Pumpkin Muffins with Milk Chocolate Chips and Sliced Almonds

Nope, Halloween is not right around the corner, but I had a can of pumpkin to use up. (I never got around to making that Pumpkin Tiramisu last Thanksgiving. And it looks like that same Pumpkin Tiramisu won't get made this Thanksgiving either.) Since my baking is going to come to a screeching halt next week and since I need to stock my freezer with breakfast goodies for the next few weeks until I move, I decided to make some muffins this afternoon. Along with the can of pumpkin, I had a partial bag of both milk chocolate chips and sliced almonds that needed to be used up, so I just pulled all of the usual baking ingredients (flour, sugar, etc.) out of the pantry and whipped up these muffins. You can adjust the spices to your liking, but I like anything with pumpkin to have an obvious "spiced" taste, so I just dumped in a teaspoon of this and a half teaspoon of that until I got the taste I wanted. These baked into very dense, very moist muffins. I liked the creaminess and the more-subtle-than-semisweet-or-bittersweet flavor that the milk chocolate chips gave to these muffins, and the toasted almonds added a subtle crunch and nutty flavor. These are delicious and very filling.

Pumpkin Muffins with Milk Chocolate Chips and Sliced Almonds

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used Penzey’s Vietnamese Cinnamon)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin generously with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

In large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg); set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla extract, pumpkin and butter. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients just until combined. Fold in chips and almonds.

Divide batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let stand in muffin tin for 2-3 minutes before removing to wire rack. Eat warm or let cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container.

Makes 12 muffins.

Mindy's notes: Adjust the spices to your preferences. If you prefer, you can use canola oil in place of the butter. You can probably leave out the milk, too, but I just happened to have a very small amount in the fridge that I wanted to use up.

 

Oatmeal Muffins - Part 2

 

Same recipe as Oatmeal Muffins - Part 1 except: 1.) I used vanilla extract instead of maple extract, and 2.) I used miniature semisweet chocolate chips instead of currants. (I think these are even better than the batch with currants. They're both delicious, but obviously my personal palate ranks chocolate above currants.)

Oatmeal Muffins

Adapted from Epicurious (Gourmet – February 1995)

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup plus 2 tsp. all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine oats and buttermilk and let stand 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400° F and butter twelve 1/2-cup muffin tins.

Add egg, vanilla extract, sugar, and butter to oat mixture, stirring until just combined.

Into another large bowl, sift together 1 cup flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and add to oat mixture, stirring until just combined. Put chocolate chips and remaining 2 tsp. flour in a ziptop bag; seal bag and shake to evenly coat chips with flour. Fold chips into muffin batter.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin tins. Bake muffins in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

 

Oatmeal Muffins - Part 1

Looking in my pantry yesterday, I gazed at a way-too-big canister of old-fashioned oats (that I have been trying to use up forever) and an unopened box of currants (that I haven't even attempted to use) and wondered what I could do with them before I finally gave up and tossed them both in the trash. So, after a little time online, I came across the below recipe for Oatmeal Muffins on Epicurious. I changed only two things from the original recipe: 1.) I used low-fat buttermilk instead of regular buttermilk, and 2.) I added 1 teaspoon of maple extract. (Yet another thing in my pantry I can't seem to use up.) Currants and maple extract give these the taste of your favorite oatmeal raisin cookie or oatmeal raisin pancake recipe in muffin form. (You decide which description you like better.) These muffins are so moist, rich and delicious that there's no need to put anything on them. No butter, cream cheese or jam is necessary. They are simply perfect as is. (How can they not be good with 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 stick of butter?) The recipe for these came from a Gourmet reader's mother's home economics class in Louisiana back in the 1940's. They were delicious then, and they're still delicious now. So delicious that I adapted the same recipe and made another batch. (See the next post.)

Oatmeal Muffins

Adapted from Epicurious (Gourmet – February 1995)

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon maple extract
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup dried currants

In a large bowl, combine oats and buttermilk and let stand 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400° F and butter twelve 1/2-cup muffin tins.

Add egg, maple extract, sugar, and butter to oat mixture, stirring until just combined.

