first and had an hour of time to kill so I busted these out. I usually like to put whole corn kernels in my corn muffins but I didn't have any cans lying around today. In the summer I like to use leftover fresh corn from the farm-stand.

I didn't have any honey so I used maple syrup instead, also I didn't have orange extract so I just left it out. My batter was reallllllly wet so I actually ended up putting in around 3/4 C of oats to soak up some of the liquid. I also added about 2 Tsp of crushed dried rosemary just for fun. And I changed the baking temp from 375 to 400 because muffins like it hot.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil (canola or vegetable oil will also work)
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/8 cup sugar, plus 2-3 tablespoons to sprinkle the top of the cake
1/2 cup orange juice, plus 2-3 tablespoons
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
Zest 1 orange
2 teaspoons orange extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, honey, eggs, sugar, extract and orange juice. In another bowl mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and orange zest and then combine with the wet ingredients. Then add the oats if you need to, the rosemary, or if you want- some corn, nuts, or craisins.

Pour batter into prepared muffin pan and sprinkle the top with remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. I used a giant muffin pan to make larger muffins. They will cook around 20 mins, maybe 25. Mine came out a little dry because I wasn't paying attention!! I hate a dry muffin. I guess that's why god made butter and jam. These would be awesome toasted with some raspberry jam.

Postponing Muffin Thursday

My dear cousin Michael is putting a backsplash in the kitchen today so Muffin Thursday is going to be more like Muffin Saturday or Sunday...

Muffin Thursday: Chai Spice

Starting something new today: Muffin Thursdays. Every week a new muffin recipe. This week we're doing Chai Muffins. I got the idea from a combination of a chamomile cupcake recipe and chai shortbread cookies. I still want to try the chamomile in a muffin at some point. So I changed some of the proportions and added a few things to make these muffins more hearty and rustic.

(Makes 6 muffins)

Ingredients:

1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C AP Flour
1/3 C Bran Flakes
1/2 C Oats
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Allspice
2 Bags Chai Tea- put tea leaves right into dry ingredients bowl

1/2 C Sugar
2 Tbsp Molasses
1/2 C Milk
1 Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C Apple sauce or more if mix looks dry once wet and dry combined

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all dry ingredients (first paragraph of ingredients list) and set and set aside.
Combine all wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) and set aside
Pour dry into wet bowl and mix just until flour is absorbed. If mix is dry add a little milk or applesauce, if too wet throw in some more oats and mix just until combined.
Drop batter into muffin tins and fill just to the top or a little over,
Bake for 10-12 mins and then check them, they should bounce back to the touch and a knife should come out clean when stuck in the middle.

Enjoy!!