Oatmeal Flax Blueberry Muffins

My mom has a new diet after her bout with diverticulitis.  She is supposed to eat lots of flax to avoid having another episode. She has been good about sprinkling some over her cereal in the morning, but when she requested blueberry muffins, I went looking for a recipe that has flax in it.  Voila: Pinch of Yum to the rescue.

These guys are pretty interesting because the first step is to soak oatmeal in buttermilk for 15-20 minutes.  That softens them and makes them nearly invisible in the muffins later on.  You can taste that they're there, but they kind of dissolve. Then of course there are fun things like brown sugar, vanilla, and blueberries, and don't forget a heaping tablespoon of ground flax.

These muffins called for a crumb topping and glaze, but knowing that my mom hates both, I left them off.  They were entirely wonderful without them, but I will keep the recipe intact in case you want to give them a try.  They are sweet enough without it, though.  Plus you can do the whole thing in 1 bowl!

One thing I really wish I had noticed before I started: this makes 6 muffins.  So double it if you're looking to make 12, which obviously I was, but oh well!

Recipe:

oatmeal flax blueberry muffins
from Pinch of Yum
makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1 heaping tablespoon ground flaxmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup blueberries
for topping and glaze:
1 tablespoon cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon milk

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees  If you're not using paper liners, grease a muffin tin with butter and dust with flour.

2) Combine oats and buttermilk in a large mixing bowl.  Let oats soak 15-20 minutes.  Add the melted butter, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Stir by hand until just combined.

3) Add flour, flaxmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir again until just moistened.

4) Scoop a spoonful of batter into each muffin tin to prevent berries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins while baking.  Gently fold blueberries into remaining batter and divide evenly between muffin tins.  Place a few blueberries at the very top center of each muffin.

5)  For the crumb topping, press butter, flour and brown sugar together withy our fingers until fine crumbs form.  Sprinkle one spoonful of crumbs over each muffin before baking.

6) Bake muffins for 13 - 15 minutes, or until golden brown.  While the muffins are cooling, stir the powdered sugar and milk together to make a glaze.  Drizzle a little glaze over each muffin before serving.

Basic Banana Muffins

I've been a bit MIA due to family emergencies, the craziness of the end of the school year, and just life in general.  My mother is feeling a bit better after a nasty bout with diverticulitis, but until yesterday, she was on a special low fiber diet to give her stomach a chance to recover.  Low fiber is pretty boring and cut out lots of her favorite things, like my maple pecan banana muffins, which she was craving after terrible hospital banana muffins.  Since pecans were off the menu for her for 10 days, I decided to find a new banana muffin recipe that wouldn't feel like it was missing something if the nuts were cut out.  I have made lots of banana recipes before, but they all seemed to have something extra, whether it be pecans or even bourbon.  I wanted these muffins to be calming to her stomach but still tasty, and I came across this recipe.  Nothing wild or fancy, but they promised to be moist and nutritious, so I gave them a try and brought them over to Mom in the morning before work.  They were simple and easy to make; truly no frills baking!

They were just what we expected: sweet, soft, moist muffins bursting with banana flavor, without anything crazy.  They are, as the recipe suggests, basic banana muffins.  If you're not baking for someone on a low fiver diet, feel free to toss in pecans or walnuts or chocolate chips, but for my mother, they were just what they needed to be!  She thought in the humidity they got a little wet as the days went on, but we discovered that they were delicious toasted and buttered... in fact, that is how I preferred them! How have I never toasted and buttered a muffin before? What else have I been missing out on in this life?

Recipe:

basic banana muffins
from Taste of Home
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium ripe bananas
1 large egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a muffin tin or line with paper cups.

2) In a  large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In another bowl, mash the bananas.  Add egg, oil and vanilla; mix well.  Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fill muffin cups half full.

2) Bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutella Banana Oat Muffins

I signed up to tutor kids in math again this spring.  I have done it for three years now, and every year, I hate it.  I wish it was after school; it is tough to get everything you need for tutoring ready while you're supposed to be preparing to teach your class!  Plus I did the math once, and I was getting like 43 cents per kid per hour.  I end up getting paid absolutely terribly (I think it came out to about $150 last year after 12 hours of tutoring, which is pathetic).  And yet I did it again!  I don't know how to say no, I guess, and I do love math.  This year I am 30% done with it already (only 6 more Thursdays and 1 more Tuesday and I'm done!).  It doesn't feel so terrible this time around, and maybe it's because Brooke signed up to do it too.  We try to make it bearable for ourselves by taking turns bringing coffees or snacks (and spending the last 15 minutes bringing our groups together to play math games!).