Into another large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and add to oat mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in currants.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin tins. Bake muffins in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

 

Surprise Muffins

SURPRISE!!! Here's a muffin recipe the whole family will love. And if they don't, you ask? My suggestion would be to seek out new family members. I am assuming (you know what they say about assuming, though) that the name of these muffins comes from the "surprise" chocolate chip-peanut butter middle when you bite into these. These look like just another muffin on the outside yet taste like no other muffin you've ever eaten on the inside. We all know how delicious the chocolate-peanut butter combination is (we do all know this, right?), and it really makes this muffin a winner. The maple extract adds a nice warm flavor, too, and becomes more pronounced the longer these muffins sit. For good measure, the oat bran adds that whole grains goodness everybody's talking about these days. (What? Not everybody is talking about whole grains these days?) These muffins are delicious and not overly sweet, even with the chocolate-peanut butter middle. I got this recipe from The Spirit of Christmas Cookbook - Volume 2. Don't wait until Christmas to make these, though. Go bake a batch today and let me know what you think.

Surprise Muffins

Source: The Spirit of Christmas Cookbook - Volume 2, p. 20

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup oat bran
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon maple extract

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine peanut butter and chocolate chips; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, bran, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk milk, oil, eggs and maple extract. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and add milk mixture; stir just until moistened. Spoon about 2 tablespoons batter into each cup of a greased muffin pan. Spoon about 2 teaspoons peanut butter mixture over batter in each cup. Spoon remaining batter over peanut butter mixture, filling each cup three-fourths full. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until muffins pull away from sides of pan. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container. Muffins may be served at room temperature or reheated. To reheat, cover and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 5 to 8 minutes or until heated through. (These reheat well in the microwave, too. Just wrap a muffin in a paper towel then cook on HIGH 100% power for 30 seconds).

Yield: 12 muffins

 
 

Cherry-Poppy Seed Muffins

My friend Kristen is stopping by to see me tomorrow morning (she's calling in sick to work...way to go, K!!!), so I decided this was a good enough reason to get in the kitchen to bake something for my rebel-child pal. She has two favorite things to eat...brownies and muffins. Brownies and muffins are the "fruits and vegetables" in her diet. Seriously. Since I usually send her home with a batch of brownies, I figured I would be a rebel-child myself and bake her muffins instead this time. Whoa, settle down, Mindy...you're out of control!!!

We both have a mutual love of poppy seeds, and since I had all of the ingredients on hand to make Cherry-Poppy Seed Muffins, it was a given what recipe to make. She gets six to take home and I get six to last me the next six mornings for breakfast before I leave for France next week.

I ate half of a muffin tonight, and it was yummy. Who knew poppy seeds, orange zest and dried cherries combined made such a delicious muffin? I can't wait to see what they taste like in the morning after the flavors have more time to sit overnight.

Cherry-Poppy Seed Muffins

Source: Adapted from Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the cherries
1 cup sugar, plus more for dusting the tops of the muffins
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
1 cup dried cherries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin, preferably nonstick, with butter.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together until evenly combined.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs; then add the melted butter, poppy seeds, and orange zest.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well; fold everything together to form a batter.

Toss the cherries with some flour (about 1 tablespoon) in a zip-top bag (this helps to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins when baked), and then fold them into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling them two-thirds full. Dust the surface of the batter with a little sugar to form a crust as the muffins bake.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a wooden toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center muffin. Place the muffin tin on a cutting board to cool.

Yield: 12 muffins

Notes: I sprayed the muffin pan with butter-flavored cooking spray instead of using butter. Use an organic orange since you are zesting the peel.

Sunday Brunch

Since I actually woke up early enough to eat brunch today, I thought I would try two new recipes from two cookbooks I've never used before. (To be fair, I just got one of them in the mail this week, so there's good reason for not using it sooner.)

The Best Bacon comes from the cookbook Celebrate the Rain. The salty flavor of the bacon along with both the bite of cayenne pepper and freshly ground black pepper and the sweetness of the brown sugar makes this bacon recipe a winner. The brown sugar mixture carmelizes the bacon strips with a heat and sweet flavor combination. Delicious!!!

The Best Bacon

Source: Celebrate the Rain - The Junior League of Seattle

2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound thick-sliced bacon

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Set a wire cooling rack or other slotted rack on top of the foil-lined pan.

