Tag Archives: Muffins

July 22, 2013 · 8:54 am

Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins

Sour cream blueberry muffins
I love an easy muffin recipe. Baking in the morning for breakfast can seem a little daunting, but when you’re basically chucking all ingredients into a bowl, stirring, and throwing them in the oven, the workload is on par with omelets and pancakes. Don’t be scurred.

On the menu:
Sour cream blueberry muffins
Makes 10 muffins

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream (you can use non-fat or low fat if you prefer)
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin liners.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and stir to combine. Add sour cream and stir until completely combined. Fold in blueberries.

Pour until cups are almost full. In a small bowl, stir together the cinnamon and brown sugar. Sprinkle evenly over muffins.

Bake for 23 – 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the tin for about 10 minutes and then move to a baking sheet to cool completely.

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September 4, 2012 · 2:30 am

Banana Muffins with Brown Sugar Glaze


I found this recipe on a great food blog called That’s So Yummy and they call for brown sugar cream cheese frosting. But you all know how I feel about waiting for baked goods to cool before I frost them. So I combined this recipe with my donut muffin topping and VOILA. When The BF tasted one he said, “Is there BUTTER on these?! You’re gonna give me a coronary…” And then he happily ate 2 more. We call that success.

On the menu:
Banana muffins with brown sugar glaze
Makes 14 muffins
Adapted from this recipe at That’s So Yummy

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake tin with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Blend in the egg. Add mashed bananas and stir with a spoon until incorporated. Add flour, then baking soda, then baking powder, then cinnamon, then nutmeg, then salt. Mix all ingredients together by hand with a large spoon. Add milk and vanilla and stir until combined.

Fill each muffin cup to almost full (5/6 full). Bake for around 37 – 40 minutes or until tops are light brown in color. Remove muffins from tin and let cool for 5 minutes before glazing.

Glaze:
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a small saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together over low heat. Pour into a shallow bowl and whisk in cinnamon. Note: this mixture will probably separate, so you might have to whisk it back together every 3 – 4 muffins.

Dip the top of the muffin in the butter/sugar mixture and let cool on a wire rack. Or, eat every single muffin before they cool. I won’t blame you.

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May 22, 2012 · 1:40 pm

An Ode to Lauren Odes

I’ve had over 400 visitors to Food E. today, and thanks to WordPress stats I know why. When you go to Yahoo.com and do an image search for “Lauren Odes”, the busty blonde lady who made headlines today for being fired from her lingerie store gig for being too provocative, you get this:

Image

If you didn’t recognize them, SEVEN of those pictures are mine. So if you’ve stumbled upon this blog because you were creeping on this lovely lady, then welcome! I, too, am a lovely lady. But would probably never be fired from anything for being anywhere near too provocative. I make muffins to make up for my chesticular shortcomings. Enjoy!

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May 9, 2012 · 2:32 am

Lemony Goodness


One time I had a friend over for dinner and she offered to bring dessert. “What’s your favorite?” she asked. “Cake,” I answered. “In all its forms.”

To me, and George Costanza*, a muffin is just a piece of cake that’s acceptable to eat for breakfast. So I bake a lot of muffins. A. Lot. These are moist, delicious, and they have so much lemon in them that they’re actually a bit tart. Sunday was so sunny and spring-like that lemon muffins seemed like a no brainer.

On the menu:
Lemon Yogurt Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup plain yogurt
6 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Glaze:
1/3 cup lemon juice (the juice from 2 lemons)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl, combine first 6 ingredients. In a separate bowl, blend egg, yogurt, melted butter, and lemon juice together with an electric mixer. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, just until moistened. Fill lined or greased baking cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 – 22 minutes, or until tops of muffins are lightly browned.

Let muffins cool for 5 minutes. In the meantime, in a small saucepan over low heat, combine lemon juice, sugar, and lemon zest until combined. Poke 6 – 8 holes into each muffin (still in the pan) and spoon 1/2 Tbsp of glaze over each muffin. Let cool for 30 minutes and then remove from the pan.

