Carrot Zucchini Muffins with Balsamic Buttercream

So here is what it looks like at our house.

Pizza, pizza.  Crepes, fresh garden peas, otter pops.

Stir fry!  Pizza.  Rice and beans.

I can't say I am walking a tightrope between feeding my family healthy food and treats because there is no middle ground.

We wobble wildly from one end to the other.  A fried egg, a boiled one, a meringue buttercream!  It still has eggs in it.

I'm not sure if I'm raising my children to be good eaters or not, depending on how you understand that phrase.

These muffins are a middle ground.

The crumb is dense and hearty, the frosting is just a light touch of indulgence.

Gather around me children and eat your veggies!

Also!  May I announce the winner of last week's giveaway!  My good friend Mary - you are the best!  Expect your tiny embroidery very soon.  Thanks to those who entered.

Carrot Zucchini Muffins with Balsamic Buttercream

adapted from Beyond the Olive

Makes 12

For the muffins:

3 eggs

3/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups grated carrot

3/4 cup grated zucchini

3/4 cup white flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

a teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

For the balsamic buttercream:

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan.

Mix together (by hand is fine) eggs, olive oil, sugar, carrot and zucchini.  In a separate bowl whisk together flours, baking soda, spices and salt.

Dump dry ingredients into wet and beat together until well mixed.  

Fill muffin papers 3/4 cup full.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  Done when toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Brown Butter Millet Muffins

Now that we've all sucked the last of the sugar out of our molars, how about something more hearty?

Want to know a secret about these muffins? 

They were adapted from a doughnut recipe.

Aren't I clever!  Aren't.  I.  Clever.

Honey bear.  Baby food.  Apple slice.  I live here.

You may be wondering what the point of such a thing could be - leave the doughnuts alone!  What did they ever do to you?

This point of view is worth considering.

However, as a mom, I need to take into consideration things like healthy and sugar and appropriate snacks.

I know.  It's the worst.

But it's also a fun way to create something entirely new.

Have you had millet in baked goods yet?  Mm so crunchy!

My kid hates nuts, and I love nuts, and I was really puzzled about where to get my crunch fix.

Millet.  Millet is the answer.

Not bad for the first week of November, right?  And I'm going to get rid of all of that Halloween candy I confiscated from my son (for his health!  his precious health!) soon.

Super, super soon.

Brown Butter Millet Muffins
adapted from Joy the Baker

makes 12 muffins

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup millet

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Paper your muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, powder, soda, salt, nutmeg and sugar.  Set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter.  I usually use medium-heat, but some prefer it lower.  Just keep an eye on it.  It will start to brown and sizzle and foam.  When the foam starts to turn a light toasty brown you are where you want to be.  Remove from heat.

In a large bowl whisk together egg, buttermilk and vanilla.  Whisk in browned butter.  Add the dry ingredients and stir together until all the flour is almost incorporated, then add your millet and stir it in.  And then NO MORE STIRRING.  You don't want rubbery muffins, do you?

Dollop batter into your muffin papers.  About 2/3 cup full, if you want to be exact.  Bake for 8 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the biggest one comes out clean.

Let 'em cool, eat 'em up!

Overloadeded Spicy Cheddar Muffins

 
I am going to tell you how to make homemade popcorn.

Because you know what?  You don't need a popper, air or otherwise.  All that is a scam.

A scam!

All you do is, pour about 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil into a large pot and put it over medium-high heat.

Add in 1/4 cup popcorn kernels.

Affix a lid, slightly ajar.

Hey girl, you look like you could use a muffin.

And WAIT!  The pops, they will come.

When the pops lessen, remove from heat.

Drizzle in butter and sprinkle in salt.  Or be creative and add parmesan or cinnamon, or seaweed.

Why am I telling you how to make popcorn in this post about cheese muffins?

Because that is the kind of week it has been.

Right now I am making cupcakes, eating popcorn, and blogging about muffins.

Busy baby, yeah.  And I like it that way.

(Unless it's too much because then BOOM and you can ask my husband about when that happens but you know what you probably shouldn't let's just let it go)

Overloaded Spicy Cheddar Muffins (adapted from Joy)
Makes 12

So you may have noticed I am still joyfully welcoming dairy back into my life.  Everything I'm making this week seems to have cheese in it somewhere...no regrets! 