Stir together the brown sugar, cayenne, and black pepper in a small bowl until well blended. Lay the bacon strips in a single layer on the rack. (Use 2 pans if all the bacon will not fit in a single layer.) Sprinkle the bacon with the brown sugar mixture. Bake until the bacon is browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the bacon immediately to individual plates and serve warm.

Makes 6 servings.

Notes: I halved this recipe. Make sure you use a rimmed baking sheet as there is a lot of fat that bakes off the bacon as it cooks. Use freshly cracked ground black pepper, too. The shaker kind would be too fine and too overpowering for this recipe.

Roasted Cornmeal Blueberry Muffins comes from the cookbook The Family Baker. The toasted (and beautifully fragrant) cornmeal adds a nice crunch, and the maple syrup adds a nice sweetness and flavor that regular sugar cannot. Make sure you use real maple syrup (not maple-flavored pancake syrup). I used No. 2 Amber and it was perfect. I also only used one cup of blueberries and the muffins were fine. Of course, you can use the 1 1/2 cups the recipe calls for, but if you only have one package of blueberries like I did, there's no need to run out to buy more. Also, I forgot to sprinkle sugar on top of the muffins before baking, but they were fine without it. Of course, I'm sure the sugar on top would add a nice crunchy sweetness and make them even better, but again, if you forget to sprinkle the muffin tops like I did, it's no big deal. The muffins are dense and just the right texture...not too moist, not too dry.

These two recipes were made to go together. Try them. You'll see. Enjoy!!!

Roasted Cornmeal Blueberry Muffins

Source: The Family Baker - Susan Purdy

Muffins
Butter-flavor no-stick vegetable spray
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, picked over, rinsed and blotted dry on paper towels (or whole frozen unthawed berries with all ice particles removed)

Topping
Granulated sugar

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Roast the cornmeal. (To pan-roast cornmeal, place cornmeal in an ungreased frying pan over medium heat and stir the cornmeal on and off for 7-10 minutes, until it begins to turn a light tan color and smells aromatic. Or, roast the meal in a metal pan at 350 degrees F about 20 minutes, stirring often.)

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, maple syrup, melted butter, vanilla, milk, and sour cream (or yogurt). Directly on top of this wet mixture add--but don't stir in--the flour, baking powder, salt, and roasted cornmeal. Stir the dry ingredients all at once into the wet, mixing just to combine; do not overbeat. Add the berries and stir once or twice.

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling them generously three-quarters full. Sprinkle some sugar on top of each muffin. If you have any unfilled cups in your muffin pan, carefully ladle a little water into each empty cup.

Bake the muffins about 20 minutes, or until they rise, look golden brown on top, and a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then coax them out of the pan with a fork and serve warm.

Notes: I used non-fat plain yogurt.

That's a Peach (Muffin), Dear!!!

How do I love peach muffins? Let me count the ways.

(Somehow, a quote from "Caddyshack" and an adapted Shakespeare quote in the same post is just not right. But...I'm Alright.)

You know, for living in a state known as the Peach State, you would think we have the best peaches in the country. WRONG!!! There are some pretty sad looking, hard-as-a-rock, rotten peaches here in Georgia. Somehow I did manage to find two at Publix that passed my not-overly-stringent inspection, though. They needed three days of sitting time on the counter to soften a bit and to start smelling like, um, peaches, but nonetheless the time has come to chop these fuzzy bad boys and bake them into something wonderful.

So, what do they taste like? They are delicious. They are very moist, have a delicate sweetness and are abundant with chopped pieces of peaches throughout each muffin. These will be a delicious way to start the day for many mornings to come.

The original recipe called for wheat bran, 1 egg white, honey and no sugar. I used oat bran, 1 whole egg, Lyle's Golden Syrup and 2 T. sugar instead. Also, I was skeptical about using non-fat yogurt sweetened with artificial sweeteners, so I used low-fat yogurt instead.

Honey Peach Bran Muffins

Source: Adapted from Recipezaar

½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup oat bran
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup peach yogurt
¼ cup canola oil
2 T. sugar
½ cup chopped fresh peaches

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine flours, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

Separately, combine honey, egg, yogurt, and oil; stir well.

Pour liquid into dry ingredients; stir until just moistened.

Add peaches.

Pour into greased muffin tins.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Let sit in muffin pan for 2-3 minutes before serving or removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins.