Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

On Monday I had a meeting at my house regarding our local March of Dimes March for Babies walk. Being the mother of micro-preemies, it's needless to say that March of Dimes is an organization close to my heart. The meeting was at 11:00, so I wanted to provide something to munch on but thought it might be a little early for cookies or brownies. I scoured the Internet for a muffin recipe that used ingredients I already had on hand and decided on this recipe for Cranberry Applesauce Muffins. I thought they would be appealing to the adults but also something my kids would enjoy for a snack.

Like most muffins, these were simple to put together. The applesauce I had was sweetened, so I cut back the sugar to 1/4 cup to compensate for that. I also used dried cranberries instead of fresh and sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar on the muffin tops before baking.

I thought these were delicious. Light and sweet, but not too sweet, with a perfect tang from the cranberries. I'll definitely be keeping this in my recipe file.

Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 eggs, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a muffin pan, or use paper liners.
In a small bowl, mix together applesauce, oil and egg. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in egg mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in cranberries and pecans. Spoon into muffin cups, 2/3 full.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 2 minutes before removing.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Mini Muffins

My poor Roger has an ulcer in his eye :( He's going to be fine, but in addition to the eye drops, ointments and antibiotics he needs to visit the vet once a week. Luckily, my sister is a vet tech and Roger receives awesome (and discounted) care while he's at the office. The staff gives him lots of attention and cuddles and makes him forget that he's there for unpleasant reasons. To thank the staff (Princeton Animal Hospital rocks!) and to make sure that they continue to feel inclined to give my Roger special treatment, I show up for each visit with Roger and some kind of baked good. Since I drop Roger off around 7:30 AM I thought a breakfast treat would be appropriate this week, and since it is fall I decided to make something pumpkiny. I found this recipe for pumpkin butterscotch mini muffins on All Recipes and decided to give it a try. I was a little leery of the butterscotch chips since they can sometimes be overpoweringly sweet, but in this case they are perfect. The muffins themselves aren't too sweet and have just the right amount of pumpkin spice and the butterscotch really pulls it all together - they're delicious! I think they should earn Roger a few extra snuggles tomorrow :)

Pumpkin Butterscotch Mini Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 (6 ounce) package butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease mini-muffin pan with cooking spray.
Sift together the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, butter, and pumpkin in a separate bowl. Mix the flour mixture with the egg mixture. Stir in the butterscotch chips; pour into each cup of the muffin pan to about 3/4 full.
Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 10 to 12 minutes.

Pumpkin is good for you!

With all the pumpkin recipes floating around this time of year I was dying to whip up some pumpkin treats in my own kitchen. My first instinct was to go right for my favorite pumpkin bread recipe, but I like that bread a little TOO much and knew I would end up eating the entire loaf myself in 2 days flat. In an attempt to keep myself under control but still enjoy my pumpkin I started searching for a healthy recipe to try. I discovered these healthy pumpkin muffins on Elly's blog and knew right away they would be the perfect treat to try. I got started on these right after work on Wednesday and had them baking away in no time. I did not have any buttermilk so I poured 1 cup of skim milk and added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to substitute. I also used pumpkin pie spice instead of cloves and vegetable oil rather than applesauce since I didn't have any. These muffins came out great! Nice and moist with a light spicy pumpkin flavor. I brought them to work to share with my co-workers and they were devoured by lunchtime. These are the perfect guilt-free pumpkin fix!

Healthy Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves (I used pumpkin pie spice)
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ginger
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or vegetable/canola oil)
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400 and grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Sift together flours, baking powder and soda, salt and spices.
In a separate bowl, beat egg with brown sugar until well combined. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, applesauce and pumpkin puree.
Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in nuts and raisins.
Pour mixture into muffin cups and bake approximately 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Baking with Adam: Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

My 9-year-old cousin Adam is very interested in cooking and baking and recently took a baking class at his summer camp. He called me a few weeks ago to share a handy cake decorating tip (soften Tootsie Rolls in the microwave and mold them into flowers for the top of your cake) and told me about the delicious banana chocolate chip muffins he had made. He was very excited about the muffins, so I invited him over to show me how to make them. This recipe was super easy and definitely kid friendly. Adam loved smooshing the bananas, measuring the oil and cracking the eggs.

The lure of the Wii was almost too much though - I had to keep calling him back to finish the baking with me as he repeatedly wandered off with Cooking Mama in his hand.

But together we managed to get the muffins in the oven and we Wii-d while they baked. (Side note: I am NOT good at Wii. At all) We made 12 muffins and put the rest of the batter in a small loaf pan. These muffins are very good. Just the right amount of banana flavor with delicious chocolate sprinkled throughout. We tried them warm out of the oven when the chocoalte was all melty -mmmmm. We followed the recipe exactly, but Adam said he's made these at home with Reese's peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips and they also great. So grab your favorite young sous chef and give these (or your own variation) a try!

Adam's Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix sugar, banana, oil and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into a greased loaf pan or prepared muffin tin. Bake at 325 until toothpick instered into center comes out clean.