1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour (you can replace both of these with 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
12 sliced pickled jalapenos for topping
sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper for topping.

*One note from Joy about using paper cupcake liners with these muffins!  "When warm, the muffins will stick to the paper.  When muffins are room temperature, the papers will come out of the papers easily.  To avoid this nonsense, just grease and flour a muffin tin instead of using cupcake liners."  I found her to be correct on this.

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin tin and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg, and melted butter.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Stir to incorporate.  Before the mixture is entirely mixed, add the grated cheese.  Stir to incorporate making sure that the mixture is evenly moistened and the cheese is well distributed.

Divide batter between prepared muffin tin.  Top each with a jalapeno slice and sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Bake muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.  Muffins are best served warm. 

Banana Doughnut Muffins with Banana Frosting

Now I'm going to tell you about one of my favorite things.

It's after baby/toddler falls asleep in the next room, and I am sitting on my couch blogging.

Yeah, I blog from a couch.  What about it?

I'm writing and uploading and thinking about whatever delicious thing I just ate, and then I hear something.

A cough, a whimper, the scuffle of blankets and pillows.

The pat pat pat of tiny, footy-pajamed feet.

The door skreeks open, but since the bottom half of it is blocked from my perspective I can't see anything.  It's like a ghost just opened the door.

And then he emerges, my tiny little human being.  All PJ'd out and blinking in the lamplight, rubbing his fat cheeks.  His unfocused eyes go straight to my couch (he knows I am a creature of habit) and zero in. 

He toddles over, seeming about to collapse any minute, calculating just enough energy to get to my arms.

He throws himself into them, is hoisted onto my lap, immediately burrows into my chest and, seconds later, is sound asleep.  Soft and heavy and warm and cuddled in just right.

It interferes with blogging, I'll tell you.  Sometimes I have to put it off for a whole day.  Sometimes I go lay him down in his bed again so I can get back to work.

Sometimes I hit save, put in a movie, and hold him with me for hours.

And that is one of my favorite things.

(It's also why I blog from a couch.)

Banana Doughnut Muffins with Banana Frosting (adapted from Cooking for Isaiah, by Sylvia Nardone)

This recipe is another victim of my lack of a doughnut pan.  Who needs a doughnut pan?  I said.  What a silly contraption, I said.  I can make doughnuts any way I want without a doughnut pan, I said.  Well, that's true of raised, yeasted doughnuts but it turns out for some of the cakier variety, you do need that pan.  But silver lining is, they turn out great in muffin form!  And it just FEELS healthier, right? 

makes 12 doughnuts

1 1/4 c flour (or GF flour mix, which is what she uses)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Frosting
1/4 cup butter
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1/2 banana)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350.  Line a muffin tin with papers. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, bananas, vanilla and oil.  Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined; fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 12 to 15 minutes.  Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool on a rack until room temperature.

Meanwhile, to make the frosting, in a small bowl beat together the butter and confectioner's sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the banana, cinnamon, vanilla and lemon juice.  Spread the frosting over the cooled muffins.

Garlic Onion Cheesy Bread

 
Have you ever thought about how carbohydrates and cheese form the basis of all the best food?

Pasta!  Lasagna!  Baguette!  Pizza!

Mac and cheese, anyone?  Grilled cheese?  Garlic bread?  Casserole?  Cheese and crackers! 

This bread cuts right to the point.  It feeds you what you want to eat:  carbs and cheese.

Well, all those elaborations, all those apologies, all those worries about calories, they just aren't necessary. 

What is necessary is this bread.  With cheese.

Oh, and onions.

Garlic Onion Cheesy Bread (adapted from Food Wanderings in Asia)

1 loaf of soft, fresh bread
1 stick butter, melted
1/8 c olive oil
3 t minced onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 T dijon mustard
1 T poppy seeds
12 oz grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Mix the melted butter, olive oil, onion, garlic, mustard, and poppy seeds in a bowl.

Slash the bread with X slices, making cubes without cutting all the way through the crust. 

Pour the butter mixture into the X cracks and over the top of the bread.  Fill the cracks with the grated cheese.






Wrap the loaf with foil, sealing it in and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and unwrap, and then bake for another 10 minutes to crisp up the cheese.

Huckleberry Baked Oatmeal

 
I've got a case of the Novembers.

The Novemburrrs.

The Nurrrverrrmburrrrrrs.

It's cold.  It's gray.  It's dank.

Today I had to turn on the lights at 3:30 pm.  3:30 pm! 

What is this madness?

The last of my farmer's market huckleberries are all I have to see me through it.

(I mean, apart from a loving husband and darling baby and hot showers and electric lights [Thanksgiving!]...not to mention my space heater that I sometimes think I love at least as much as any of those other things.)

Here is a snack that will stick to your ribs.

Baked oatmeal!  Have you tried it?

It's sorta like a muffin, but more oats.  A little denser.  More fruit packed in there, maybe, depending on how you like your muffins.

A little healthier, I daresay.

 I made them for my toddler.  He loved them, until he got a bite of a sour berry.  He didn't want anything to do with them after that.

But you know what, toddler?  Huckleberries are good.  They have to fight grizzly bears to get them.

That's how you know.

That's what you get with the Novembers.  Wisdom about bears.

Huckleberry Baked Oatmeal (adapted from Food.com)

1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups huckleberries (washed, but don't worry about the tiny stems...they dissolve while baking)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Line a 12 cup muffin tin with muffin papers.

In a medium bowl, mix the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir to combine.

In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the egg, syrup, milk, butter, and vanilla.  Fold quickly and lightly into the dry mix, careful not to overmix.  Fold in the huckleberries.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is browned and the oats have set.

Let cool before serving.

Cranberry Cream Scones with Candied Ginger

 
I have been waiting to make these scones for like, a year.

Waiting for cranberries to come back in season.

Do you love cranberries?  I love cranberries.  Maybe it's my English heritage, but something in me loves tart, inedible, tiny fruits.  The kind that are only tasty after a hard frost.

Currants, medlars, persimmons, crab apples.  And cranberries!

Got to keep off the scurvy, you know?

And!  There is ginger in these.

Sweet, spicy, snappy ginger.  All gussied up with sugar for the holidays.

The crumb is sweet and crumbly.  The top crunchified with sugar and cream.

Brew some English Breakfast tea (over there it's just called Breakfast tea), lance your boils, and let's all settle down for a lovely scone breakfast, shall we?

Insert joke about braces here.

Cranberry Cream Scones with Candied Ginger (recipe adapted from Joy the Baker)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown or turbinado sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 heaping cup coarsely chopped fresh cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped candied ginger
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream, cold
cream and sugar for topping

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together  flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the cold butter and quickly work the butter into the flour mixture.  Break up the butter until well incorporated into the flour.  Some butter bits will be the size of peas, others will be as small as oat flakes.  Toss in the cranberries and ginger and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg, vanilla extract, and heavy cream.  Add the cream mixture all at once to the flour mixture.  Stir quickly to ensure that all of the flour mixture is moistened by the cream mixture.  Dump the shaggy dough mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface and work together, kneading lightly, into a 1 1/2-inch thick disk.

Cut the disk into 6 wedges.

Place 2-inches apart on baking sheet and brush with cream and sprinkle generously with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes until just cooked through.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Scones are best served the day they are made, but these scones will last well wrapped at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Almond Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

What's the deal, universe?

When I finished school, I applied for a bunch of PhD programs.  Didn't happen.

The next year I did it again.  Didn't happen.

I moved to Oregon, applied for a bunch of jobs.  Didn't happen.

I know what you're thinking...

"Maybe you're just incompetent."

But NO!  No, no it isn't that.

It isn't, right?

Because now that I'm finally content, a hap-hap-happy stay-at-home mom I feel like all my dreams are coming true.

Dream jobs left and right are opening up.

I don't know where I'll end up.  I'm pretty content where I am at.  But isn't it funny.  Two years ago I was so anxious for any opportunity.  It only happens when you aren't expecting it, right?

What now, universe?  What now?

