Pumpkin Craisin Muffins

Now these turned out fabulously! I can't remember the last time I made muffins. Oh how I have missed them. A nice fresh warm muffin with melted butter on top is my perfect treat. My husband had been gone for 4 days and left me with 2 children who were not sleeping well. I made these after being up at 4 am with one child or the other. They really helped the morning get off to a better start.
I found the recipe here.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups dried, sweetened cranberries


Directions

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease or place paper muffin cups in a 12 cup muffin tin.
Mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg together in a mixing bowl.
Beat the canned pumpkin, eggs, butter, buttermilk, and vanilla together in another large mixing bowl. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until well blended. Stir in the dried cranberries until evenly blended. Spoon batter into muffin tins about 3/4 full.
Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. 3 minutes before turning out from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins

My friend came over awhile back and she loves my muffins so I decided to make these ones since I had some really good help. They turned out so good...except in my rush to get them done I didn't grease the muffins tins! But I am happy to say that I was able to get them out in mostly one piece. These muffins are really decadent and my friend's husband said they were the best muffins I have made. They are even a bit healthy too!

• Ingredients
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground flax
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Add the applesauce, egg, honey and butter milk and mix. Then add slowly while mixing flax, flour, baking soda and salt. Next fold in the blueberries. Fill muffin tins about a 1/4 full.

Next mix together until smooth; cream cheese, sugar, flour, egg, sour cream and vanilla. Put a tablespoon or more on top of the batter in the tins. You may have more than you need. Then top the cream cheese mixture with more batter. And bake at 375 for 20 -25 minutes.

Banana Blueberry Muffins

I found this recipe on Martha Stewarts's site. I am not a fan or a hater of Martha but if these muffins hadn't sound good, I would have passed them by. They turned out amazingly! Full of flavour and healthy too and I am proud to say that I was able to make them even healthier than Martha! I am a big fan of healthy muffins that use lots of fruit or veggies. Next time I would probably add some flax too. So if anyone tries these muffins add some flax and let me know how it goes.

Ingredients

1 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of applesauce

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 ripe bananas (about 1 pound)

1/3 cup skim milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup frozen blueberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add eggs, sugar, applesauce, bananas, vanilla and milk then add the rest of the ingredients. Fold in the blueberries and then spoon in to greased muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Amazing Pumpkin Muffins

We have decided to sell our house and one trick for showing your house is to have fresh baking. So in the mad rush to make the house perfect I also threw on some muffins. I decided to make these because they sounded delicious and I wouldn't have to change much. These muffins are fabulous! Full of flavour, moist and light. I left some for the potential buyers and also brought some to my good friend Laurie who kindly invited me and the girls over during the showing. Her and her husband loved them! Her husband ate 2!

Ingredients

 1 1/2 cups raisins

 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

 4 cups white sugar

 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

 5 eggs

 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin

 1 cup unsweetened applesauce

 1 cup chopped pecans

 Directions

 Put raisins in warm water for about 10 minutes. Then mix applesauce, eggs, pumpkin and sugar. Add in the     dry ingredients and lastly fold in the pecans and raisins. Put in to greased muffins tins about 2/3 full and bake at    350 F for about 30 minutes. Makes 36 muffins

Blueberry Peach Yogurt Muffins

I am back to trying to use up stuff in my fridge and freezer again.  We have put our house on the market and are hoping to  move this summer so having emptier cupboards, fridge and freezer will help in packing.  I had made some peach yogurt last week and we haven't been going through it very fast so I found this recipe and adapted it for peach yogurt and I added no fat.  These muffins are delicious and the cinnamon topping perfects it.  The muffins are very gooey because I used large blueberries.  If you like sweet muffins you could add more sugar but I am very happy with how they turned out.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
 1 egg
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups peach yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen(not thawed) blueberries

Topping:

1/4 sugar

1/4 melted butter

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Spray muffin pan with a non-stick spray. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, spices and lemon peel. Mix well.

In a large bowl, beat egg lightly. Stir in brown sugar, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Blend well. Add flour mixture and gently fold together until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently fold in the blueberries. 

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm.

Dip muffin into melted butter and then into cinnamon sugar mix.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip

Today I used up the last of the pumpkin with this neat recipe.  I liked it because it used the pumpkin puree instead of butter.  I also cut down the sugar, added some vanilla and milk.  These turned out great!  Mike loved them, especially because I added more chocolate chips because he was complaining that there never is enough.

