WENDY'S BRAN MUFFINS

The worst aspect of this recipe may be that it is scaled to make only eight muffins. However, the recipe can be doubled easily, and I recommend that you do double it if you are baking for more than one. Another option is to use the recipe as-is to make about 26 bite-sized muffins; those take about 10 minutes to bake.

I make a single batch for just myself. Typically, I eat three muffins the first day and finish the batch over the next couple of days. I eat the muffins warm or at room temperature. I eat them without butter or jam. However, I have eaten them with a slice of Cheddar cheese.

This is a good recipe for kids to try and, if they like the results, to add to their personal cookbook of recipes kept in a binder.

Wendy’s  Bran  Muffins

Makes 8

1 cup wheat bran

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup chopped walnuts, if desired

1 egg

3/4 cup buttermilk at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together bran, all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. 

2. If desired, add walnuts and then stir.

3. In a small bowl, beat egg.

4. Add buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract to beaten egg; beat well.

5. Make well in dry ingredients and pour combined wet ingredients into well.

6. Stir gently only enough to moisten dry ingredients.

7. Divide batter evenly among eight greased or paper-lined regular-sized muffin tins.

8. Bake in 375°F. oven for 12 to 14 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

NOTE: To go fancy, add a half walnut to the top of each uncooked muffin.

Unbaked mini-muffins

Baked full-sized "fancy" muffin

Baked mini-muffins

Apple Nut Muffins

Arrived home recently with about an hour to prepare treats for a meeting. With no time to run to the store, I thought perhaps I could make muffins with the banana ripening on top of the microwave. However, one banana wasn't enough for the recipes in my periphery.

Fortunately, my eye noticed a recipe for apple muffins next to Joy of Cooking's recipe for banana nut muffins, and my brain remembered the somewhat shriveled apples that had escaped last week's fridge clean-out. Perfect!

The muffins are flavored less by the apples than by the cinnamon. However, the apples provide fiber and allow less fat to be used in the recipe than is found in many muffins.

APPLE NUT MUFFINS

(Modified from Joy of Cooking)

2 large eggs

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ cups packed coarsely grated peeled apples (about 2 medium), with any juice

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole-wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Scant ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or vegetable oil

1. Whisk eggs and sugar together in a large bowl.

2. Stir in grated apples and let stand for 10 minutes.

3. In medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

4. Stir nuts into dry ingredients.

5. Once the apples have stood for 10 minutes, stir in the melted butter.

6. Add the flour mixture and fold just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

7. Grease or line either a pan for 12 regular-size muffins or 3 pans that each make 12 tiny muffins.

8. Bake in 400°F oven for 14 to 16 minutes for the larger muffins or 7 to 8 minutes for the tiny muffins.

9. Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes before removing from the pan. If not serving hot, let cool on a rack. Serve as soon as possible, preferably the day they are baked.

NOTE: Apples with shriveled skins work just fine in this recipe.

Taste & Create: Breakfast Muffins, AKA Bruffins

My partner for December-January's Taste & Create was Kat of Study Food. For those of you who don't know, Taste & Create is a monthly blog event, created by my lovely friend Nicole of For the Love of Food. Each month, participants are randomly paired and tasked with creating a dish from their partner's blog.

Kat has only been blogging for a few months, but has a great start! I was tempted by Kat's Orange, Coconut, Evaporated Milk Cake, but really considered making her Cocoa Fudge Cake. I kept coming back to "Bruffin" recipe, breakfast muffins featuring bananas, blueberries and peaches. I finally left it up to my 7-year-old boy to decide between the muffins or the fudge cake, and he chose muffins, so that is what I made.

Of course when it came time to make the muffins, I didn't have everything I needed. I usually don't improvise much during Taste & Create, but I forged ahead, improvising away. I used Kat's recipe as well as the original recipe as a guide. If my muffins come out as edible as Kat's look, I will be surprised. I didn't have wheat bran, so I used a mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour. Yes, I am well aware that all-purpose flour is absolutely nothing like wheat bran.

I didn't want the cinnamon and nutmeg to overwhelm the fruit, so I cut each down to 1 teaspoon. For fruit, I intended to use the canned peaches, but ran across frozen strawberries while hunting blueberries, and there you go. Bananas, blueberries, strawberries. I also added pecans to the batter, and topped them with raw sugar and slivered (and sliced) almonds. I like muffins to have crunchy AND sparkly tops.