These Nutella banana oat muffins were my gift for week 2, and they helped wake us up.  I had inherited my mom's brown bananas and needed to do something with them, and I also found a container of Nutella in my pantry that I bought last year and never did anything with.  When I found this recipe on Pinterest, it was perfect!  The muffins themselves are a delicious banana oat flavor, and then you swirl in some Nutella on the top.  It's not too much, just enough to give each muffin a hazelnutty-chocolatey kiss.  The texture is great with the addition of the oats, and the flavor is great.  They almost made it worth getting up in the dark to make 47 cents x 6 kids ($2.82... barely enough for a coffee these days!)

Recipe:

Nutella banana oat muffins
from Chef in Training
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 bananas, mashed
about 1/4 cup Nutella

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a muffin pan with muffin cups or spray generously with cooking spray.

2) In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir until ingredients are well combined.

3) In a lare bowl, beat egg. Add milk, oil, vanilla and mashed bananas.  Stir to mix ingredients until well combined.

4) Add flour mixture to banana mixture and stir until ingredients are well incorporated.  Do not over-stir.

5) Divide batter evenly among the 12 muffin tins.  Add a teaspoon of Nutella to the top of each muffin and gently cut into batter with a knife or toothpick to create swirls.

6) Bake at 375 degrees for 17 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake Muffins

During the Patriots game two weeks ago, Mom and Jesse talked me into baking blueberry muffins.  I have no idea how the idea came up but I agreed, using some of the blueberries Mom had frozen from blueberry picking during the summer.  Then the Pats won, yayyyyy.  Fast forward one week to last weekend's game.  I was at home, happily watching Bring It On on ABC Family (wasn't everyone?) when I got a frantic text from my mother asking me to make muffins again, because the Patriots were losing and she was feeling superstitious.  So, I did.  Alas, even blueberry muffins couldn't pull out the win for them this time.  Sorry, Patriots fans.

Anyway, after Jesse devoured probably a dozen of these muffins over the two batches, he was clearly impressed with my muffin prowess (maybe you remember Muffin Monday?  It was sort of my thing).  He challenged me to make his favorite, coffee cake muffins.  Enter cinnamon crumb coffee cake muffins.  I was actually a bit surprised that I have never made coffee cake muffins, because I went through a pretty intense Drake's Coffee Cake phase in high school.  A quick search on Pinterest led me to these muffins.

Once I had started the recipe, I kind of wished I had tried a different one.  There were typos in it (like it called for pieces of butter, rather than tablespoons, and called for cinnamon in the topping but never specified when to put it in and instead asked for it in the batter) and I was nervous.  Luckily they turned out okay (better than okay... Jesse ate them all, and in not that many sittings).  But, I am not sold that this will be my go to coffee cake muffin recipe.  The crumb topping was good - and luckily it makes up literally about 1/3 of the muffin; in fact, the topping has more flour than all 12 muffins combined - but I thought the muffins themselves weren't as light and fluffy as a good coffee cake should be.  Do you have a favorite coffee cake muffin recipe, and if so, why haven't I tried it yet?

Recipe:

cinnamon crumb coffee cake muffins
from Sugar Apron
yield 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 tablespoons yogurt
for crumb topping:
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly spray muffin pan with baking spray or use muffin liners.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together butter, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla.

3) In another mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir it all together with a wooden spoon, just until combined.  Batter should be lumpy.

4) Scoop the batter into the muffin tin.  It should fill each cup about 3/4 full.

5) To make crumb topping, whisk together granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt and flour.  Add melted butter and stir until it all comes together.  Fluff with a fork to make a mixture that resembles coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle the topping on top of the batter of each muffin.  It may seem like a lot, but use it all!

6) Bake the muffins for 20 minutes or until the toothpick inserted into each muffin comes out clean.  Let muffins cool in the pan 10 minutes, then transfer onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Chocolate Banana Crinkle Muffins

Chocolate crinkle cookies are among my favorites.  They're delicious and so pretty with their wrinkly tops, chocolate cookies with powdered sugar coats!  I was obviously pumped to see a chocolate crinkle muffin, with added banana, no less.  They have those same crinkly tops as the cookies, but with granulated sugar rather than powdered.

Kenzie had me make these for her to give to a coworker for her birthday, which I did.  Unfortunately this means I can't tell you how they are.  But they smelled great, and looked great, so I think we can all assume how they came out.

Recipe:

chocolate banana crinkle muffins

from Averie Cooks

yield about 14 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

heaping 1/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch salt

1 large egg

1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil

1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (from about 3 medium/large bananas)

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (regular size may be substituted)

about 1 teaspoon granulated sugar for each muffin for sprinkling

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin pans, or grease and flour, or use muffin cup liners.

