Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

This recipe came thru in an email from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and I was in the mood for muffins...and here we are. Really good and really easy. Done.

She has a good tip that I haven't tried before - if you don't have pumpkin pie spice (or don't want to buy it for the one time a year you're probably going to use it) you can make your own by mixing together 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon cloves = 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice. Good to know!

Muffins:

• 3 large eggs
• 15 oz. can pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup no-sugar added applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or whole wheat flour if you want)
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2-4 Tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon maple extract (note: I don't have maple extract and just used a bit of maple syrup to get the maple flavor. Adjust how much cream you need accordingly). 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven 375'. Line 2 standard muffin tins with paper liners and set aside (24 muffins total). Note: my muffins stuck to the liners, I would grease the muffin tins instead)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, oil, applesauce and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (don't overmix)
5. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin tins, filling the cups about 2/3 of the way full.
6. Bake for approx 15 minutes until the top of the muffins spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached.
7. Remove from the tin to a cooling rack to cool completely.
8. For the glaze, whisk together the glaze ingredients, starting with the lesser amount of cream and adding more as needed to make a pourable, but still thick, glaze.
9. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled muffins with a spoon or fork, and serve. 

one year ago: make a wine cork pumpkin

two years ago: pumpkin gingersnap trifle

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Morning Glory Muffins

Does Starbucks still sell Morning Glory Muffins? I'm not sure - I used to love them tho and woke up the other day thinking about trying to recreate them to take on our road trip to see the eclipse, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, and all that. Found a recipe here, seemed right so I whipped up a batch substituting dried cranberries for the raisins, replaced half the oil with applesauce, and omitting the nuts so Dave could help me eat them. These stayed really moist for a few days, perfect for camping breakfast or a snack, only downfall is they got moldy before we could eat them all - next time I'll store them in the fridge instead of on the counter.

2 cups flour
1 1/4 cup white sugar (I only used 1 cup, these are plenty sweet)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins (or dried cranberries)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't add the nuts and didn't miss them)
1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1 apple - peeled, cored and shredded
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (note I used 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


1. Preheat oven to 350'.  Grease or line with paper muffin liners, 12 muffin cups. (Note: I didn't fill the cups that full and ended up with 16 muffins).
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the carrot, raisins, nuts, coconut, and apple.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture just until moistened. Don't overtax. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. (Note: since I didn't fill my cups up as much as the recipe called for they only took 15 minutes to bake).

one year ago today: Japanese Steakhouse Carrot-Ginger Salad Dressing

Zucchini Muffins

 The original title of this recipe is "the best zucchini muffins" (click here for post and recipe found at melskitchencafe) and I baked them thinking "right, sure, the best..uh huh, whatever" - I had the ingredients and I like this blog so I figured what the heck. Even after making them I wasn't convinced they were "the best" but then I started getting feedback about them - Brooke's friend Erica requested that I make more just for her and my friend Rhonda B. said "they are recipe book worthy" to which I replied that I'm quoting her on the blog and she said that's fine as long as I share the recipe. Which makes me want to hoard the recipe and not tell anyone since they are that great hahahaha. But I wouldn't do that :)

So here ya go Rhonda!

Ingredients (I'm giving you how I did it, Mel's options are in parentheses):

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup canola oil (you can substitute avocado, vegetable, or coconut oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (you can substitute white whole wheat)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups finely shredded zucchini lightly squeezed of excess water
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, optional (you can use milk chocolate or bittersweet)
• coarse sugar for sprinkling on top, optional 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven 350'. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla until well-combined.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until the batter is just mixed together, do not over-mix.
5. Stir in the shredded zucchini and chocolate chips if using. It's ok if the batter is still slightly lumpy.
6. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin tin. Add a few chocolate chips to the top of each muffin for presentation (note: I did it but it is totally not necessary), or sprinkle with coarse sugar if you omit the chocolate chips.
7. Bake for 16-18 minutes until the tops spring back lightly to the touch.
8. Let cool for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.                    Makes 12 muffins

my notes:

• this made 12 standard size muffins filled 2/3 full, plus I had enough leftover batter for 11 mini muffins. If you make minis they bake for about 8 minutes.
• I shred the zucchini using my food processor with the shredding disk. You could use a box grater instead.
• to squeeze the water out of shredded zucchini  - I gently press handfuls between my palms over the sink, then put on a paper towel and press a little more. It doesn't have to be bone dry, just remove the excess.

one year ago today: mason jar lunchables. I still think this is a genius idea!

Jam Filled Muffins

Wanted a quick light summer read and picked "Red Velvet Cupcake Murder" at the library - this author has a whole series of books about a baking/mystery-solving sleuth  - and since I enjoy "who-done-it" mysteries (with recipes!) I gave it a go.  I didn't love the book (sorry Joanne Fluke) but the recipes all looked pretty good so it was a no-brainer to quickly be done with the book and want to bake something. These "Jamboree Muffins" fit the bill, I had all the ingredients on hand and it only makes 12 - so if I didn't love them as much as I didn't love the book I wasn't out much! I made half with strawberry jam, and the other half are apricot - and they are really good, I definitely like them better than the story haha. If you read her series let me know what you think - should I try other ones and give her another shot? 

Jamboree Muffins

Preheat oven to 400'. Grease or spray the bottoms of 12 muffin cups (or use cupcake paper liners). 

-1 large egg, slightly beaten
-3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 T. baking powder
-1 t. salt
-approx. 1/4 cup jam of your choice (you can make different flavors if you want, good way to use up those almost finished jars of jam!)


In a medium sized bowl beat the egg with the milk until they are well combined. Stir in the oil and sugar. Measure out the flour in another bowl, stir in the baking powder and salt with a fork. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture in half-cup increments, stirring after each increment, but only until the four is moistened. The resulting batter will be lumpy, it's supposed to be. Fill the muffin cups half-full with batter. Drop 1 teaspoon of jam into the center of each muffin, cover the jam with muffin batter until the muffin cups are 3/4 full. Bake at 400' for 15 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before serving. 

Makes 12. 


The author's notes are that these are good warm or cold, and with or without butter. We only ate them cold and no butter was necessary - although it's butter, and you know everything's better with butter :) ha! 

Triple Berry Muffins

Brooke and I made these muffins so my sister (and her houseful) would have an easy wedding morning breakfast - I was planning to make a big breakfast casserole but then realized no one was going to eat that so muffins seemed perfect. I had some frozen blueberries and raspberries in the freezer so googled for muffin recipes using berries, found this Ina Garten recipe that sounded good and yep, it is. I made double berry muffins instead but otherwise followed the recipe - she adds the sugar to the berries instead of to the batter, and for some reason that makes the muffins almost have a crunchy top sort of like if you put streusel on them...yum. Really really good!

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1-1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1-1/4 cups milk
• 2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup diced fresh strawberries
• 1-1/2 cups sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.  Stir with your hand to be sure the ingredients are combined.  In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and melted butter.  Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture, pour the wet mixture into the well, and stir until just combined.  There will be some lumps but don’t overmix the batter!  Add the blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and sugar and stir gently to combine.

Using a 2¼-inch ice cream scoop, spoon the batter into the muffin cups to fill the liners.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean and the tops are nicely browned.  

Copyright 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter/Publishers, All Rights Reserved