And, discovering that we were running low on milk, I substituted plain yogurt and increased it to 3/4 cup. (Kat used 1/2 cup milk + 1/4 cup peach juice; the original recipe used 3/4 cup milk)

When I mixed the muffins in the morning, I completely forgot the melted butter. I had plenty of muffin batter leftover for a second pan, so I stirred in 1 tablespoon of butter after the first pan was in the oven. We'll see which one turns out better!

The first pan (no butter), turned out pretty good, although hard to get out of the paper muffin cups. They were tasty, but seemed to be missing something...je ne sais pas. (Butter?) My oldest boy liked them, and ate two muffins before school, so whatever it was, he must not have missed it.

The second pan (with butter), was also pretty good. I didn't really notice a difference between the ones with butter and the ones without, other than they both seemed to be missing something. I'm guessing they could have used just a bit more salt, maybe 1/2 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon total. I'll try that next time. Other than that, I don't know. And I'm not sure why they won't come out of the paper cups either...

All in all, they were good muffins, and fairly good for you with the whole wheat, yogurt and fruit. If you'd like to try them, you now have THREE different recipes from which to choose!

Oh, and be sure to tell me what YOU would do differently! =)



Bruffins: Breakfast Muffins
Adapted from Study Food

DRY:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped pecans

FRUIT:
1 cup blueberries
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup strawberries, chopped

WET:
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted (I forgot this)
2 teaspoons vanilla

TOPPING:
sliced or slivered almonds
raw sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin, or use baking cups.

Stir dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mash bananas, then mix in other fruit. Add wet ingredients and mix well.

Gently fold wet ingredients into dry mixture, stirring just until combined. Careful not to over mix.

Drop muffin batter into muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Sprinkle each muffin with raw sugar and top with almonds.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I love to bake quick breads, and this summer, my uncle had an overabundance of zucchini, so I started looking for recipes for zucchini bread. I wish I had my grandmother's recipe -- hers was so good. This one isn't exactly like grandma's, but it is darn good. I've modified a Paula Deen recipe (trying to make it semi-healthy). The recipe below is the one I made with various substitutions to try to lower the fat content and to adjust for personal taste (like omitting the pecans -- I hate biting into chunks of nuts in otherwise soft foods). The recipe indicates 15 minutes of prep time, but that can't possible include the grating time for the zucchini. It felt like we spent hours grating zucchini. I used a rotary grater (like the kind often used to grate parmesan cheese directly onto your dish at an Italian restaurant), but about halfway through, my hand was giving out and we switched to the mini food processor to chop it up, and that worked just fine too. I did not peel the zucchini, but if you have an aversion to peels, or seeing little green flecks in your food, you can peel it first.

This recipe yields 2 9x5 inch loaves, or 5 mini loaves.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup honey (or you can omit the honey and increase the granulated sugar to 2 cups)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce (or you can omit the applesauce and increase the vegetable oil to 1 cup)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups grated zucchini (original recipe called for 2 cups)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used the mini sized chips and since I didn't add nuts, I used the whole package)
1 Tablespoon orange zest
1 cup chopped pecans (optional -- I did not use them)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease (2) 9x5-inch loaf pans or (5) mini loaf pans (usually 5x3-inch).

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon & nutmeg

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar and honey and continue beating until well blended. Stir in oil, applesauce, vanilla, zucchini, pecans (if using), chocolate chips and orange zest. Make sure everything is well mixed. Stir in sifted dry ingredients until just combined. (Don't overmix -- just mix until all the dry ingredients are moistened and no large lumps remain, some small lumps are okay). Pour into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 50 minutes (mine took closer to a full hour) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in pans on cooling racks for about 5 minutes, then remove from pans and finish cooling. (I used glass pans for the large loaves and removed them from the pans to finish cooling. I used the disposable aluminum mini loaf pans and did not remove those from the pans for cooling).

The loaves freeze well -- I had one mini loaf that was in the freezer for 6 months and was still delicious when thawed. This recipe would also make delicious muffins.

I hope you enjoy!
Adrienne

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

I love muffins, I love buttermilk in baked goods, and I love blueberries. What a great combination. This is another tried and true recipe from the back of a bag of Western Family Flour. If you had a mind to do it, every ingredient could be Western Family Brand. Or not. You decide.

