Perfect Blueberry Muffins

I have made many muffins over the years; yet I am constantly searching for one that's not too dry or crumbly. So when I came across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and Deb talked about how many muffins she had tried searching for the perfect one, I decided to give these a shot. And I'm glad I did! These muffins delivered - of course, the fact that each of them contains about a half tablespoon of butter probably doesn't hurt :) You can use fresh or frozen bluberries in these, and I used orange zest in place of lemon just because that's what I had in the house. Otherwise, I didn't change a thing and they were delicious. Make these soon!

Perfect Blueberry Muffins

Cranberry Orange Mini-Muffins

Wow, I am behind with posting, I apologize! January has actually been a pretty busy month, with February looking even busier! But I promise to get to the blog and post all the yummy things I have been making in my kitchen.

So this is the last recipe to post from Christmas Eve Brunch. I took a basic recipe for muffins, added the ingredients I wanted to, and then baked them in mini-muffin form; resulting in a delicious little bite.

Cranberry Orange Mini-Muffins

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Makes about 24 mini-muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 beaten egg

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 teaspoon orange extract

1 cup coarsely chopped cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 24 mini-muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest. Make a well in the center of flour mixture; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine egg, milk, oil, and orange extract. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened, add in cranberries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes, remove from cups and serve warm if desired.

Pumpkin Raisin Oat Muffins

For those of us that love to bake, the first hint of fall weather (or really, just the word September) often starts brings about the strong desire to bake with pumpkin. And with the recent rumors of a pumpkin shortage, I ran out to the store and picked up some cans of the pumpkin puree - I need to go back soon to stockpile it! So when I saw these healthy muffins on my friend Jenn's blog, I decided they would be a good starting point for all things pumpkin.

Jenn suggests using yogurt instead of butter to make these a bit healthier, but I had some applesauce in my fridge already so I used that instead. Various taste-testers approved these and said you could barely notice that there was no butter! I often think I can taste a small difference, but for a mid-morning snack, they are perfect and you feel good eating them.

Pumpkin Raisin Oat Muffins

slightly adapted from Jenn and Food, Perfect Together

Makes 12 muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
2/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted or 1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour or line a 12-cup muffin tin.

Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin, milk, egg, and butter/applesauce. Make a well in the dry mixture and gradually stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture, just until all ingredients are moistened. Fold in the raisins.

Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling about 3/4 of the way. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Bite-Sized Ricotta Coffee Cakes

Whenever I have ricotta cheese leftover I never know what to do with it because Chuck doesn't like the texture of it. So I either have to let it go to waste or find a way to trick him into eating it. These little guys seemed perfect - I have heard of ricotta in sweet cakes before, and I figured that once it was baked in he would never know the difference!

Going into the oven - as you can see by the finished product above, the streusel topping spreads out the top of the muffins, so be careful.

I am so glad that I made these - they are the perfect little bite-sized coffee cake. The ricotta cheese adds a nice dimension to the cake and the streusel is delicious with the oats. I didn't change anything from Cara's original recipe so I will just link you to it here:

Bite-Sized Ricotta Coffee Cakes

Since I don't have two mini-muffin tins and wanted to bake these in a timely fashion, I decided to make a few regular-sized muffins as well. Watch these carefully and add about 10 minutes to the baking time of the mini-muffins. Delicious!

Lemon Sugar Crusted Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry muffins are one of my favorite kinds of sweet breakfast (or anytime foods) so when I saw this recipe over at My Kitchen Cafe, I knew I wanted to try it! Melanie said the muffins were phenomenal so I took her word and went for it!

Due to the outrageous blueberry prices around here lately, I used frozen berries and they turned out delicious. Just make sure NOT to thaw the berries before you use them. These muffins take a little bit of time because there are several components, but trust me, they're worth it. They got rave reviews all around and I look forward to making them again!

I didn't have to change anything except the baking time from the original recipe (mine needed to bake about 22 minutes), so I am just going to link you right to the source:

Lemon Sugar Crusted Blueberry Muffins

Enjoy!

Swirling the blueberry reduction into the muffins:

Sprinkling the lemon sugar crust:

Mmmmmm

Corn Muffins

I am always searching for a good, simple corn muffin recipe, so I decided to give this one a try from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I changed out the milk for some buttermilk since, as always, I had some leftover in my freezer (seriously, when are they going to start selling that stuff in smaller quanities?).

These muffins were good for the purpose I intended: to serve with chili; but I don't think they were moist enough to eat on their own. I would have preferred a little bit looser crumb. Still, they are easy enough to make, and the original recipe gives several variations so go check it out!