INGREDIENTS:

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 cups white sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 cups canned pumpkin puree 4 eggs, beaten 2/3 cup water 1/3 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips  DIRECTIONS: Makes 24 muffins.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Combine wet ingredient and then dry.  Then spoon into muffin tins 2/3 full.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Butterscotch Pumpkin Muffins

I only had a huge can of pumpkin puree so I have a couple more pumpkin recipes to share.  I found these muffins awhile ago when I fell in love with butterscotch chips.  I have been getting bolder with cutting out the fat and sugar.  I cut half the sugar and all of the fat.  The muffins turned out amazing the sweetness of the butterscotch made up for the lack of sugar.  The butterscotch melted and made a neat candy coating on the top of the muffins.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1/2 cup applesauce 1 cup canned pumpkin 1 (6 ounce) package butterscotch chips 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat to 350 F and grease 12 muffin tins.  Mix wet ingredients and then dry.   Put into tins fill 2/3 full.

Decadent Pumpkin Muffins

This are so full of calories I almost decided not to make them but I am so glad that I did.  Even I just eat one a week they are the most delicious things ever!  I had both girls sleeping so I decide to make these muffins because they was a lot involved and I didn't want to have Ally helping.  There is a fair bit to do but it isn't hard.  I have been wanting to make muffins with a gooey center for awhile but have been scared by the work and messing them up.  The nice thing about these muffins are that the cheese kind of bakes too so if you don't get it right in the center it doesn't over flow and burn.  I was a bit worried about over-flowing so I only put in a bit of the cheese mixture but I wish I hadn't because the cheese mixture is amazing and makes the muffins.

Ingredients

Cheese Mixture

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese ( I used light)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons brown sugar

Topping

4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

5 tablespoons white sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons chopped pecans

Muffin Mix

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin

1/3 cup applesauce

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1.    Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners.

2.    To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.

3.    For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

4.    For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.

5.    Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Then add more of muffin mix on top. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.

Sunny Boy Muffins

It feels like forever since I last made muffins.  We have rearranged our house and as some may know greater organization comes from great mess.  We are almost at the organization part.  I found the kitchen today and I decided to make muffins.  While organizing I discovered that I had two opened boxes of Sunny Boy Cereal or as some may know it Red River Cereal.  I want to use it up so I am looking for creative ways to get my toddler to eat it.  While searching I found these muffins.  I am impressed the flax seeds make the muffin a bit crunchy but they are light and healthy.  I think I will make these again for my friend who is pregnant, it is always good to get good grains in.

Ingredients

3/4 cup old fashioned oats or quick oats

1/2 cup red river cereal, uncooked

1 cup buttermilk (or 1T lemon juice, fill cup with milk)

1 cup flour

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/3 cup applesauce

1 cup craisins

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Combine oats, Red River and milk in large bowl, let stand 40 minutes. Then mix in egg, vanilla and applesauce.  Add in the dry ingredients and the craisins.  Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Morning Glory Muffins

This morning Ally and I have had a baking spree; we made oatmeal cookies, apple crisp and muffins.  I discovered that I can't make cookies, the oatmeal cookies didn't turn out - they tasted great but didn't really stay together.  Good thing I like muffins better than cookies.

I discovered another muffin blog!  It is really great and I highly reccomend it.  That is where I got todays recipe from.  These muffins are really great, delicious and very healthy.  The amazing this that they have no form of fat at all and don't use applesauce!  They have 1 gram of fat and 130 calories.  These muffins are full of flavour and not to dense.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups carrots, shredded
1/2 cup raisins
2 apples, shredded or chopped
3 eggs
2 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease or line 20 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the carrots, raisins and apples.

Mash the bananas. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, bananas and vanilla. Stir the egg mixture into the carrot/flour mixture, mixing just until moistened.

Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Strawberry Muffins

I have given up on my theme weeks....to0 much pressure.  Plus I discovered that I had some strawberries in the fridge that if I didn't do something with them now that they would have to go into the garbage.  I hate to waste so I began looking for a recipe.  I realized about half way through my searching that I had no milk!  I almost was going to give up when I found this recipe.  I was a little worried about the recipe because I wasn't sure how the strawberries would make enough liquid for good muffins.  So I decided to be even more adventurous and not using any butter and just use apple sauce.  Well!  These muffins are amazing.  They are so sweet and moist.  They are kind of like those muffins with the jelly inside.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups chopped fresh strawberries 1/2 cup white sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup applesauce 2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a small bowl, combine the strawberries and 1/2 cup sugar. Set aside for 1 hour. Drain, reserving liquid and berries separately.
2.	Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
3.	In a medium bowl, add the applesauce andd 1/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; stir into the creamed mixture with the strawberries and liquid. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.
4.	Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven,

Banana Crumble Muffins.