I made these muffins this morning, topping them with chopped pecans and raw sugar. Then I went up to CG's to fix a computer problem, and returned to find only 5 muffins left! The boys ate most of the 10 mini muffins and two additional regular sized muffins, and Number One and CG ate the other 5 regular muffins between them. (to be accurate, I'm pretty sure Number One ate 4 of them). They are tasty little treats, I'm glad I thought to sprinkle the pecans on top.


Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
Min's additions: raw sugar and chopped pecans for sprinkling generously on top

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin or line with paper cups. *I've found with my non-stick muffin tin, I have to always use paper cups or the muffins will burn. I also reduced the temperature to 350 halfway through because my mini muffins (leftover batter) were burning on the edges yet gooey in the middle). I ended up baking the mini muffins for 10 minutes total; the regular muffins were in for 15 minutes total.

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a small bowl combine eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil and vanilla. Add egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until moistened. Do not over mix. Fold in the blueberries. Divide batter between the muffin cups. Sprinkle liberally with sugar and pecans.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Serve warm.

Mimi's Carrot Raisin Bread

I've done it again. I bought a 10-pound bag of carrots at Costco. We are having our March Bunkhouse Brunch this weekend, and we'll be making Corned Beef and Cabbage, so I needed some carrots for that. H-Bomb has really been into eating carrots too, like Bugs Bunny. Honestly, I was trying to justify the purchase. I simply couldn't pass it up, it was about the same price as half that size in the grocery store. And yet, I still needed to find something to do with the rest of them!

I've had this recipe on my list for quite a while now, and tonight I finally got it going. I decided to make four mini loaves.

This is a recipe from Mimi's Cafe', one of our favorite places for breakfast. Sadly, the nearest Mimi's is four hours away, so we rarely get there. But when we do, sometimes we get some of this bread. Our "local" Mimi's serves this as muffins. (Our absolute favorite breakfast, Pain Perdu, does not include Carrot Raisin Bread or Muffins, but you should rush down to the nearest Mimi's and order up some Pain Perdu anyway). Mimi's gave away these little recipe cards several Thanksgivings ago, and I have held onto it. Now I am sharing it with you!

You can make a 9" square pan of this, or about four mini-loaves (perfect for hostess gifts or Christmas!) I'm not sure how many muffins it would yield. I bet it freezes well too...I will try it and let you know!

This bread is delicious, perfect with coffee or anytime you need a snack!


Carrot Raisin Bread
Yield: one 9" square, or four 3"x6" mini-loaves

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup canned crushed pineapple, with juice, drained
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup finely shredded carrots

1. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a mixing bowl. (or just dump them in and mix, I don't care)

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar and eggs.

3. Stir the liquid mixture into the flour; mix well.

4. Add the walnuts, pineapple, raisins and carrots; stir again.

5. Grease and flour a 9" square pan or four mini-loaf pans. Fill the pans 2/3 full with batter.

6. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 40 minutes. (Mini-loaves take about 30 minutes).

Christmas Morning Muffins: Take 2

Let's try this again, shall we?

So. You may remember the delicious muffin disaster from earlier. On further review, it seems my metric conversions are lacking. But, I don't give up easily, especially when there are tasty muffins involved, and then I had an epiphany: I wondered if Nigella has a muffin recipe in her How to Be a Domestic Goddess cookbook that I could just tweak to match the orangey-cranberry and walnut muffins, but without the pathetic flat tops, of course.

I opened the cookbook, and lo and behold, there they were: Christmas Morning Muffins! In all their Americanized glory, with cups and teaspoons and whatnot, just for me! And now for you, of course. I used all my cranberries yesterday, so today I threw in some golden raisins. They are still delicious, but I prefer them with cranberries, which really give the best tangy flavor here. I still added walnuts, gotta have 'em.

These muffins are much more worthy of the Sweet & Simple Bakes event, and you can find them over there in all their poofy, muffiny glory!

Nigella introduces these muffins thusly: "I do think that part of creating a family life is establishing those shared rituals, as important as getting out the same old familiar box of decorations for the tree each year. Now, it's true that children are too excited about their presents to take a lively interest in breakfast on Christmas Day, but consider making these all the same: there's something so warmly reassuring in knowing that soon this cinnamon-sweet smell of baking and oranges will come to signify Christmas morning to them."

These muffins are really fantastic. Try them! (and if you happen to prefer grams and milileters as units of measure, go here instead) If you'd like to be amused, compare the measurements you'll find there to the measurements below...and wonder how it is I was ever admitted into, let alone actually passed "Advanced Math" in high school.