*”Anyway, so I was coming along here, and I felt like a piece of cake, you know? But then I thought, it’s morning, I should really have a muffin. I like those chocolate chip ones. Then I figured, well, they’re really both cake. So I, uh, I sat on that bench for a little while, twenty minutes or an hour, and then I figured, check and see what you were up to.” – Seinfeld

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April 17, 2012 · 2:30 am

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Muffins: A Love Story


If I could, I would make everything into a pancake. The lemon/blueberry combo idea has been on my mind for weeks and weeks, so naturally I decided I would make them into pancakes along with the tub of ricotta I had in the fridge. But The BF not-so-subtly reminded me that I had made pancakes every weekend for 2 weeks and maybe not everyone is cool with a steady diet of pancakes… I don’t claim to understand those types of people, and maybe I never will.

In any case, I gave in and made the next best thing: muffins. And let me tell you kiddies… these are good. Really, really good. If you’ve never baked with ricotta before, or have been skeptical, these will have you singin’ a different tune.

On the menu:
Blueberry lemon ricotta muffins
Makes 12 muffins

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
Zest of 2 lemons
1 cup blueberries (I used frozen but if you have sweet, fresh blueberries, use ’em!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to blend together the ricotta, milk, and butter until completely blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add the lemon zest and mix well.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix together just until incorporated. Add the blueberries and stir together with a rubber spatula*. Your batter should be relatively firm, but if it’s on the dry side you can add just a splash of milk.

Divide batter evenly into 12 pre-greased or lined baking cups. Bake for 26 – 30 minutes, or until the tops are a light golden brown color. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for around 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely.

*Note: fresh blueberries are very delicate and you’ll want to be careful mixing them into the batter so they don’t get squashed. And yes… squashed is a technical term.

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February 13, 2012 · 2:30 am

Chocolate Therapy


Ever have one of those days? You know what I mean. THOSE days. When anyone who crosses your path is gonna get an earful whether they asked for it or not? That was Saturday. I blame the phases of the moon.

In any case, here’s a recipe for one of those days. This recipe is surprisingly healthy, compared to store bought muffins. If you’re craving something sweet, these definitely fit the bill without completely desecrating your diet.

On the menu:
Chocolate muffins
Makes 24 muffins

2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 apple, shredded
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a different bowl, beat together the eggs, sour cream, water, milk, apple, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Line each cup of the muffin tin with a paper liner. Fill each cup 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake 20 – 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let sit in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*Note: this recipe originally had vegetable oil instead of an apple, but I find most recipes use oil to make cakes moist. Apples will do the same thing with none of the fat! You can also use 1/2 cup apple sauce. The only downside to this substitution is that the cake might stick to the liner… but that’s what your teeth are for.

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December 14, 2011 · 2:00 am

Pumpkin Muffins: Easier Than They Look… Unless You’re Me.


Saturday afternoon I went grocery shopping and tossed a can of pumpkin into my cart on a whim. I. Love. Pumpkin. And I’ve been dreaming of pumpkin muffins so Sunday morning when I saw that new can of pumpkin in my pantry, I thought, What the heck. I found an easy peasy recipe on Smitten Kitchen and went to work. It took all of 15 minutes to throw this together, and then I was nestled in the couch with coffee, inhaling the scent of autumn coming from my oven. Took the muffins out at allotted time… heavy, dense, and uncooked. Back in the oven. Ten minutes later? Heavy, dense, and cooked. I tasted them. Huh. Kinda weird… Checked the recipe. …Oh. Baking powder. Yes, baking powder. Kind of a key ingredient in muffins, huh? Oh… and only ONE CUP of pumpkin. Not the whole can.

However, these babies aren’t bad. In fact, they’re actually pretty good. They’re just not what you think of when you think “light, fluffy pumpkin muffin”. They’re dense but incredibly moist, not too sweet, and would be perfect toasted with a little butter.

On the menu:
Pumpkin muffins
Makes 12
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 tsp baking powder [optional!]
1 1/2 cups flour
1 15-oz. can of pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 tsp plus 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, with a large whisk, combine pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, sugar, baking soda, and salt together until combined. Whisk in flour mixture. Pour into greased or papered muffin tin until 3/4 filled.

Mix together 1 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of the muffins. Bake for 28 – 32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

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