Orange Chip Muffins

I was flipping through one of my little books full of clipped-out recipes for a dinner recipe a while back, and I flipped past this little gem. I came back to it, realized I had all of the ingredients except the coconut, and I left it out to make the next day.

Simply put, I heart these muffins.

The orange flavor really comes through, and the coconut adds a crunchy sweetness. I'm pretty sure you'd still have a tasty treat if you omit the coconut, but for our family, it was a hit. Most of the time when I make muffins or cupcakes, there's waaaayyyy too much batter and I end up making more than the two dozen the recipe in question is *supposed* to yield. But these were spot on. We froze a dozen and have been munching on them occasionally - and I will definitely be making these again!

Ingredients:
3 cups of four
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 can (11 ounces) mandarin oranges, drained and coarsely chopped
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Topping:
1 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of butter, melted

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375. Place 24 paper or foil liners into 2 muffin pans.

2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl, beat together sugar, orange juice, oil and eggs. On low beat in the flour mixture until combined. Fold in the oranges and chocolate chips. Beat on medium for 1 minute. Spoon batter equally into the lined muffin pans, about scant 1/4 cup into each.

4. Topping: In a small bowl, stir together coconut, sugar and melted butter. Sprinkle evenly over each muffin.

5. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool slightly on wire rack before removing from pan.

Source: An old magazine recipe clipping

Pumpkin Muffins

I was rooting through my cupboards a few weeks ago and found some cans of pumpkin leftover from last year. I decided it was close enough to fall and I wanted to bake something, so I searched a few sites for new recipes.

I found this one for pumpkin muffins, and they were amazing. Instead of sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar, I opted for a slightly less-healthy option and used the topping from this bread and plopped a little bit on top of each muffin.

I froze a few of the leftover muffins so I can enjoy the taste of fall whenever I want :)

Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from the American club, in Kohler, Wisconsin via Gourmet Magazine

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15 ounce can)
1/3 cup vegetable oil*
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar**
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. 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.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Source: Smitten Kitchen

Thinking outside the bread

Zucchini bread is one of my favorite breakfast items to bake. I found a good recipe a while back on allrecipes.com, and I've been addicted ever since.

The recipe I have makes two loaves, which is great because I can give one away and keep one for myself, heehee. For our Easter brunch, I wanted to make the bread again, but since we were setting the food up buffet style, and people would be picking at stuff all afternoon, I thought muffins might be easier to handle.

I made a full batch of the batter and made one loaf of bread (which I sent to Mike's Nana, who is a big fan of it), and 12 muffins:


You can see pictures of the bread in this post.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tspn salt
1 tspn baking soda
1 tspn baking powder
3 tspns ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (for a healthier version, substitute 1/2 c of the oil for 1/2 c applesauce)
2 cups white sugar
3 tspns vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Grease and flour two 8X4 pans. Preheat oven to 325.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well-combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake bread for 40-60 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan and cool completely.

I baked the muffins for much less time than the bread, of course. Maybe about 20 minutes. I think I started checking them around 15 minutes and once they passed the clean toothpick test, I pulled them out and let the bread keep baking for the full time.

Note: This freezes very well, although isn't quite as moist after it has been frozen.

Source: allrecipes.com

All dressed up for Easter:

Blueberry White Chip Muffins

I had grand plans to break away from my recent pumpkin streak for the November craft party. I knew I still wanted to make something sweet, and when I saw that zucchini was on sale at my local grocery store, I decided I would find a zucchini recipe. I found two chocolate zucchini cake recipes that I fell in love with and settled on that.

But when I had some time to shred the zucchini, I discovered the worst: my zucchini was moldy! So I quickly scratched that plan and went to work finding something else.

I am SO glad I ended up making these muffins. They are AMAZING. I reduced the amount of white chocolate chips *in* the muffins slightly and omitted the white chocolate drizzle (I was lazy thought they'd be great without that extra sweetness). I also didn't have any lemon peel, but I added a few drops of orange extract for a citrus-y presence. I used frozen blueberries, too.

My husband, who isn't the biggest sweets-eater in the world, at first told me to take all of the muffins to craft party. I insisted on leaving two for his breakfast, and when I called him later in the day, he asked me to bring home all of the leftovers. Apparently they won more than just me over :)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 (12-ounce) package white chocolate chips - divided use
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Streusel Topping, (see below)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Paper line 18 muffin cups.

2. Combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Stir in milk, egg, butter and lemon peel. Stir in 1 1/2 cups (I used about 1 1/4) morsels and blueberries. Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling almost full. Sprinkle with Streusel Topping (recipe below).


3. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool slightly.


4. Place remaining morsels in small, heavy-duty plastic bag. Microwave on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 30 seconds; knead. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, kneading until smooth. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to drizzle over muffins. Serve warm.

5. For Streusel Topping: Combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon in small bowl. Cut in 3 tablespoons butter or margarine with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Makes 18 muffins.

Source: Favorite Brand Name 3 Books in 1: Cookies, Bars, Muffins

Easy Pumpkin Muffins

In the final hours before Thanksgiving, Meg and I thought we'd give you a special holiday gift: three days of pumpkin recipes! So check out the blog tomorrow and on (Pumpkin) Friday for more yummy goodies.

But back to today's recipe ...

I'm a bit slow.

Let me explain.

I was trying to break out of my pumpkin cookie/pumpkin bread/pumpkin pie rut. I turned to allrecipes.com and found a recipe for these highly rated (4.5 out of 5 stars!) pumpkin muffins. Throw "Easy" in the title, and I was sold. Another perk? I had all of the ingredients, and I set out to make them (some for me, of course, and some for a friend who recently had twins).

But as I was making them, I kept thinking, "Wow, these are so easy! And healthy! And wonderful!" And I wondered why these thoughts seemed so familiar ... when I realized they are the exact thoughts I have about the Pumpkin Cookies that are so near and dear to me.

Duh.

Sigh.

Essentially, they *are* the Pumpkin Cookies, but don't call for spice cake mix and give you a bit more creative license on how much cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves you want in your muffin.

They could easily be made in to Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes, too, with a bit of Cream Cheese Frosting on top. Yummmm.

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until smooth. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean.


Source: allrecipes.com

Saving a banana from certain doom

Mike and I love fresh produce and go through our fair share of fruits and veggies each day. We're pretty good about eating everything we buy before it goes bad, but once in a while we buy one too many bananas and before you know it, it's turning brown.

I hate to let food go to waste, so I knew I had a short window of opportunity where I could use it to bake before it turned bad. I remembered these easy banana nut muffins that I made a few months ago. Not only are they fast and easy, but they also only require one banana, which was exactly what I needed to use up.

I read back over my post, as well as the comments, and my friend Kelly commented that she made them and added in some chocolate chips. She said they were a hit in her office, so I decided to take her advice and added in about 2/3 cup of mini-semisweet chocolate chips. I also added in about 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, which is a little more than the recipe calls for. But since my banana was on the smaller side, I figured the extra nuts and chocolate chips could beef it up a little.

Blueberry Muffins for Brunch

When Mike and I were invited to a friend's house for brunch this weekend, I perused the list of stuff others had already offered to bring: a fruit plate, an egg dish, peach cobbler and French toast were on the list. I figured some muffins would fit nicely into the mix.

Blueberry muffins are my favorite; really, who doesn't love them? They're a classic. I have a recipe that I've attempted several times, but they never turn out quite right, so I logged onto allrecipes.com in search of the ultimate blueberry muffin. I believe I may have found it. This recipe, called "To Die For Blueberry Muffins," has nearly 3,500 comments and 4.5 (out of 5) stars. That's about as solid a rating as it gets, folks.

And I was not disappointed. The crumb topping is crisp and tasty, and the muffin is light and moist. I think this recipe provides a great base that could be switched up with other flavor variations: dried cranberries and walnuts, perhaps?


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar*
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top:

Make crumb topping by mixing together 1/2 cup sugar*, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking:


Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

My notes

*Several commenters on allrecipes.com suggested using brown sugar instead of white sugar for the crumb topping. I tried it, and it was delicious, and I think it looks pretty, too. So I'll be sticking with that adjustment in the future.

This recipe only makes about 8-10 muffins. I doubled the muffin ingredients, and didn't fill them up all the way to the top, so I was able to get 20 out of a double batch. But if you double the muffin recipe, there is no need to double the crumb topping recipe -- the amount above makes plenty.

I used frozen blueberries, and thawed them for about 30 minutes before adding them to the batter. I thought they were fine, but if you can use fresh, I'm sure they'd be even better.

Apple Oatmeal Muffins

I felt like baking over the weekend, and I'm sort of on a breakfast baking kick lately (i.e., buttermilk pancakes, biscotti and zucchini bread). So I decided to stick with that theme and whip up some muffins.

I'm also at that point during the summer where I am simply tired of the heat. Every time I go outside, I think, "Ugh. STILL hot." This happens toward the end of August each year.

For those who live back East, the best time of year is about to arrive -- fall. The air gets crisper, the leaves start to change, and pumpkin spice cappuccino hits the gas stations. But in Phoenix, it will still be hot into October.

So, I chose a muffin recipe that is reminiscent of fall. I'm hoping it will bring me a miracle: a cool September. I even used muffin wrappers with fall leaves all over them. That should do the trick, don't you think?

These are pretty tasty. They are light and fluffy, and the chunks of apples are refreshing and give the muffins a nice bite.


Ingredients
1 package white cake mix
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1-3/4 cups peeled and chopped apples (2 large apples)
1-1/3 cups milk
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions
1. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oats, cinnamon and baking powder. Stir to blend. In another large bowl, whisk together eggs, apples, milk and melted butter.

2. Add dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon just until blended. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.


3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until set and golden.

Source: Duncan Hines' Cake Mix Magic

For the record, it is still hot. Record high temperatures and record low monsoon rainfall, in fact. Maybe it's time to bake a pumpkin pie?