Banana Almond Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins (adapted from Cheeky Kitchen)
This recipe is almost vegan!  And can be made so with a simple egg substitute, like 1/2 c garbanzo beans blended with 1/4 c soy milk)

1 very ripe banana
2 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons soy milk
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, beat together the banana, eggs, melted coconut oil, and brown sugar until smooth. Add remaining ingredients, then spoon into muffin tins lined with cupcake wrappers. Each wrapper should be about 2/3 full. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or just until the top of the muffins spring back when touched lightly. Remove and serve!

Blackberry Muffins

Hello all! After a long, long drive that narrowly avoided getting flooded out by Tropical Storm Alex, I am in mexico! We are in a small town called Tezontepec in the state of Hidalgo. Nearby there are a lot of natural springs that have been made into pools, some hot and some cold. That is where I am spendin my days! We start our teaching tomorrow, and I´m pretty excited. I am going to class with worksheets and candy, hoping one will balance out the other.

Food wise, don´t you worry! Things have been, as usual, extravagant. Squash flowers, sheep marrow, pig skin (chicharron) and barbacoa have all gone down the hatch in the past few days (veganism be dammed it´s Mexico!) I couldn´t quite stomach the menudo, however (sic).

Anyways, I am planning on taking lots of photos of lovely food, and putting them on here! But not yet. We are still getting accustomed to our settings, living with a very nice family, and I haven´t broken out the camera yet. Still, it should be good. The hermana has promised to show me how to cook some lovely mexican delicacies such as chiles en nogada and conchas. Cakes are her favorite! Me too, hermana! And the language barrier comes a tumbling down!

Anyways, until then here are some photos of some excellent blackberry muffins I made a few weeks ago when I was still stateside. They were very good. The recipe calls for blueberries, but I didn´t have them so I used black and they came out great. I especially recommend the buttery streusel, mmm! Enjoy!












Blueberry or Blackberry Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh berries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Enjoy amigos!

Cherry Almond Muffins

i don't think baking gets its due as an art form. maybe because it has to do with the vaguely sinful pleasure of eating, or maybe because food is something essential to life and so making it gets put in the category of 'work' rather than a more leisurely 'art.' but whatever the reason, i think this is deeply, deeply wrong. baking is not only an art, it is the best art!

not only is there the obvious benefit of involving multiple senses (sight, taste, touch, smell, you name it). it is also blissfully ephemeral! that is, it doesn't pile up. i have corners full of paintings, and closets full of stuff i've sewn (okay, not CLOSETS full, but still). i loved doing all of it, but now it's just...gathering dust.

now if you're a professional and it sells that is one thing. but if you're ME, and it doesn't (not that i've tried), it's a different story.

but baking! you eat it and it's gone! and it tastes lovely! and even if it doesn't get completely eaten, guess what? you can throw it out! give it to the birds! i couldn't throw out a painting without feeling awful about it, even if i knew it was terrible.

it beats performing arts as well (at least for me, who never got over her crippling stage fright), since it is far less terrifying than singing, acting, or doing other musical what-nots in front of a crowd. if you flub a baked good, you just quietly throw it away (what a joy!), and start again another time. and don't post the pictures.

no one will ever know.

baking. it's the best.










Cherry Almond Muffins
(from The Taste of Home Classic Cookbook, submitted by John Montgomery)

MUFFINS
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c plus 1 T sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 c cold butter
1 egg (or egg substitute, as I used - hooray my baking has caught up with my diet!)
3/4 c sour cream
1 t almond extract

FILLING
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 egg (substitute)
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t vanilla
3/4 c cherry preserves

TOPPING
1/3 c all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
2 T cold butter
1/3 c chopped sliced almonds

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In another bowl, beat the egg, sour cream, and almond extract until smooth. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened (batter will be thick [QUITE thick, i discovered]).

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. In a saucepan over low heat, warm the preserves.

For topping, combine flour and sugar in a small bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in almonds.

Fill greased (or papered) muffin cups half full with batter. Divide cream cheese filling and preserves evenly between muffin cups; swirl gently. Cover with remaining batter. Sprinkle with topping.

Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes (30 - 35 if doing jumbo muffins although frankly i like to stay away from things labeled 'jumbo') or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes, remove to wire racks to finish cooling.

YUURRM.