Christmas Morning Muffins
Makes 12

for the muffins:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
zest and juice of 1 clementine or small orange
approximately 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

12-cup muffin pan with paper baking cups

for the topping:
raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Grate the zest of the orange over the flour mixture and combine.

Squeeze the orange juice into a measuring cup, and pour in the milk until it comes up to the 2/3 cup mark. Add the melted butter and egg, and beat to combine. Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till the ingredients are more or less combined, remembering that a lumpy batter makes light muffins. Last of all, lightly fold in the cranberries and walnuts and fill the muffin cups.

Sprinkle raw sugar over the tops of the muffins. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.


Here is another hint about why I like Nigella. Her description for baking and eating these:

"Stick them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, by which time the air should be thick with the promise of good things and the good things themselves golden brown and ready to be eaten--as they are, or broken open and spread heapingly, mouthful by mouthful, with unsalted butter and marmalade."

Sweet & Simple Bakes: Christmas Morning Muffins

This month, I decided to expand my food event participation, and ran across the Sweet & Simple Bakes Christmas Bake. This event is sweet and simple: bloggers vote on a baked recipe of the month, and Rosie and Maria of Sweet & Simple Bakes round up the participants. For December, it was an adaptation of Nigella Lawson's Christmas Morning Muffins from her Nigella Christmas cookbook. (what? A cookbook I don't own??)

You can see Rosie and Maria's adapted recipe here. My interpretation is below.

I had planned to make these much earlier, but it just didn't happen. For us, these are New Year's Morning Muffins! I felt like these yummy muffins were begging for some walnuts, so I added a generous handful along with the cranberries. I love that you use orange juice to make a sort of buttermilk to add to these muffins, they smell heavenly.

***IMPORTANT NOTICE: I didn't realize my metric conversion skills were so lacking. Or something. (aren't teaspoons the same everywhere??) Although these muffins smell and taste wonderful, they look...pathetic. Yes, the sugar is sparkling and crunchy on top. But the tops, well, they are flat. They just didn't rise and get all muffiny looking. They just sort of spread out. I had to bake these for 15 minutes longer than the recipe called for, and still, this is what I got. (at least they didn't burn!) I had to loosen the tops with a knife, which I never have patience for, so they are just hideous:


Delicious, but pathetic. The muffins are wonderfully orange-scented, the walnuts are a lovely addition, and even the interior texture is nice. It's just those darn tops. (Not that it prevented me from delivering one to each ranch neighbor as a New Year's treat). Eat them with your eyes closed, please. I will work on this recipe and come back with one that is better, I promise!

Here's to a New Year with No Flat Muffins!

Christmas Morning Muffins
~ adapted from Nigella Christmas via Sweet & Simple Bakes
***Please don't follow these these measurements, the conversion is embarrassing! Go HERE to make these delicious muffins!***

Makes 12

1 cup + 2 tablespoons (250g or 9 oz) all-purpose flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (100g or 4 oz) sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
zest and juice of one orange (or zest and juice of 2 Clementines or 2 Satsumas)
Approx 1/2 cup (125ml or 4 fl oz) whole milk
just under 1/3 cup (75g or 3 oz) vegetable oil (or melted butter, left to cool slightly)
1 egg
2/3 cup (175g or 6 oz) dried cranberries
about 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

For The Topping
3 teaspoons raw sugar (I didn't measure here, I just sprinkled generously!)


Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/fan oven 180°C/Gas mark 6. Line a 12-muffin tin with paper baking cups.

Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl; grate the zest of the orange over the flour mixture and combine.
Squeeze the orange juice into a measuring cup, and pour in the milk until it comes up to the 3/4 cup (200ml or 7 fl oz) mark.

Add the oil (or slightly cooled, melted butter) and egg, and lightly beat until just combined.

Pour this liquid mixture into the bowl of dried ingredients and stir until everything is just combined, remembering that a well-beaten mixture makes for heavy muffins; a lumpy batter is a good thing here. (my batter wasn't lumpy, it was rather smooth and slightly runny...hmmm)

Fold in the cranberries and walnuts, then spoon the batter into the muffin cases and sprinkle the raw sugar on top.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The muffins are ready to eat, either plain or with butter and marmalade.

Blackberry Yogurt Muffins

Pioneer Woman recently had a dairy recipe contest, and unfortunately NONE of my Fabulous Submissions (Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas, Yoghurt Coffee Cake, Min's Creamy Saffron Vegetable Soup) were selected as finalists. I feel like this is a Serious Oversight, but I suppose with over 2,000 recipes it would be difficult to narrow down the field, but you know what? She is missing out. Especially on the coffee cake (my new favorite!) and the enchiladas. I hope at least one of my recipes made it into the top 75. We'll see. You try them and let me know what YOU think.

So anyway, I'd been craving blueberry muffins, and Pioneer Woman posted a contest finalist blueberry muffin recipe, but I kept forgetting to buy blueberries. Wifey said she had some frozen blackberries I could use, so I made her a deal: trade frozen blackberries for warm muffins. I think we're both winning here.

I used the Pioneer Woman recipe as a starting point, but I've made several changes, so here is my version.

Blackberry Yogurt Muffins

Adapted from a recipe from Ellen F., via pioneer woman.

3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 generous, heaping cup plain yogurt
2 cups blackberries
1 teaspoon vanilla
Softened butter, for muffin pan
Raw sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter muffin pan.

In a large bowl stir together flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Be careful not to over-mix.

Add blackberries, reserving 1/2 cup, to mixture and gently fold in.

Add mixture to well-buttered muffin pans. Top each muffin with 2 or so berries. Sprinkle raw sugar over top.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes and allow to cool completely.

It's quite possible I need a new muffin tin, either that or I was too anxious to try these luscious muffins. Hard to get out of the pan! I let them cool briefly, and still had to go around each muffin with a knife and gently pry each one out. After cooling completely, it was somewhat easier, but you still need to gently loosen and pry them out with a knife.

They are delicious! Bake some today!

Aussie Bites

**Updated with lower fat version below!**

This recipe came about when I was hooked on Costco's Aussie Bites--mini muffins with coconut, dried fruit and sunflower seeds in them. Although I had a huge container of them, I RAN OUT. (yes, I pretty much ate all of them myself) Since the nearest Costco is a four hour drive, I couldn't justify it, no matter how much I really wanted more.

I searched and searched on the Internet for a recipe, found one that sounded close, and made it. It wasn't even close. They were dry and crumbly, and the larger ingredients were just too large for a mini muffin. I made some changes, baked another batch, and they turned out better. I made more changes, baked another batch, and they were great--Number One says they are better than the Costco ones, but I'd have to get another container to do taste test...yes, that's exactly the reason! This batch I sent to preschool with H-Bomb for snack. And this is the recipe I'm sharing with you. I am baking a batch of these for us to take on our trip to Michigan next week. A yummy road trip snack--or breakfast if we're desperate!

Aussie Bites

Makes about 50 mini muffins.

Ingredients:
2 cups Regular or Toasted Oats
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 cup Brown sugar
1 3½oz can of coconut (unsweetened) OR 1-1/4 cup flaked
½ cup sunflower kernels
1 cup finely chopped dried fruit (apricots, raisins, dates, figs, cranberries, etc)—I use a mixture of apricots, raisins and cranberries
¼ cup honey
2 sticks unsalted butter**
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons hot water
3 eggs, beaten

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix first six ingredients in a bowl.

3. Melt honey and butter together in microwave.

4. Mix baking soda with hot water and add to butter mixture.

5. Pour butter mixture into dry ingredients, add eggs and mix well.

6. Place tablespoons of mixture into non-stick mini-muffin pans (lightly greased) and flatten mixture slightly. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden. Cool on wire racks.

**For a lower fat version, reduce butter to one stick. Mix in 1/2 cup applesauce with eggs. You will have to grease your muffin pan, and bake the muffins a couple more minutes, but the muffins will be healthier and still delicious!

Fresh Peach and Oat Muffins

I've been on a muffin kick lately. Two of my absolute favorite recipes are Allen's Orange Marmie Muffins with Cardamom Pine Nut Streusel, and these: Fresh Peach and Oat Muffins.

This recipe comes from a cute little cookbook called Muffins and Other Morning Bakes, currently available in paperback at a great price!

The cool thing about these muffins, although the recipe calls for fresh peaches, I generally use canned peaches (or pears!) with fantastic results. Delicious, and fairly easy to put together.  I'm happy for any excuse to make a batch of muffins. You can whip these up while you're waiting for your coffee to brew. Yum.

