Double Chocolate Muffins

I recently won a cookbook from Carole over at Carole's Chatter. If you don't know Carole, please stop by her blog, she always shares so many wonderful things! This cookbook was so fun for me to win because it was a MUFFIN cookbook, perfect for me!  I'm definitely looking forward to trying more of the recipes in this cookbook because they are just a little bit different from what I am used to....  the recipes are from New Zealand!

The first recipe I tried is Double Chocolate Muffins. Reasons for trying this recipe are obvious by the name, right? I have to tell ya, just from the batter, I knew they were going to be chocolatey bliss. Once sitting down to enjoy the finished product, they have the perfect crisp muffin top, and moist inside. And definitely, the right amount of chocolate!

Double Chocolate Muffins Adapted from (Marvellous Muffins by Alison Holst)

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
7 Tbsp butter
1 egg
1 cup yogurt (I used Greek Strawberry Yogurt)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup white coarse sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray 12 muffin cups with non-stick spray; set aside.  In large mixing bowl, sift dry ingredients.

In medium sauce pan, melt butter. After melted, let set for 5 minutes to cool. To the melted butter, add egg, yogurt, milk, and vanilla.  Stir until smooth.  Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients. Fold together until all ingredients are moistened. Do NOT over mix.  Divide mixture evenly into prepared muffin cups.  Sprinkle each muffin with chocolate chips and coarse sugar.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool in muffin pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Enjoy as many of them as you like, then repeat with another batch! (optional)

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Blueberry Cream Muffins

Do you ever lose groceries? I lost my fresh blueberries for more than a week. I bought them from a roadside vendor and was so excited to make some yummy baked good with them. After getting them home, and putting all my groceries away, I saw the berries sitting on the counter, and decided to put them away, baking wasn't going to happen right away.  Fast forward a couple days... I remembered my berries, I was inspired to use them! I could not find them anywhere! Fridge and freezer searched, cupboards and pantry searched. Where in the world? Check with Truckin' Man.. Did he take them in the truck? Nope. Did we accidentally feed them to the chickens? I don't think so. I finally gave up. I would find them when they spoiled and my nose led me to them. Amazingly they still never surfaced. At this point, I assumed I had accidentally thrown them away. Then... One day.. I spied that tupperware that had the swiss chard from the garden, I should just throw that away, it's old. Open that tupperware up, and no swiss chard, but my blueberries! I have no memory of this, but obviously I had done it! Amazingly, the blueberries were still good.

After all the waiting to share these, I hope you enjoy them. This is the first time I made a muffin with with cream cheese, and they did not disappoint! Moist and creamy, and full of blueberries!

Blueberry Cream Muffins (Source: Taste of Home)

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
6 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups milk (I use 2%)
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed

Filling
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tins, and set aside.  In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and  salt. In another bowl, beat eggs. To eggs, add milk and butter. Stir until combined. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients. Stir only until moistened, do not overmix. Fold in blueberries. Drop 2 rounded tablespoons into prepared muffin tins.

In small bowl, beat cream cheese, egg, sugar, and salt until combined and creamy. Spoon a tablespoon onto top of muffin batter in the muffin tins. Top each muffin with remaining muffin batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes in pan.  Makes 24 muffins.

Enjoy!!


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French Toast Bread Pudding Muffins

Last month, Stacey made the trip from the cities to visit for the weekend.  We invited her down since we needed help with hostessing at my dad's retirement party.  I like to try out new recipes when she is visiting. It's a change for me to cook for more than two, and since Stacey doesn't cook much, it's extra fun for me to make different types of recipes.

Since we were gong to have a busy schedule with my dad's party, I really had to take the opportunity to make something fun for breakfast.  I new it was going to be the muffins I had found on Pinterest. Heather's French Press had shared French Toast Bread Pudding Muffins. That's right. All that breakfast goodness put into a muffin.

They are delicious. Moist. So much breakfast goodness baked into one little cup!  We did have a little problem with the bread pudding sticking to the paper liner, so next time I think I will try greasing the muffin tin. My other tip for you is, while the muffins are baking, make some bacon!

French Toast Bread Pudding Muffins (Adapted from:  Heather's French Press)

1 loaf English Muffin Toasting Bread
4 eggs
2 cup milk (I use 2 %)
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Cut loaf of bread into small cubes; put in medium bowl.  Set aside.  In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour egg mixture over bread cubes. Let set 15 to 30 minutes, or until most of the egg mixture has been absorbed.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners, or grease tins. Fill each tin 1/2 to 3/4 full.  Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

Enjoy!! 