I made just six muffins for us, so all the ingredients are easily halved. Just remember though, if you are baking them in a 12-cup muffin tin, to add a little bit of water to the empty tins before baking!

Corn Muffins
from Better Homes and Gardens
Makes 12 muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk (or buttermilk)
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400F. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine eggs, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened.

Spoon the batter into 12 greased 2-1/2-inch muffin cups, filling cups two-thirds full. Bake in the preheated oven about 15 minutes or until light brown and a wooden toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean.

Pumpkin Cranberry Bites

Mini-muffins are so cute. Even the baking pan itself is adorable! I had some leftover pumpkin I wanted to use up so went searching around the internet for a recipe. I significantly adapted the one that I found, because I had some cranberries I wanted to use as well. Then after baking I realized I couldn't really call them "muffins" because they didn't spread as much as I was expecting. Therefore they have been renamed "bites". Just little morsels of fall flavor!

Since the cranberries were an addition, after tasting one I realized I didn't account for the tartness they would add. The muffins weren't as sweet as I would have liked, so next time I make these I will give them a little sprinkle of turbinado, or raw, sugar before popping them in the oven!

Pumpkin Cranberry Bites

adpated from allrecipes.com

Makes 24 bites

1 cup 100% pure pumpkin puree
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh cranberries

turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray 24 mini-muffin cups with cooking spray.

Bring pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon and cloves to a simmer in a medium saucepan until puree thickens enough to start sticking to pan bottom, 6 to 8 minutes. Turn hot puree into a bowl.

Whisk in brown sugar and oil, then slowly beat in eggs.

Meanwhile, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; whisk into pumpkin mixture until just combined. Fold in cranberries with wooden spoon.

Divide batter among the muffin cups and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake until golden and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Let stand a few minutes, then transfer mini-muffins to a wire rack to cool.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I would like to start this post with welcoming back one of my favorite blog readers, Rita. I missed you and I am glad you are back to cooking and feeling better, slowly but surely!!

This muffins are fantastic, seriously. The moist pumpkin taste (which, obviously I love according to all the pumpkin posts) with the crumbly, buttery streusel topping, and the surprise of the sweet cream cheese in the middle all add up to a muffin you will want to taste again and again. I sent these in with Chuck to share at work and apparently they all went fast!

Note: The cream cheese and powdered sugar "log" definitely did not freeze within two hours. When I took it out of the freezer, I was basically able to divide it into 24 sections with a very sharp knife, but even then I was not successful at cutting out the disks. I recommend just taking a spoon and scooping out enough filling for each muffin.

Your friend, the pastry blender.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
from Annie's Eats
Makes 24 muffins

For the muffins:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:
½ cup sugar
¼ cup plus 1 teaspoon flour
4 tablespoons butter, cubed
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

Pumpkin White-Chocolate Chip Scones

Before you say anything, I know that there are regular chocolate chips in these scones. This was a decide-the-day-of baked good, and all I had were mini-chocolate chips that were hanging out in my pantry. But you should really use white chocolate chips if you are going to make this for the first time. I never thought of white chocolate and pumpkin as a tasty combination but OH MY it is good.

And don't be afraid of making scones, either. These are super easy and if you use cold enough butter and enough flour while you are kneading the dough, these will come out great. Use a very sharp knife to cut them into scone shape and don't worry about them being pretty - they will be good regardless!

I used my other little measuring cup from Mollie, too!

Pumpkin White-Chocolate Chip Scones

from Annie's Eats

Makes 8 scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

1/3 cup buttermilk

½ cup pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the egg wash:

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon milk or cream

Preheat the oven to 400° F and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.

I told you that you would need a pastry blender!

Stir in the white chocolate. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla, and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches round. Cut the circle into eight equal triangles. Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Banana Coconut Muffins

During my daily browsing of the updates on my Google Reader, I saw this recipe over at The Way the Cookie Crumbles. Bananas are a favorite fruit of Chuck's and I had some coconut that was lounging around in my pantry, so I decided these would be a good move. And yum!, I am glad I decided on them. The muffins are moist and light, with both the banana and coconut making their presence known without being too overwhelming.

My new favorite toy is my cookie scooper from Amy so I use that to make muffins as well. Mine measures 1 T. and I use two scoops in each muffin tin. As a result, this recipe gave me 12 muffins instead of 8.

Banana Coconut Muffins
Epicurious
Makes 8

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (3/4 cup)
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Special equipment: a muffin tin with 8 (1/2-cup) muffin cups; paper liners

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Line muffin cups with liners.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and 1/2 cup coconut in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened.

Divide batter among lined muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup coconut. Bake until muffins are puffed and golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffins to a rack and cool slightly.