Seminary Muffins

Meg and I recently took a trip to San Francisco with our husbands. We hadn't seen each other since my wedding in November, and we rarely see each other more than once a year, so it was super exciting to all be able to get together.

We ate lots of delicious lunches, dinners and desserts on our trip (more on some of those later!), but we ate cost-savvy breakfasts at the hotel, snacking on food we packed in our suitcases. My husband isn't a big breakfast eater, so I brought granola bars and oatmeal and looked for something I could bake that would travel well and stay moist.

I found what I wanted in these Seminary Muffins. They traveled well although were a bit mushy - I think because I used a little too much banana :) And they're oil- and butter-free! I liked having the chocolate chips and nuts in there for some extra zing and energy.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 egg
* 1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/3 cup applesauce
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 cup quick cooking oats
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 12 cup muffin pan.


2. In a large bowl, combine egg, banana, brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. Gently stir flour mixture and oatmeal into banana mixture. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups.


4. Bake in preheated oven or 15 to 20 minutes, or until light brown. Remove muffins from pan and place on a wire rack to let cool before serving.

Source: allrecipes.com

My friends are awesome bakers, part deux

I must be drawn to people who love to bake and/or eat sweet things as much as I do. Look at what my friend Katie recently made:

Those are apple-pumpkin crunch muffins. And they have me wishing for a crisp October Saturday morning in Ohio, when the leaves are changing into brilliant colors and pumpkins start appearing on front porches.

Instead, it will be 100 degrees in Phoenix today, and it is only May. But really, it's much too early in the summer to be complaining about that.

Katie is a great cook, a great baker and a thoughtful friend. She once lugged an assortment of cupcakes to a restaurant for my birthday, stuck candles in them and made everyone sing to me.

Not only was that a really nice thing to do, but the cupcakes were delicious. So I'm betting these muffins are every bit as good as they look.

Ingredients

1-2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

1 Granny Smith/Fuji apple, chopped.

Topping

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Handful walnuts, almonds, peanuts.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (or 325° F if you are using a dark nonstick pan).

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, spice, and sugar in a large bowl.

3. Mix pumpkin, butter and eggs separately. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring with a spatula just until moistened, about 15 turns. Fold in chopped apple, and scoop into greased muffin pan, filling each cup about 2/3 full.

4. In the small bowl, whisk together the topping ingredients and sprinkle evenly over the batter. 5. Bake for 20 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks for a few minutes before serving.

Source: Adapted from andreasrecipes.com.

Cinnamon Spiced Muffins

Meg's recent post inspired me to make some muffins. I flipped through one of my trusty cookbooks and one recipe screamed to me. Why? Because it was 2 a.m., I had just gotten home from work and I wanted to relieve some stress without having to run out to the grocery store ... and I had everything I needed to make these gems!

OK, I lie. I had *almost* everything I needed. And I improvised to make up for what I didn't have ... and I'm pretty pleased with the result. I didn't have allspice. I didn't have ground coriander. I didn't have mini-muffin tins. Sooooo ... my adjustments are reflected in the recipe below.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup all-purpose)
3/4 cup sugar, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used a bit more of this)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (I used some ginger instead)
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (I used cinnamon)
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup butter, melted
1 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions:
1. Preheat over to 400 degrees F. Grease 36 mini-muffin cups (I used 14 regular sized muffin cups).

2. Combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl. Combine milk, 1/3 cup butter and eggs in small bowl; stir into flour mixture just until moistened.


3. Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until edges are slightly browned and toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Remove from pan. (I baked mine 16-18 minutes.)


4. Meanwhile, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in shallow dish. Dip warm muffin tops in 1/4 cup melted butter, then in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve warm. (Or cold!)


I also imagine these would be really yummy with some shredded carrot or zucchini or even some raisins thrown in.

Source: Famous Brand Name 3 Books in 1: Cookies, Bars and Muffins

Branching out with bananas

I've baked a lot of cookies lately. Macaroons, frosted red velvet cookies, baptism cookies. Cookies are my favorite thing to bake, but on Sunday, I was itching to do something different.
"Can I bake something for your co-workers?" I yelled out to Mike from the kitchen, as I thumbed through my stack of cookbooks.
"Sure!"
"What do they like?"
"Everything!"
Everything. Perfect. My kind of people.
After much page-flipping, a recipe finally caught my eye. Banana Nut Muffins.
Easy to transport to the office, easy to grab and take to your desk. The quintessential baked snack for those who start their day at 8 a.m.
All you do is mash up one banana (I used a potato masher):

Mix the batter. Add nuts (I used walnuts):

Fill up some muffin cups (note the little chunks of banana in the batter... yum!):

And voila! Mike tells me they were a hit.

Ingredients:
1 banana or spice cake mix
2 eggs
1 cup water
1/3 cup chopped nuts
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 medium banana, mashed

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour muffin pan or use muffin paper cups. Mix together cake mix, eggs, water, nuts, oil and banana in a large bowl until well blended. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter.
Bake 20-25 minutes.

Source: 101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix (Stephanie Ashcraft)