2) To a large bowl, add the first 6 ingredients, through salt, and whisk to combine.  Set aside.

3) To a medium bowl, add the egg, oil, sour cream, and vanilla, and whisk to combine.

4) Stir in the bananas.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir until just combined.  Batter is quite thick and prime to having dry bits hiding at the bottom of the bowl.  Make sure everything is incorporated without unnecessarily over-mixing or muffins will be tough.

5) Stir in the chocolate chips until just combined.

6) Turm batter out into prepared pans.  Each muffin cavity should be filled to about 3/4 full.  Sprinkle the top of each muffin generously with sugar, about 1 teaspoon each.  It looks like a lot but some is absorbed and some gets lost to the pan.  

7) Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until muffins are set, does, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a crack comes out clean.  Don't overbake.  Allow muffins to cool in pan about 10 to 15 minutes, or until they have firmed up and are cool enough to handle.  Muffins will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.  These muffins actually taste better after 2 days.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Welcome to my most popular Muffin Monday recipe: chocolate chip muffins.  But please don't make the mistake of thinking that these are just any chocolate chip muffins.  They are the best ones you could imagine.  First, can we talk about these muffin tops?  They are the tallest, puffiest, most perfect muffin tops on the entire planet.  And that's even without coarse sugar on top because I didn't have any.  They are just so pretty.

By the way, the secret to amazing muffin tops like these is to bake them at a really high temperature for the first 5 minutes, and then to lower it for the rest of the baking time.  It makes them rise up like crazy.  And a whopping 4 teaspoons of baking powder doesn't hurt either!

But these muffins are more than just a pretty muffin top!  They are the perfect consistency: soft and fluffy, and flavored with cinnamon and a little nutmeg.  You know me: I could live without the chocolate chips; in fact, I cut out 1/2 cup from the recipe so feel free to add them back in if you're a chocoholic (I think I may have to try these again ASAP with blueberries... yeah, Mom, you read that correctly), but everyone else went wild over them.  These muffins were the most popular of the Muffin Monday series.  No need to take my word for it: you could totally be eating these within an hour.

Recipe:

chocolate chip muffins
from Sally's Baking Addiction
makes 16 muffins

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk (milk will work too, but buttermilk is best for texture!)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners.  Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, gently toss together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Mix until all dry ingredients are combined.  Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined.  Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla.  Mixture will be pale and yellow.  Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand with a wooden spoon.  Avoid over mixing.  Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain.  The batter will be very thick and somewhat lumpy.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

4) Divide batter among prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top.  Top with a sprinkle of coarse sugar if preferred.  Bake at 425 for 5 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and continue to bake for 13 - 14 minutes until the tops are lightly golden and centers appear set.

5) Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before enjoying.  Muffins taste best fresh the same day.  Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.  Muffins freeze well, up to 3 months.

Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donut Muffins

Get ready for one of the most popular Muffin Monday recipes I've made!  They're little, sweet, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and more addictive than you can imagine.  In fact, these innocent little muffins led to an argument in the transition classroom.

I'll explain - maybe you've noticed that most of my Muffin Monday recipes have been healthy.  They have been; I knew that most of the staff in the class had been dieting and participating in our school's Biggest Loser competition.  But hey, that's over, and it was time to give them a real treat.  I didn't announce this change, I just sent the muffins in, which led to Nick fighting with everyone else over the healthiness of the little muffins!  He insisted I only bake healthy muffins, while the rest of the staff figured it out right away :)  I appreciate Nick's belief in my healthy recipes, but even a healthy baker can stray sometimes.

No, these aren't diet muffins.  But you know what?  Sometimes you don't need a diet muffin.  Sometimes you need a soft little donut muffin, lightly flavored with cloves, that is dunked in melted butter and rolled in cinnamon and sugar.  In fact, you need them more than sometimes.  You need them all the time.  They melt in your mouth and everyone knows that that means you don't absorb any calories from them.

Recipe:

cinnamon sugar mini donut muffins
from Crunchy Creamy Sweet 
yield about 18 mini muffins

Ingredients:
for the muffins:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
for the sugar coating:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease the cavities and top of a mini muffin tin.  Set aside.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.  Set aside.

3) In a large mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter and sugar.  Add spices and vanilla and whisk well.  Add milk and whisk again.

4) Add dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.

5) Pour batter into muffin cups.  Bake 15 - 17 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of each muffin come out clean.

6)  Prepare the coating: melt butter in a small bowl.  In another small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. When muffins are completely cool, dunk each one in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar.  Return onto wire
rack and let cool for a few minutes.

Cheddar Rosemary Corn Muffins

Happy Muffin Monday!