Fresh Peach and Oat Muffins
Fresh peaches make these muffins extra special. Serve warm with fruit salad compote and plenty of plain yogurt.

Makes 12 muffins

1 1/3 cup rolled oats
1 1/3 cups buttermilk (I never have this, I just add vinegar OR lemon juice to milk)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
12 oz. almost ripe peaches, rinsed, pitted and flesh cut into large chunks (I use 1 15-ounce can of peaches or pears, drained and roughly chopped)
**Top with raw sugar before baking**

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Put the rolled oats and the buttermilk in a large bowl and let soak for 10 minutes. Add the lightly beaten egg, melted butter or vegetable oil, and sugar and mix well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices onto the soaked oat mixture and stir briefly. Quickly fold in the chopped peaches. Do not beat or over mix; the batter should look slightly streaky. Spoon the mixture into well-greased muffin pan, filling each cup about two-thirds full.

Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan for 1 minute, then turn out onto a wire rack. Eat warm, immediately or within 24 hours When thoroughly cooled, the muffins can be wrapped then frozen for up to 1 month.

Strawberry Almond Muffins

H-Bomb has the distinction of being "the leader" on the final day of preschool, so he gets to bring the final snack! I asked him what he wanted; he said "how about muffins?!" I asked what kind; he requested strawberry. I rifled through my extensive recipe collection, and here we are. I got this off the Internet years ago, from some random strawberry recipe website that I didn't write down.

They sounded good, and somewhat healthy, so we tried them. Every single time it was H-Bomb's turn to be the leader and bring snack, we brought something relatively healthy. Snack time is around 10:am, and I just felt like it was too early for a bunch of sugar. I was in the minority! Every day he wasn't the leader, I would ask him what he had for snack, and he was say something along the lines of "cookies with frosting!" or "chocolate and marshmallows!" or "sugar covered sugar!" until I had just about had it. Poor Miss Julie!

Whenever it was H-Bomb's turn, he brought some flavor of homemade muffins, homemade granola and bananas, fruits and veggies in rainbow hues, that kind of thing. ONE time he did bring cupcakes, but they formed a rabbit-shaped cake for Magic Week. (I tried to follow the themes too, but it was difficult) Anyway, I am looking forward to a preschool "snack"-free summer!

I guess I'm out of almond extract, so I used hazelnut extract. I'm a little bummed--the recipe made more than 12 muffins, so I put the rest into my mini muffin pan. I didn't have any more mini muffin liners, and although I cooked them for half the time, they burned. :-( The big ones are good though! I also meant to sprinkle the muffin tops with raw sugar, but I forgot! Next time for sure...

Here's the recipe.


Strawberry Almond Muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups strawberries, chopped
3/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend until fluffy. Mix in the milk and the almond extract. In a separate bowl, sift the flours, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture and blend until just combined. Fold in the strawberries and almonds. Fill the muffin cups to the top and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.

Orange Marmie Muffins with Cardamom Pine Nut Streusel

H-Bomb is the leader at preschool tomorrow, and when I asked him what he wanted to take for snack, he suggested muffins with pine nuts. Off on an internet search I was, and this is what I found on a blog called Eating Out Loud. The guy is from Michigan, so he can't be half bad, and this recipe sounds too delicious not to try! (he took better pictures than I did, but I was in a hurry. Go check his out) The recipe also fits in well with the preschool's "Foreign Friends" theme this week, as cardamom is a spice from India. Perfect.

These muffins sound so good that I am making a double batch from the start. Preschool kids can't have them all! **The muffins are excellent. The flavors are subtle and unexpected, yet all work well together. I will definitely be making these again. You should try them.

Update-Batch #2=I used a heaping 1/2 tsp. of cardamom, and then, just a bit too late, I had an excellent idea: chopped whole cardamom pods along with chopped pine nuts! Batch #3, here we come!

Orange marmie muffins
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cardamom pine nut streusel
1/2 cup pine nuts, half of them chopped finely
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
2 tablespoons butter, softened

When making muffins, I don't follow a lot of procedure. Muffin batter is pretty forgiving and I'm not one to fuss around. Add the dry muffin ingredients to a mixing bowl, add wet ingredients, and stir to combine. Simple! Pour into a greased muffin tin, filling each muffin cup 2/3 full.

For the streusel, use a fork (or your fingers) to mush the ingredients together. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon over the top of each muffin.

Bake the muffins in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins test done. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the muffin pan. Makes 12 muffins.