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Banana Muffins

What a whirlwind things have been this winter.  I have been so busy with learning tax laws and how to do payroll for our growing trucking business that my time in the kitchen has been limited. Oh, and Truckin' Man was thinking we needed to cut back on the cookies a little bit. He was thinking that until I talked about getting some baking going, and then he was all excited for it. So, I was excited to spend some time baking instead of making another soup and salad dish!

Muffins. I love 'em. If you want a healthy banana muffin recipe, please go check out my Banana Nut Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel.  If you are looking for a scrumptious bit of banana heaven, and aren't worried about a calorie count, please keep reading. I have been making this muffin ever since I found Brown Eyed Baker, and fell in love with her recipes. Each and every bite of the muffin is packed with amazing flavor, and is perfectly moist, with that nice crust on top. They do freeze well, but you do loose that crust on top once you unthaw them. 

To tell you how much I LOVE these muffins... I don't make them to use up my ripe banana's, I buy banana's and let them ripen so that I can make muffins!

Banana Muffins (Source: Brown Eyed Baker via Giada De Laurentiis)

3 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. baking powder
2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 T. vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed

Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a bowl until blended. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl until well mixed. Stir in the banana. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended. Do NOT over mix!

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool.

Enjoy :) 

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Banana Nut Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel

It's been a crazy couple weeks here. We had our first snow, it was pretty, then I wrecked my car. Not so pretty then. No damage to me... Yeay! The car is still waiting for the body shop and the insurance company to determine it's future. So, I switched over to my winter driver (which I should have been driving anyway), the brakes went out on that after work one night, and I got to carry groceries home. Again, no damage to me, and none to my jeep, but really?  My nerves are getting pretty rattled, and I can't get anything done when I can't get anywhere!

One of my days stuck home, I was going to make banana muffins with my VERY ready banana's. Enough of making the banana's wait another day already. I head for my killer muffin recipe and get ready to rock out some muffins. Nope, they call for a cup of oil, and I could at most get a third cup out of the bottle. Nothing is easy this week! I remembered a recipe I had bookmarked a long time ago, and pull that up. I didn't remember them being such a healthy muffin, but what the heck, at least I had all the ingredients for this recipe. O.M.G. They were one of the best muffins I have ever made! I don't think they surpassed my "unhealthy" banana muffins, but they really were super good. The recipe makes a dozen, and for the two of us, that lasts a couple days, but even that very last muffin was still moist and tasty.

Give 'em a shot, they can turn a bad week all around!

Banana Nut Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel (Source: MyRecipes)

Muffins:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

2/3 c. packed light brown sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

1 cup mashed ripe banana

3/4 c. milk

3 T. canola oil

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/4 c. chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)

Streusel:

6 T. regular oats

5 T. all-purpose flour

2 T. light brown sugar

2 T. butter, softened

1/4 t. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°  Combine 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine banana, milk, oil, vanilla and egg in a bowl; stir well. Add to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened; fold in walnuts (optional). Place 12 muffin cup liners in muffin cups. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups.

To prepare streusel, combine oats, 5 T. flour, 2T sugar, butter and 1/4 t. cinnamon. Blend with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle streusel over muffin batter. Bake at 375° for 22 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Store in air tight container.

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Mango Banana Muffins with White Chocolate Chips

At the office, I have the special treat during the summer months of working with Heather, she is a very dear friend. Working in a place dominated by men, it's always nice to have more female companionship!  Heather has left the office now, and gone back to college.  But, we had lots of fun going over recipes while we had time! It was so much fun sharing my love of baking and inspiring Heather to try new recipes.

One day when we were going over some of my pinterest albums (honest, we really do get lots of work done), the recipe for White Chocolate Chip Mango Banana Bread just jumped out at her, so I made that for her last day at work. It did not disappoint! We both loved it! This past weekend, I did change it up a little bit, and tried them as muffins. Complete hit. Moist. Delicious. Packed with flavor.

Mango Banana Muffins with White Chocolate Chips (adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction)

2 c. white whole wheat flour (I used one cup whole wheat, and 1 cup all-purpose)

3/4 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

3/4 c. sugar

4 T. unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 c. mashed very ripe banana

1/3 c. Greek Yogurt (I used plain, but if you could find Mango... use that!)

1 t. vanilla extract

2/3 c. white chocolate chips

1 c. chopped mango

2 T. shredded sweetened coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour(s), baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, beat sugar and butter with mixer on medium speed until well blended, about 1 minute. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add mashed banana, yogurt, and vanilla. Continue beating until blended.

Slowly stir in the flour mixture by hand, until just combined. Do not overmix (this part is important). Fold in white chocolate chips. Gently fold in chopped mangoes. 

Spoon batter into muffin tins, to about 2/3 full.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove and sprinkle with shredded coconut.  Bake for 5-10 minutes longer or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  

Cool muffins in the pan on a wire rack.  Remove from pan when cooled.

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Blackberry Lemonade Muffins

I am approaching my 6 month anniversary of having my blog. I have been having so much fun with this, and absolutely love the people I have been meeting through this great new network. The tips, idea's, and recipes that are shared are priceless.  These have all been great for me to break out of my routines and try new recipes and approaches to different food. If only I had more days in the week, to try more of the foods on my list!

Blackberries. I love baking with you. This is a muffin recipe that From Cupcakes to Caviar shared on her blog. It peaked my interest when first reading it, as I have one standard blackberry muffin recipe that I always go to.  I went for it! Time to try something new! It made such a thick batter, I was really frightened that I was going to have a flop. But with further reading, I saw that this thickness was correct. This is hands down, one of the most amazing muffins I have ever made. 

Blackberry Lemonade Muffins  (Source: From Cupcakes to Caviar)

2 c. flour

5 T. sugar

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. lemonade concentrate, thawed

1/2 c. milk

1/3 c. unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

1 t. vanilla extract

16 oz. frozen blackberries (keep frozen)

Coarse Sugar 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line muffin cups.  

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients except for the berries.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until moistened. Fold in the berries*

Fill muffin cups about 3/4′s full. Sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired.  Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Approximately 20-25 minutes. Let muffins cool in pan for several minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

** The batter will be very thick.

Peanut Butter Muffins

Is this really January weather? We made it to 45 degree's in Southwest Wisconsin today. These temps sure makes keeping the outdoor wood boiler going a lot easier for me. 

This "spring like" weather is also changing our breakfast eating.  We aren't so much wanting the hot breakfast everyday, but getting back into our muffin groove.  We love muffins.  They travel well, which is essential for us and the trucking part of life.  But, I do a lot better at my portion control when I have a muffin.  Whatever works, right?

When I found this recipe for Peanut Butter Muffins I had to try it.  I had never thought of peanut butter as a flavor for a muffin. Guess I have been missing out!  These were super easy, and fast! I could easily whip these together in the morning, and have them ready before I leave for work. That's saying how simple these are, because believe me...  I don't leave a lot of time for extra's in the morning :) 

Peanut Butter Muffins  (adapted from Gooseberry Patch-"Seasons for Sharing")

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. sugar

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/2 c. peanut butter (recommend using crunchy)

2 T. butter

3/4 c. milk

2 beaten eggs

In large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Cut in peanut butter and butter with a pastry cutter or fork, until coarse crumbs form.  Stir in milk and eggs just until moistened.  Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes.  

Makes one dozen muffins.

***Note ***I used creamy peanut butter, but will use crunchy peanut butter next time to bump up the peanut flavor another notch.

Clementines Muffins

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, And since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.... Hmmm..  If only I had a fireplace?! Funny that is the song going through my head today while From Cupcakes to Caviar was singing earlier "We had joy, we had fun.. we had seasons in the sun"  All in where you live!!

Completely nasty blustery, snowy day here today.  The weather service says we have had three plus inches of snow, but I have drifts well over a foot in places.  Needless to say, I am staying home today and making the soup that I prepared the stock for last night.  Oh wait, no I am not.  Apparently I don't have all the ingredients (imagine that), and I am not driving fourteen miles to the grocery store in this weather.  I so wanted to cook today, and to have some yummy warm food waiting for my boyfriend when he got home from his day out on the road.  But, I don't want to go out in this weather!  Wait, I have an idea.  This awesome blog I was reading the other day,  Love.Peace.Happiness.Cooking., had a recipe that caught my eye for Clementines Muffins.  Is it possible my memory is right, and I do have all the ingredients?  Yup!  Success! Soup will have to wait!

These are such a healthy muffin, and they smelled amazing when I pulled them out of the oven.  Love the flavor of these, the clementines kinda brightened my day a bit.  Just wondering how long they will last, I may need to make up a second batch!

Clementines Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 large egg

1/3 cup clementine juice

2 teaspoons grated clementine zest

1/4 cup chocolate chips, chopped

2 t. raw sugar (optional)

Preheat oven 350F. In bowl, combine  flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.  In another bowl, whisk together egg, melted butter, clementine juice and zest.  Pour the clementine mixture into the flour mixture. Mix gently. Add chopped chocolate.  

Spoon mixture into muffin pan and bake. Sprinkle each muffin with raw sugar, if desired.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes. If toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are ready.