I love this Monday, because it's election day in Rutland so we have the day off!

And I love these muffins too.  It was time to try something a little different - something a bit savory, perhaps.  Something with cheddar cheese and rosemary and corn kernels.  Ohhh yes.

These cheddar rosemary corn muffins were a big hit.  People appreciated the savory change in Muffin Monday, and everyone agreed that they were delicious: soft, moist, flavorful, a little bit sweet... everything you'd want in a good corn muffin.  Add in cheese and rosemary, and what more could you ask for?  Plus when you bake them, your house smells amazing.

Thanks to Missy for the picture, since I forgot to snap one until the Muffin Monday crew were actually eating them!

Recipe:

cheddar rosemary corn muffins
from Two Peas and Their Pod
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup coarse ground yellow cornmeal
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Fill a regular-sized muffin pan with paper muffin cups or spray with cooking spray.  Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and fresh rosemary.  Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, and eggs until well blended.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until combined.  Fold in the corn and cheddar cheese.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

4 ) Bake for 15 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  Transfer the pan to a  rack and cool for 5 minutes.  Remove muffins from pan and serve.

Quick and Homey Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

Muffin Monday time!

Thank God today is NOT Monday, by the way.  I am so tired.  This is going to be the most needed April vacation ever (5 work days to go!).  Last night, Mark and I had grand plans to watch Dateline after we went out to dinner, but I was asleep before it started at 9:00, and I have a feeling he was too. We went to bed at 1:00 and I was up at 9:00 this morning - so, yeah that's about 12 hours of sleep.  And I would be lying if I didn't admit to contemplating a nap after I make some lunch.  This year is draining me!

Now, back to the muffins.  When you're drained and exhausted, you need something to get you through the day, something tasty and delicious and healthy.  And, as the name of the recipe suggests, something quick and homey!  Oatmeal raisin cookies are delicious, so why not turn them into muffins?

I think these muffins are fabulous.  They have oats and only a quarter cup of oil, so they're not terrible for you, and they're soft and moist and sweet.  Definitely a good way to start another exhausting work day.  Oh, and they are so quick to throw together that you'd be able to do it even on a Monday night when you're feeling tired :)

One note: the recipe called for olive oil to be used.  I just can't allow myself to put a quarter cup of olive oil into a muffin, so I used vegetable oil, but if you're not as psychotic about your oils as I am, then go for it!  I just feel like olive oil is expensive enough that if I don't believe it's going to add much of its flavor to something, it's not needed.

Recipe:

quick and homey oatmeal raisin muffins
from The Kitchn
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup oil
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
cinnamon topping:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon oil

Instructions:

1) Heat the oven to 425 degrees.  Grease a muffin pan or line the wells with paper muffin cups.

2) Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.  Stir in the oats and raisins.

3) In a large measuring cup, whisk the oil with the egg and milk.  Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients just until combined.  Fill the prepared muffin cups 2/3 full with the batter.

4) Mix all the ingredients for the cinnamon topping together in a small bowl until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over the muffin batter.

5) Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan on a rack until they are cool enough to be handled.  Remove from the pan and eat while warm, or let cool completely and then store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Mini Muffins with Chia Seeds

Happy Muffin Monday!

That may be all there is to be happy about today.  It's the last day we are going to see the sun for a while, and it's about to get cold again, and there are still 2 weeks till vacation.  And honestly, how is it only Monday?  Multiple people today at work said it felt like Friday.  I think this is why we get April vacation.  Spring is rough.

Anyway, if you need to be cheered up on a Monday, Muffin Monday may be something you need to try out.  This week's Muffin Monday installment is the chocolate mini muffin with chia seeds.  They're kind of hard not to like: they're chocolate, first of all (chocolate based and with chocolate chips). Second of all, they are kind of healthy.  Whole wheat flour gets mixed with all-purpose so they're better for you but not too tense.  Also, they have chia seeds.

Now, before you scoff at them for having chia seeds, I am fairly certain you'd hardly notice them if I didn't tell you they were in there.  They just pack a nutrient-filled punch with protein and essential fatty acids and omega 3s.  I may or may not have made the fact that the muffins had chia seeds in them public knowledge.  Shhhhh.  What you don't know won't hurt you.  In fact, it will help in this case!

Recipe:

chocolate mini muffins with chia seeds
from Classy Clutter
makes 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon black chia seeds
1 large egg
1 6-ounce container low-fat vanilla yogurt (I used Greek)
1/2 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup canola oil

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a mini muffin with cooking spray (or use a 12-cup muffin tin and line with paper liners or spray with cooking spray).

