blueberry oat bran mini muffins

It appears that the only thing that motivates me to post these days is the  Secret Recipe Club. It would seem like I don't bake anymore but, if you saw me in person you would know I do.  I can't seem to find the motivation to photograph and write.  This month I was assigned samayalarai-cooking is divine.  The author Jayasree does not have a bio but, from what I can tell she is a mother of three that cooks some seriously delicious looking Indian food.  In addition to Indian food she features many eggless recipes.  I absolutely love Indian food and would have attempted one of the easier dishes but, I did not have access to many of the ingredients.  I opted for her eggless blueberry muffins.  I only modified the recipe where I could not match the ingredients.  Jayasree listed wholemeal flour which when I googled it appears to be the US equivalent of whole wheat flour.  Instead of wheat bran I used oat bran.  I was concerned that these would be dry but, when I tasted the batter I knew I was in for a treat.  The batter was sturdy but,  sweet.  As soon as these came out of the oven my two year old wanted to taste one.  After they cooled she ate 5 mini muffins without batting an eye.  She doesn't even like blueberries.  If that is not an endorsement I don't know what is.  These muffins are not only healthy but, they are extremely tasty.  Enjoy!

blueberry oat bran mini muffins
adapted: samayalarai-cookingisdivine

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon flax meal plus 3 tablespoons water
1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cup oat bran
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 bananas
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries

Soak flax meal in the 3 tablespoons of very warm water.

Preheat the oven to 350.
Line mini muffin pan with paper liners
Mix the flour, oat bran, baking soda,baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in a large bowl.  Set aside.

In a new bowl mash the bananas with the flax seed powder.   Add the milk, oil and honey. Blend with mixer until well combined.  Add in the vanilla. 

Make a well in the middle on the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it.   Mix until everything is completely incorporated.  Fold in the blueberries.

Fill your Muffin tins with the batter and bake it for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack.




 

chocolate chip coffee muffins

Am I the only person that goes to bed thinking about coffee?  I absolutely love my morning cup of coffee.  I know I like the caffeine but, I think I just love the morning ritual.  Enjoying my steaming cup of coffee on the couch in the morning waiting for my sleepy eyed kids to roll out of their rooms.  A snuggle with their warm little bodies and a glimpse of their crazy bedhead gets my morning started.  After the kids wiggle free from my arms they always exclaim "mommy's coffee is yucky!"  I totally disagree with this statement.  I remember thinking coffee was gross until my freshman year of college when a heavy of the chocolate light on coffee mocha started to appeal to me.  Up until then I never had coffee but, I loved coffee ice cream.  With this nugget of information I decided to make these chocolate chip coffee muffins.  Making bigger batches of food these days are helping out tremendously as the kids schedules begin to fill up.  Both kids loved these moist muffins.  The coffee flavor is present but, not over powering.  will be making these again because there is nothing wrong with a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip coffee muffin.

chocolate chip coffee muffins
source: cooking light

2/3 cup whole milk
5 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons instant decaf coffee granules
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine first 5 ingredients.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups lined with wrappers. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until done. Remove muffins from pan immediately; place on a wire rack.

cinnamon and sugar doughnut muffins

This month of the secret recipe club I was assigned the blog Shugary Sweets.  Aimee is the author of Shugary Sweets and I immediately felt like I connected with her from her bio and recipes.  She is a mother of four, married to her best friend and loves to make family friendly fare.  Her blog sucked me in the day I was given the url and I have since followed it every day.  It is that good.  I honestly could not decide what to make because there were so many recipes I now have marked.  When I thought I had decided she would throw things out there like pumpkin scones and pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting.  You should truly go check out this blog if you like cooking and baking family friendly food. She has everything from snacks, to meals, to treats, to sinful over the top delights.  Thank you Aimee for letting me bake from your blog.

Aimee has a recipe for cinnamon breakfast muffins on her blog.  We do at least one big family breakfast on the weekends and I knew that these would be the perfect sweet treat to accompany the eggs and bacon.  Brad got home from surfing and said the house smelled insanely good.  When he took a bite he said the smell did not lie these were bananas.  Well he didn't say bananas but, I wish he would say things like that some time.  Aimee said they freeze well and I planned on freezing half but, no luck all 20 were gone in 24 hours.  These are so delicious, simple and the kids helped which always makes my time in the kitchen more fun.

Happy Monday and thank you Shugary Sweets and Secret Recipe Club for a fun month.

cinnamon and sugar doughnut muffins

adapted: shugary sweets

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1 cup sugar

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 stick butter, melted

Mix 1/2 cup sugar with shortening until well blended. Add egg.

In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg. Add flour mixture alternately with milk to the creamed mixture. Beat well after each addition.

Lightly grease mini muffins tin. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-18  minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool to the touch.

Melt remaining stick of butter. In separate bowl, mix remaining sugar with cinnamon. Roll baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

banana zucchini and flaxseed muffins

I keep hearing people talk about all the zucchini they have.  Their garden is either bursting with zucchini or their neighbor just dropped off a large zucchini which apparently is like 10 pounds because they can make like 10 different things with it.  I don't have a garden and if any neighbors have gardens bursting with zucchini help a girlfriend out and drop a squash off. I do belong to CSA and I did get 5 average size zucchinis but, I would not say I was overwhelmed with zucchinis right now.  I can't decide if I am jealous of the people with ridiculous amounts of zucchini or annoyed.  Either way I was happy to get my five.  I used one average sized zucchini for these muffins.  I had to do a fine shred to hide the beautiful green strands which should show in the muffins.  The disguise worked.  Both kids and husband devoured these.  I was planning on freezing some for when the zucchini season was over and people stopped dropping them off on my doorstep but, they were finished in two days.  Sounds like great news for a mom who has two kids that don't eat vegetables let alone food at all.  It is good.  What is not good is what the flax does to a little body.  Lets just say the kids are definitely regular.  And on that note ... enjoy!

banana zucchini flaxseed muffins
source: everyday food

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1 cup lightly packed light-brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (from 1 large zucchini)
1/3 cup mashed ripe banana (from 1 large banana)
3/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly coat 12 standard muffin cups with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, flaxseed, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add zucchini and banana and stir to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir until combined (do not overmix).

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Let muffins cool completely in pan on a wire rack, about 30 minutes.

Mini Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins

Easter brunch .... yum.  We did Easter in SD this year.  We enjoyed good food, family, an egg hunt and the 7.2 earth quake!  It gave us quite a jolt after brunch.  I was assigned the sweet side.  I knew we were having two types of dessert following brunch so, I wanted to keep it simple and just a sweet bite.  I thought these mini pancake muffins were great!  They were easy to make and just the right little sweet bite to accompany a big brunch.  My plan was to make two batches one with chips and one with blueberries but, I ran out of time.  I will definitely make these again and try the blueberry version.
 
Mini Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins
Source: Tasty Home

Ingredients

• 1 cup Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• ⅔ cups Buttermilk
• 1 whole Egg
• 2 Tablespoons Pure Maple Syrup
• 2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
• ½ cups Milk Chocolate Chips (blueberries, bannana etc.)
• More Maple Syrup For Dipping 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously grease a 24 cup mini muffin pan with nonstick spray.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir together with a wire whisk.

In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the top of muffins before placing in the oven.

Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Makes 24 mini pancake muffins.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.

Serve immediately with more warmed butter if you like and/or a small bowl of maple syrup for dipping.