I have been intimidated by crumble toppings.  I have purposely stayed away or excluded the crumble from the recipe because it seemed hard or too messy.  Today I decided to just do it and make the crumble topping.  I found this recipe here.  The muffins are delicious nice and light.  I like like muffins because it hides how high in calories they are.  I added some flax to the recipe to make it healthier but I didn't use my applesauce trick this time.  I chose not to because I was a little worried that they would taste similar to the ones I made the other day.  I enjoyed the crumble but it does add more calories and I am a bit concerned with calories these days, so I think in the future I would skip it.

  

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 (really over-ripe) bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp ground flax

For the topping:
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, vanilla, egg and melted butter.  Then mix in 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Absolute Best Banana Muffins Ever!

Last week got away from me and I only made one batch of muffins.  This week I am  back at it and will continue with Banana week or weeks as it turns out.

I love weekends.  I love having my husband home and relaxing.  We have been busy and really enjoying our weekends as a family.  The major down side is that we relax and not keep the house clean.  So I spend all week getting the house clean and then the weekend comes and it is turned into a sty.  So last week in revolt I did nothing.  But the joke is on me because guess who is cleaning this week?  Me.

I do love when the house is clean and I am motivated to clean and cook.  It is almost noon and already I have made some amazing muffins, prepared supper and put it in the crock pot, clean the kitchen and washed the floor.  It feels great!  Now I am going to fix lunch and tackle more laundry and the living room.

But first here is my absolute favorite banana muffin recipe.  This is the recipe that turned me on to using apple sauce to subsitute for butter.  These muffins are delcious and have an interesting texture.  They are not as bready as some muffins.  They are almost creamy if that makes sense.

I got the original here.  I did not change a thing.  I liked this recipe because it used lots of bananas.  I originally searched out a recipe that had more than one banana because I really wanted to used up the brown bananas I had.

Ingredients

·         3 large bananas, mashed

·         1/2 cup white sugar

·         1 egg, beaten

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1 cup flour (you can use whole wheat for a change if you like)

·         1/2 cup rolled oat (instant is fine)

·         1/3 cup applesauce

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Add sugar to mashed bananas and mix. Add beaten egg and apple sauce then mix.  Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips and Stir.  Spoon into medium size muffin tin (I use paper muffin cups so they won't stick) and fill 3/4's full. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

White Chocolate Chip Berry Muffins

For the last installment of Chip Week I made White Chocolate Chip Berry Muffins.  I wasn't going to bake any more this week because I didn't have much time but then it decided to snow.  And what else is there to do on a snowy April day?  I am so sick of the weather, it has been a long, long winter!  Can you believe that just 6 days ago it was 20 C and yesterday it snows.  Crazy!  But that is what you get for living in Alberta.  I found these muffins here.  I added more chips, vanilla and you guessed it apples sauce!  These are great, not as interesting as my other muffins but still delicious!  The only thing I don't like is the seeds, it kind of ruins it for me.  The muffins are nice and light and the chocolate adds the right amount of sweetness.  Next time I am going to add more chips.

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 applessauce

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg, slightly beaten

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh raspberry or frozen raspberries (do not thaw)

1/2 cup vanilla chip

Directions

Grease 12 muffin tin cups. Heat oven to 350°. In a large bowl mix the milk, butter and egg. Stir in all remaining muffin ingredients except raspberries & chips. Stir only until flour is moistened, then gently stir in the berries & chips. Spoon the batter into the greased muffin tins. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Butterscotch Nut Muffins

For the third installment for Chip Week, I made Butterscotch Nut Muffins.  I found the original here and I didn't change anything again except for cutting down the butter.  Mike was working from home today and he couldn't get over how good the muffins smelled.  He also loved when I brought him some tea and a muffin.  I think he will work from home more often.  I was worried that these muffins would be really sweet but they are just right.  They are light and crispy on the outside.

Ingredients

2 c flour

3/4 c sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/8 c melted butter

1/8 applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

1 c milk

1 c butterscotch chips

1 c chopped pecans

Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix wet ingredients together and add to dry mixing quickly with a fork. Do not overmix.   Mix in nuts and chips.   Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.