Archive for the Category ◊ Muffins ◊

16 Oct 2010 Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

My new favorite pumpkin recipe, and my new favorite muffin recipe, just in time for your fall weekend baking:  Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin!  Am I your favorite food blogger, or what?!  This recipe is all over the food blogs right now, and I am a bit late-for-the-train in posting it (one of the casualties of the lost camera saga).

This muffin has been likened to the Starbucks Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins.  I think that’s a fair comparison, but I like this recipe better, for two reasons.  One,  I think the Starbucks muffin cook is heavy handed with the cloves, this recipe has no cloves, and that’s a very good thing.   Two, you can make two dozen of these muffins for the cost of buying just two muffins from Starbucks. Yes.  I said twenty-four muffins.

Unfortunately this recipe makes 24 muffins.  Not that I am opposed to 24 muffins, but I hardly ever need or want that many.  I try to have each muffin recipe make 12 muffins, which is usually more than enough for a home cook. I tried to cut this recipe in half and I tried to cut it down to two-thirds.  Neither attempt worked.  The muffins were dry.  The twenty-four muffin recipe is not dry, so you’ll just have to make them all.  Invite the neighborhood over!  Drop some off at a friend’s house! Have a bake sale!  Give some to the gardener or your child’s teacher! These muffins stay moist for several days.

Start this recipe the night before.  The cream cheese filling needs to sit in the freezer for at least a few hours, and overnight is fine, before baking.  That’s ANOTHER great thing about this recipe. FINALLY, a method that works for inserting a cream cheese layer into a baked goods.  Ohhh, it’s a good day to be stopping by my kitchen!

I have inserted three options for the topping of the muffins.  The fourth option is to not add a topping to the muffin.  These muffins really don’t need a sweet topping. The cream cheese layer, and the muffin itself, are sweet enough.  I found the struesel layer to be just a bit too much.  Imagine me saying that!  Me,  a Sweet Tooth Queen!  I like the idea of sprinkling a few pumpkin seeds on top (the green ones, pepitas), which is what Starbucks does, but I couldn’t find pumpkin seeds the last time I was at the store.  The muffin above has a slight sprinkling of raw sugar on top. I like the little crunch.

So, without any further ado…

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Cream Cheese Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla

Optional Streusel Topping (see notes above):

½ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup pecans, chopped finely
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Alternate toppings: a sprinkling of green pumpkin seeds (Pepitas) or raw sugar

Pumpkin Muffin Batter:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (or 1 ¼ cups fresh pumpkin puree, drained)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

The night before: Make the cream cheese filling. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla, and blend to combine. Form the mixture into a log on a piece of plastic wrap, wrap it, and freeze it overnight, or at least an hour or two.

Preheat oven to 350 ºF. Line two 12-cup standard muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices in a large bowl. In another bowl, lightly beat the pumpkin, eggs, oil and vanilla.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and pour the pumpkin mixture into the well. Mix with a fork just until moistened.

Remove the cream cheese from the freezer, and divide it into 24 slices. (I usually cut the log into 12 pieces then cut each of those pieces in half)

Evenly divide half of the batter among the muffin cups-about one tablespoon of batter in the bottom of each muffin cup. Place 1 slice of the cream cheese filling in the center of each cup.  Top the cream cheese with another tablespoon of batter.  Cover the cream cheese completely.

Sprinkle top of muffins with pumpkin seeds, raw sugar OR this Pecan Streusel. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, pecans, butter and cinnamon. Sprinkle some of the pecan streusel on top of each muffin.

Place muffins in a preheated oven and bake until golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.  Muffins should be served at room temperature.  Hot cream cheese is really not very appetizing.

Happy Fall!  Go on, bake a batch of these, enjoy them with your family, friends and neighbors.  Here’s a picture of my grandson enjoying his.  He loves his Grandma’s muffins <3

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08 Feb 2010 Crumbly Topped Banana Muffins

I bought a bag of over-ripe bananas about a week ago. They weren’t that ripe at the time. I was going to make banana cream pie with them, but then all the kids left and there was no one here to eat banana cream pie, except me, and I am having a hard enough time fitting into my pants as it is. Then the banana bag ripped and rapidly blackening bananas cascaded over my counter space. There was nothing to do but start baking. I started on banana muffins last night, two kinds. These crumbly topped ones are delicious, and they are still moist and yummy the morning-after. In fact, they are so good that I just dropped off half a dozen at my doctor’s office… I’ve got my fingers crossed that there will be a rapid return on my investment…

Crumbly Topped Banana Muffins

For Muffin
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups of mashed banana (that was only 3 of the ones on my counter…)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup veg. or canola oil or melted butter

For Topping
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 T. flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 T. melted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 10 muffins cups with paper liners. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside. In another bowl mix together mashed bananas, sugar, egg, and oil or melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture. Do not beat, stir just until flour is moistened. Spoon batter into muffin cups. In another bowl combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter. Stir and mash with a fork until small crumbles form. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the batter in the muffin cups. Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.

Yes, you should definitely make these. Thanks for stopping by!

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19 Jan 2010 Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
 |  Category: Breads, Breakfast & Brunch, Muffins  | Tags: , ,  | 9 Comments

Everyone seems to have a favorite Blueberry Muffin recipe. I did too, a different one…, until I started making these. It’s the cup of oats and the “just hidden in there” lemon hint that sets these Blueberry Muffins above all the other Blueberry Muffins out there. I just made a batch this morning, I know what I am talking about! Ahhh… Coffee, muffin, rain…, and a Monday Holiday!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

  • 1 cup fresh blueberries, mixed with 1 T. flour (I have used frozen blueberries with no adverse effects)
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup oats (old fashioned is the best)
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • ½ cup canola oil (or ¼ cup oil and ¼ cup applesauce)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 T. lemon–or vanilla–extract (yep, 1 T. of lemon extract…and yet the lemon flavor is not overly pronounced)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

Optional sugar or raw sugar, and additional 1-2 T. raw oats to top the muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In first (smallest) bowl, mix blueberries with 1 T flour and set aside. In second (next smallest) bowl, soak oats in buttermilk. In third (and largest) bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In fourth (second largest bowl) bowl, mix oil and egg until well combined, add lemon or vanilla extract, and then pour in oats and buttermilk. Stir to combine, then add in white and brown sugars. Pour the oat mixture into the flour mixture and stir just to moisten. Gently fold in flour coated blueberries. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with sugar and raw oats. Bake for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

My friend Adele did a nutritional analysis on this muffin. Result…, not too bad, as far as muffins go. In fact, they compare favorably with muffins in the “healthy” category.
Here’s the nutritional analysis (based on using applesauce for half the oil)…

Nutrition Facts

Calories Per Serving:  177  (Calories from Fat: 51)

% Daily Value Based on a 2000 calorie diet
Total Fat 5.7g 9%
Saturated Fat 0.9g 4%
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 18mg 6%
Sodium 179mg 7%
Total Carbohydrates 28.1g 9%
Dietary Fiber 1.4g 6%
Sugars 14.2g
Protein 3.4g
Vitamin A 1% • Vitamin C 2% Calcium 6% • Iron 6%

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!

 

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