2) Combine flours, sugar, chocolate chips, cocoa, baking soda, and chia seeds in a large mixing bowl. In another small bowl, combine egg, yogurt, milk, and oil with a whisk.  Pour into the flour mixture.  Stir to combine.

3) Scoop into muffin tins.  Bake for about 15 minutes, or until muffin springs back when touched on top.

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Lately I have been buying bananas constantly in the hopes that they will turn black and overripe and I can bake with them.  But Mark has been eating bananas likes nobody's business.  And I have been using them in smoothies.  In fact, I went to toss one into the blender this morning, and they were gone.  We have been bitten by the banana bug, I assume, because there was a while there about a month or so ago when everything I baked was banana-based because I constantly had a basket of black bananas.  I guess you'd better be happy about this recipe, because you won't be seeing any banana baked good any time soon!

Anyway, these were another installment in Muffin Monday, and I believe they may have been the most popular.  They're mini muffins, first of all: perfect for a staff meeting when you can grab one, or two, or seven and it's totally acceptable.  Second of all, they are delicious.  Peanut butter and banana is a gift to humanity (any other Video Plus customers remember the monkey business smoothie?).  And third, believe it or not, they are healthy.  They're made with whole wheat flour, and there is only 1/4 cup brown sugar in the whole recipe.  The peanut butter and bananas give the muffins all the sweetness they need.

Oh, there is supposed to be chocolate in there as well. Mini chocolate chips, to be exact.  Now, I know full well that mini chocolate chips are exactly the same thing as the big ones, only small.  But I didn't have any mini chips, and I refused to use the big ones, so I left them out of my batch.  When you are dealing with mini muffins, you need mini chocolate chips, and that's that.  It's the rule.  My rule, at least. And I don't think anyone missed the chocolate!

Recipe:

peanut butter banana chocolate chip mini muffins
from Kitchen Treaty
yield 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-natural peanut butter
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium bananas or 3 small)
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease the cups of a 24-count mini muffin tin with butter or nonstick cooking spray.

2) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3) Add the butter to a medium microwave-safe bowl and cook in the microwave on 50% power for 20 - 30 seconds at a time until just melted.  Add the peanut butter and stir to combine.  Add the bananas.  Mash the bananas into the peanut butter and melted butter until combined.  Stir in the milk, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla.

4) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.  Mix in the chocolate chips.

5) Divide the mixture between muffin tins - about 1 1/2 tablespoons batter each.  Bake until the tops of the muffins spring back lightly when pressed, 8 - 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool in tins 5 minutes.  Then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

6) Store at room temperature in an airtight container for 3 - 4 days.  These muffins freeze well too!

Honey-Sweetened Spiced Banana Muffins

These pretty little gems were another installment of Muffin Monday.  I make muffins every Monday for Mark to bring to his staff meeting Tuesday mornings, since they're having a tough year in there.  I also knew most of them were finishing up their final weeks in the school's Biggest Loser Competition, so I have been looking for healthy muffin recipes.  This one piqued my interest for a few reasons.

First, it's from Kitchen Treaty, my vegetarian blogger extraordinaire who has the One Meal Two Ways category.  Second, it's made with both whole wheat and all-purpose flour, so you get the benefits from the whole wheat without them being dry and dense.  Third, there's no sugar in the recipe.  These muffins are sweetened only by a third cup of honey - and the natural sugars from the bananas.  Lastly, they're spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, so the bananas have some fun things to spice them up with.

I ended up topping some of them with walnuts because I know lots of the transition staff members are nutty (I mean that in every way possible).  I got lots of thank yous and appreciative texts, so I think they went over well at the meeting.  Healthy, lightly sweet, and tasty: what more are you looking for in a banana muffin?

Recipe:

honey-sweetened spiced banana muffins
from Kitchen Treaty
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium very ripe bananas
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 12 standard cup muffin tins or line with liners.

2)  In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.

3) In a medium bowl, mash the bananas.  Stir in the butter, honey, and egg.  Mix well.  Add the milk and vanilla and mix until blended.

4) Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with a wooden spoon or spatula, mix until just incorporated.

5) Divide batter between muffin cups, about 1/3 cup batter each.  Bake until the tops spring when you touch them and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 12 minutes.

6) Muffins keep in an airtight container or zipper bag at room temperature for 3 - 4 days.  They also freeze well!

Blueberry Muffins

The quest continues.  You've heard about it before, and you'll hear about it again.  These muffins were good, but they weren't The Ones either.

They were soft, fluffy and full of blueberries, just sweet enough to count as muffins but delicious enough to feel like a dessert.  I made them at my mom's one day to thank my family for being insanely amazing and wonderful.  I think muffins are a good trade for support, love and daily doggy daycare!

One word of warning: they turned into rocks by the next morning.  These are best eaten the day you bake them.  Otherwise they may or may not be given to mice as treats.  True story.

Recipe:

blueberry muffins
from Sally's Baking Addiction
makes 15-16 standard muffins or 30 mini muffins

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs, room temperature preferred
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk or milk
1/2 canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 fresh or frozen blueberries
coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners.  Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, gently toss together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Mix until all dry ingredients are combined -  a 20 second toss to disperse everything together.  Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined.  mix in milk, oil, and vanilla.  Mixture will be pale and yellow.  Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand.  Avoid over mixing.  Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain.  The batter will be very thick and somewhat lumpy.  Fold in the blueberries.

4) Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top.  Top with a sprinkle of course sugar if preferred.  Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce oven temperature to 375 and continue to bake for 13 - 14 minutes until tops are lightly golden and centers appear set.  For mini muffins, bake at 375 the whole time for 11 - 12 minutes.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan.

Maple Pecan Banana Muffins

Get excited about these muffins.  My mom is, anyway.

These muffins are chock full of amazing things.  Bananas, pecans, and maple syrup, first of all.  They are slightly sweet but not too sweet - they are totally acceptable for breakfast or dessert.  The subtle hint of maple syrup adds some complexity to your everyday banana bread flavor, and the pecans on top give them a great texture.

Second of all, they are actually low fat.    Yes, I mean that.  As in, 142 calories, 4 Weight Watchers Points+, and 5 grams of fat.  How on earth is that humanly possible, you're probably wondering?  Secret ingredients like white whole wheat flour, egg whites, and applesauce.

So, how good are these?  I have made three batches of them so far, most of which my mother has devoured.  She has become obsessed with them and asks me to make them all the time.  I currently have quite a few black bananas, so they might be in her near future.  And they should probably be in yours too.

Recipe:

maple pecan banana muffins
from Skinny Taste
makes 12 servings

Ingredients:
3 medium very ripe bananas
1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup maple sugar (or brown sugar)
2 large egg whites
1/4 cup pre maple syrup
2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup crushed pecans

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a cupcake tin with liners.

2) Mash bananas in a bowl, and set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt with a wire whisk.  Set aside.

3) In a large bowl, cream butter and 1/4 cup maple sugar with an electric mixer.  Add egg whites, mashed bananas, maple syrup, apple sauce, and vanilla.  Beat at medium speed until mixed well, scraping down sides of the bowl.

4) Add flour mixture, then blend at a low speed until just combined.  Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin.  Spread the pecans evenly over the muffins.

5) Bake the muffins on the center rack for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Mini Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Muffins

Even as I complain about the fall, I do have to admit that I like cooking and baking with fall ingredients.  Every fall, I roast several sugar pumpkins and try to find interesting ways to use up the homemade pumpkin puree.  The last time I did, I happened to have my family over for dinner and asked them what I should make with my pumpkin.  Kenzie requested pumpkin muffins, and soon we found these: mini cinnamon sugar pumpkin muffins.  They're tiny little muffins made with pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice (AKA cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg).  They come out of the oven all fluffy and orange and cute.

But then... the cinnamon sugar part happens.  You melt a half stick of butter and dunk the muffins into it.  Once they're buttered, they get tossed into a cinnamon sugar mixture.  So now they're more like the cinnamon sugar pumpkin muffins (or donuts) that you could get at a bakery or farm.  Sweet, soft, crunchy on the outside, and totally acceptable for dessert or breakfast.  So say I.

And yet, sadly, my mini muffins never got their dunk in butter and cinnamon sugar.  I had fully planned on it, but as soon as they came out of the oven, my family started grabbing them.  The muffins found themselves in bowls of ice cream (pumpkin ice cream from the farmer's market!) rather than bowls of butter.  By the time the pumpkin muffin grabbing spree was over, there were so few left that I didn't feel like going through all the trouble of melting and mixing and dunking for several muffins.

pumpkin muffins, pumpkin ice cream!

With that said, I am disappointed that I got lazy and didn't do it.  I think the crunchy cinnamon sugar coating would have really brought these muffins to the next level.  Just thinking about my refusal to finish the recipe with something that was really not optional has me grimacing.  If you try these babies out, promise me that you will make up for my mistake, and you will melt and mix and dunk.  And then tell me how great they are.

Recipe:

mini cinnamon sugar pumpkin muffins
from Sally's Baking Addiction
yield 20 - 24 muffins

Ingredients:
for muffins:
1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
for cinnamon sugar coating:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray mini muffin tin with nonstick spray.  Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and nutmeg.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar.  Add the egg and stir for about 1 minute.   Add the vanilla, pumpkin puree, and milk.  Slowly pour wet ingredients into the dry.  Stir together until just combined.  Do not over mix.

3) Using a small spoon, spoon the batter into the muffin tins, about 2/3 way full.  For ease, spray the spoon with nonstick cooking spray.

4) Bake for 11 - 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  While the muffins are cooking, making the coating.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small dish.  In a separate small dish, melt the butter.  Once the muffins are relatively cool, dip into the melted butter and then into the cinnamon sugar.  Muffins are best eaten on the same day, though they can be stored at room temperature for 3 days.

Blueberry Muffins

I continue the quest to find the world's most perfect blueberry muffin.  I have thoroughly enjoyed many of the muffins I've made in the past, but my mom is in constant search for the exact muffins she used to get at DiBurro's in Seabrook every summer.  She says they are "perfect: gummy and not too sweet."  That doesn't sound great to me, but hey, I will do what I can to help her find the muffin of her dreams!

Also, how cute is this muffin tin!? Thanks Paul and Kecee!

This muffin wasn't that muffin.  But - she did say this is the closest I've ever gotten.  I figured the yogurt would help with what Mom calls "the gumminess" - I think she means that they're moist.  There are lots of berries - 2 whole cups - and a dash of nutmeg.  Try these out, and let me know: are these the perfect blueberry muffin?

Recipe:

blueberry muffins
from The Pioneer Woman


Ingredients:
3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
heavy pinch of salt
dash of nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 generous cup plain unflavored yogurt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
turbinado sugar

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 385 degrees.  Butter a muffin tin.

2) In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

3) In another large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla, egg, and yogurt.  Add the dry ingredients and stir to a count of 10.

4) Add blueberries, reserving 1/2 cup, to mixture and stir 3 times.

5) Add mixture to muffin pans. Sprinkle remaining berries on top and press down lightly.  Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top (brown sugar can be used instead).

6) Bake 20 - 25 minutes and allow to cool completely.

Pumpkin Muffins

After the insanity that was my Thanksgiving baking, I found myself tired, but my family hungry; we get so used to having the party here and having lots of leftovers, so it felt weird to have nothing!  Luckily I did happen to have a pretty big container of homemade pumpkin puree left over, and in fact, be prepared for a mountain of pumpkin recipes coming your way.  I had roasted 2 rather large sugar pumpkins, and even after my caramel-spiked pumpkin pie, I had lots of pumpkin to use.  We decided we felt like muffins, so I decided to try some good old fashioned pumpkin muffins from Smitten Kitchen.

I had made pumpkin muffins before: stuffed with cream cheese and pumpkin donut muffins.  But this time around I decided to just go with a simple pumpkin muffin, and thus we have these.

I was intrigued by the recipe, which claimed that these muffins are still "excellent" on the second day.    I have made enough muffins in my day to have a hard time believing that... but I can tell you that it's not a lie!  These pumpkins were really good right out of the oven, but my family continued to eat them for days.  Even my mom ate a few of them, and she claims to hate pumpkin.  So if you need a simple, easy, delicious pumpkin muffin that will taste good the next day, here you go.

Recipe:

pumpkin muffins
from Smitten Kitchen 
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + 1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg + 1/4 teaspoon ginger + pinch of ground cloves and allspice)
1 cup to 1 1/3 cup (more makes it richer) pumpkin puree
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Put liners in 12 standard-sized muffin cups.

2) Stir or whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spice in a small or medium bowl.

3) In a larger bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, and 1 1/4 cups sugar.  Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined.  Divide batter among muffin cups (each about 3/4 full).

4) Stir together last tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon.  Sprinkle over each muffin.

5) Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

6) Cool in pan on rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Perfect Apple Muffins

I am still trying to use up some of the many apples in this house.  I went apple picking with Mark, Kenzie went apple picking with Nick, and then Mark and I also bought a bag at the Westminster Farmer's Market.  We've eaten tons and I've baked with as many of them as I can, but there was still need to use up some more.  So I decided to browse through my Pinterest account for some apple ideas, and I came up with these: perfect apple muffins.  You can't have a better name than that, so I peeled and chopped three apples and off we went.

Are these the perfect apple muffins?  Yes, most likely they are.  And they are the best right out of the oven.  Everyone here really liked them.  The problem was, this was the same day that I made the cake I will be blogging about next.  And my family was 100% obsessed with the cake, so the muffins kind of got forgotten (out of 2 dozen, we ended up tossing 5... that's not too bad for my family, but to be fair, Tuck and Linda took home 6 because Linny really loved them!) .  But on that day, warm with a cup of coffee or tea, they really were good: moist, apple-y, not too sweet (one and a half cups of sugar are plenty).  The cinnamon and brown sugar in it really complement the apples.  They were, in short, a lovely fall apple treat!

Recipe:

perfect apple muffins
from Grey House Green Door
makes 18-24 muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (about 3 apples)
brown sugar for topping (around 1/2 cup)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray or line with cupcake liners.

2) Cream together sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla.

3) Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.

4) Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until combined.  The batter will be very thick.  Add the diced apples.

5) Fill the paper liners almost to the top, about 3/4 of the way full.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.

6) Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Blueberry Muffins

Yes, blueberry muffins.  Yes, again. Over the last year and a half, I've made more blueberry muffins than a bakery, and each time I try out a different recipe.  Now, plenty of the recipes I've tried have been absolutely delicious if you ask me, but I'll tell you something: my mom is a blueberry muffin fiend.  Not only does she love every one, but she is on the constant search for the perfect recipe.  She compares every muffin to the ones she used to get at DiBurro's in Seabrook, NH (unfortunately DiBurro's is no longer so I can't go beg them for their recipe).  They used to make, as she says, "moist, gummy, not-buttery-tasting, not overly-sweet, no sugar on top, beautiful-looking blueberry muffins."  I know - if you ask me, that doesn't sound so great either.  But she is totally obsessed with these muffins from the past; she recalls fondly how Dad used to drive up there every morning they were at the beach and pick up a bag of muffins for her.  So she constantly pins a million different blueberry muffin recipes and makes me try them out any time we have berries in the fridge - and there are a lot of recipes we have yet to try.  And thus, here we go again with blueberry muffins, take 7.

One thing that was different about the preparation of this recipe was the fact that you beat the sugar with the eggs.  I'm used to beating sugar with butter (my favorite smell), but never the eggs.  It makes a thick yellow paste, and then you add the rest of the wet ingredients to that.  I'm dorky enough that this was very interesting to me.  Other than that, they are fairly normal when it comes to the baking: folding in the dry ingredients, sprinkling the berries with flour so they don't all sink to the bottom, etcetera.

The end result was a delicious little muffin that Mom loved, but still not the elusive DiBurro's muffin of her dreams.  I think they were pretty similar to the other recipes I've made.  I will say this, though: these muffins are best eaten the day you bake them.  Luckily we ate most of them the night I baked them, but I brought one to work the next day and it was a weird mixture of stale and gummy.  Weirdly, my family still liked them but the texture was too weird for me.  Now maybe it was because it was during that weird heat wave of 90-degree temperatures in September, but nevertheless, I'd recommend scarfing them down quickly!

Recipe:

blueberry muffins
from Chris Little
makes 16 muffins

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 pint blueberries, rinsed and picked over
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease 16 cups in 2 muffin pans.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until they are combined and thickened.  Add the milk and butter and beat well to just mix.  Stir in vanilla.

2) Set aside 2 tablespoons of the flour to mix with blueberries.  Then add the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt to the batter and beat well to just mix.

3) Sprinkle the blueberries with the flour and add them to the batter; if using nuts, add them here, folding them in with a rubber spatula.

4) Divide the batter among the 16 muffin cups and sprinkle the tops with sugar.  Transfer the pans to the oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until they are puffed and golden.  Leave them in the pans to cool slightly, then turn them out onto a rack to continue cooling.

To Daddy

When your dad is sick, small artifacts from life "Before" become incredibly important.  Coffee mugs that are way too small to fit even a Keurig coffee do not get thrown away, because they say DIGITAL on them, and Dad got them at work.  Ratty old tee shirts from his old road races or business trips become our favorite pajamas.  And anything, anything, with his handwriting on it, is crazy precious!  We don't get to see Dad's chicken scratch anymore, so short notes, grocery lists, tax calcuations, and recipes become treasured artifacts.  Tonight it was time to take a closer look at the latter. 

Dad had hand-written a recipe for blueberry muffins, and I remember them being the best muffins ever.  A few years ago, when we stumbled upon the page, Anne had it framed.  It's a mess: wrinkled, creased, stained (like all of Dad's favorite recipes!  He was a messy chef.)  It says "add vanilla" but never says how much (I did a teaspoon).  It says to add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, but never says to mix the dry ingredients together first (thank god I ama  baking pro these days!  A newbie would have struggled here!) And yet, this sheet of paper means way more than a flashy new cookbook.  I love cooking things that Dad used to cook for us.  It makes me feel like I really am his daughter :)

It would be easier for you if I posted the recipe with my amendments, and typed it all up nice, but I am not going to.  It will mean more if you make these using Dad's words :)  Love you Daddy!

Recipe:
Dad's blueberry muffins