Very Berry Muffins

It occurred to me not long ago as I was browsing other cooking blogs that lots of women make nice breakfasts for themselves and their husbands on weekends. I for one never make breakfast. Ever. I'm usually at the gym on weekend mornings, and I prefer to eat lightly during the day, so breakfast has never been my meal. This Sunday however I decided to take the day off from the gym and seize the opportunity to make breakfast. It is SO hot here this weekend that I knew I wouldn't be making anything big or heavy so when I saw these muffins on Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings I knew they would be perfect. All I changed was the name - my bag of frozen berries had blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. That makes four berries, so I'm titling them simply "Very Berry Muffins." I discovered that strawberries do not mash well, so I ended up chopping them into little pieces. These muffins were delicious. Nice and sweet and perfect warm with a dab of butter. My only complaint was seeds - the seeds from the berries got stuck in my teeth. But that didn't make me stop eating them, and DH had no complaints at all - he had three. I'm deeming my foray into the breakfast world a success.

I should also mention that this will forever be known as the recipe that blew the microwave. When I turned on the microwave to melt the butter I was met with sparks and crackles and almost-fire. So long, microwave. Not sure what happened (and I know is wasn't the fault of the muffins) but Joe is out buying a new one as I type.

Very Berry Muffins

4 tbsp butter (melted and cooled)
1 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar(plus additional for sprinkling)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (thawed and divided)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup berries and milk and mash well. In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar; add egg and beat well. Gradually mix in dry ingredients by hand. Mix in berry/milk mixture, followed by remaining berries and mix until just combined.

Using two spoons pour batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each chamber 3/4 full. Sprinkle top of muffins with sugar. Bake for 22-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I got nine standard size muffins.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

I've had this recipe bookmarked since I saw it in the November 2007 issue of Cooking Light. Unfortunately that issue somehow got buried beneath a stack of books on my nightstand and I only rediscovered it a few weeks ago. But it was perfect timing, since I unearthed the magazine in the same week that Joe told me he needed something to bring to a retirement potluck party at his school. The potluck was an all day affair and I figured there would be plenty of desserts and main dishes but not as many breakfast treats, so I decided to make these peanut butter and jelly muffins. I made them in my mini muffin tin since they were going to a crowd, but I also made 6 regular sized muffins for Joe and I to try. These are very good! Not to sweet and the perfect combination of peanut butter and jelly flavor. I could have stood to put a little more jelly in the mini muffins, but the full-sized ones were just perfect. Joe said all the muffins disappeared quickly at the potluck, so I guess other people enjoyed them too. I'll definitely make these again, especially since they were so easy - you only need one bowl! It's almost as simple as making a sandwich.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (about 3 1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup egg substitute
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/4 cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 400°.
Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugars, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Fill each cup half full with batter. Spoon 1 teaspoon jam into each cup. Spoon remaining batter on top to cover jam. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

Yield
1 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 185(28% from fat); FAT 5.8g (sat 2g,mono 2.3g,poly 1.2g); PROTEIN 5.2g; CHOLESTEROL 5.6mg; CALCIUM 113mg; SODIUM 288mg; FIBER 1.6g; IRON 1.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 29.4g

Golden Sweet Corn Muffins

I love cornbread and corn muffins, but I typically use a good old Jiffy box mix to make them. That was the plan for dinner the other night, but I ended up getting home earlier than I expected and decided to use my time by making corn muffins from scratch. I scoured All Recipes and chose this recipe because it was simple, had good reviews and claimed to be sweet, which is how I like my corn muffins. These were very good! Better than Jiffy, mainly because they were softer and not as crumbly as the mix. I got 12 muffins and Joe enjoyed the leftovers for breakfast the next few mornings. I may not need Jiffy any more...

Golden Sweet Corn Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Morning Mini Muffin Making

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning and found myself with lots of time on my hands. After doing two loads of laundry, surfing the Internet, eating breakfast and wrapping the Mother's Day presents, it was only 8:30, I decided to pass the time by baking. I thought I would make a treat to bring to my co-workers tomorrow, so I hopped on All Recipes and began searching muffin recipes. I came across this recipe for Peanut Butter Mini Muffins and thought it sounded yummy, plus it would give me a chance to use my underutilized mini muffin pan. These are super easy to make and Joe, when he came downstairs to keep me company around 9:30, declared that they tasted like peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Sounds like a good breakfast to me!

Peanut Butter Mini Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (I used regular sized and just eye-balled it)

In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, peanut butter, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined miniature muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Muffins for Dinner

As I've said before, I love having bread with dinner and I'm always looking for new options, so I was excited to find this savory muffin recipe on Amber's blog. These sounded delicious and easy, so I gave them a whirl last night. I used the basic muffin recipe as my base, then added my own touches. I put in about 1/4 cup of grated pecorino romano cheese and 2 tablespoons Italian herbs. Then I tasted the dough and thought it was too sweet and not cheesy enough, so I added some black pepper and a handful of grated Italian cheese blend. That seemed to do the trick! These muffins were delicious! I'm posting the basic savory muffin recipe below - I would recommend you add your favorite cheeses and spices and make them your own!

Savory Muffins

1 3/4 cups AP flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil

Grease twelve 2 1/2" muffin cups or line with paper baking cups; set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside. In another bowl combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm.

Small Batch Baking: Pecan Raisin Muffins

Joe has been very sick with the flu and hasn't had much of an appetite, so I thought I'd make some muffins for him to have as breakfast or snacks to perhaps entice him to eat a bit more. These muffins, from my Small Batch Baking cookbook, were actually meant to be Cranberry Walnut Muffins but they sort of accidentally evolved into Pecan Raisin. For some reason I had in my head that Joe does not like cranberries (he informed me after I made the muffins that he does, in fact, like them) so I put in raisins instead. But I had every intention of using walnut, but after I dumped the nuts into the batter I realized I had grabbed the pecans instead. Oh well. I created a new muffin - and these are very good! Nice and dense and the crunchy cinnamon-sugar topping gives them the perfect sweetnes. I doubled the recipe to get six muffins.

Pecan Raisin Muffins

Unsalted butter at room temperature, for greasing the muffin cups
½ cup all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom or cinnamon
Yolk of 1 medium egg
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup fresh or frozen cranberries (I used raisins)
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts (I used pecans)

For the topping:
¾ teaspoon sugar
Pinch of ground cardamom or cinnamon

Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350. Lightly grease the bottoms of 3 muffins cups, then rub a little butter around the rim of each cup (this will help the muffins form a more rounded top).
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom in a large bowl. Place the egg yolk, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl and whisk to blend. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened. Gently stir in the cranberries and walnuts.
Spoon the batter into the three prepared muffins cups, dividing evenly.
Make the topping – combine the sugar and cardamom in a small bowl.
Sprinkle the topping evenly over the muffins. Fill the empty muffin cups halfway with water to prevent scorching.
Bake the muffins about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 3 muffins.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

This was my first attempt at baking with pumpkin, and let me tell you, I will be doing it again! These muffins are incredibly delicious, as was the batter - it tasted just like pumpkin pie and Joe and I were eating it with a spoon! Not to mention how great the house smelled as they baked. I was a little skimpy with the cream cheese, so next time I will definitely use more, but these are awesome! This recipe has been floating around all over, so if anyone knows the origins, just let me know!

Almost-Like-Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

3 cups flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves (I omitted)

4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pinch of cardamom (optional) (I omitted)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 cups canned pumpkin

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

8 oz package cream cheese*

Chopped nuts** (walnuts, pecans) (optional - I made some with pecans and some plain)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients together except cream cheese and nuts. Fill muffin tins (greased or paper cups) half full. Put 1-2 tsp cream cheese in the middle, pressing down. Sprinkle with 1 tsp chopped nuts. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the muffin part (do not touch the cream cheese!). Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. Do not touch the cream cheese until it cools, as it is very very hot.

Makes 24 muffins.

*The best cream cheese to use is the cheesecake flavored kind (I used plain). Put the entire tub or brick on a piece of tin foil, and shape it into a long log. Put it in the freezer while you mix and fill the pans, up to an hour. Unwrap and cut with a sharp knife. If the disks are too big around, cut thick slices and then cut them in half. This keeps the cream cheese in one big lump, and also lets you push it down into the batter.

**Starbucks uses chopped pumpkin seeds, which are very good if you can find them. I like walnuts, but any kind of nuts work well.

Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

A few months ago we got new neighbors next door, and we've slowly been getting to know them. They invited us over for brunch tomorrow, and although I was told not to bring anything I always feel the need to bring something, so I decided to try the Williams Sonoma Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins from Annie's blog.

The muffins didn't disappoint! They were easy to make and taste just as good as bakery muffins. The cinnamon sugar topping really makes the muffin! I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't change a thing, although next time I will make significantly less topping, as I ended up throwing out most of the melted butter and cinnamon sugar mixture. Thanks, Annie, for introducing this great recipe! I can't wait to share these tomorrow with our neighbors.

Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

Ingredients

7 Tbs. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the topping:

2/3 cup sugar

1 Tbs. ground cinnamon

6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease 9 standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray; fill the unused cups one-third full with water to prevent warping.To make the muffins, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well until pale and smooth.In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture in 2 additions, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each three-fourths full. Bake until the muffins are golden, dry and springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins and let stand until cool enough to handle.

To make the topping, in a small, shallow bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon. Put the melted butter in another small bowl. Holding the bottom of a muffin, dip the top into the melted butter, turning to coat it evenly. Immediately dip the top in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, coating it evenly, then tap it to remove excess sugar. Transfer the muffin, right side up, to the rack. Repeat with the remaining muffins. Let cool completely before serving.

Makes 9 muffins.