In the event of some sort of big fat natural disaster in California, I may be up a creek without a paddle.  Sure, I’ve got the canned tuna, the emergency gallons of water and a few flashlights with dying batteries.  I’ve got the walking shoes, a space blanket and pepper spray… you need those things, right?   It’s just that I’m not sure the internets or my cellphone are going to do me much good in the event of a meltdown.  Won’t all the cell towers be jammed?  How am I going to reach out to my family?  I don’t think Twitter will quite do the trick.  Clearly my only option is to jog to them… in a space blanket.  That seems to make the most sense.

My parents?  I think they’re just ahead of me in the emergency game.  They’ve got cell phones from 1993 and a telephone land line.  At least the land line will come in handy.  

My grandfather!?  He’ll fare better than all of us in an emergency.  He’s got Ham Radio.  Ham Radio is a sort of amateur radio system that allows people to talk to one another all over the world.  Don’t be fooled by the name.  Ham Radio is actually pretty badass.   Sort of like… trucker radio meets old school technology meets grandfather hobby.  In emergencies, Ham Radio is booming.  You better believe that in an emergency, my grandfather will be all over that radio.  Who he’ll be talking to?  I’m not exactly sure.  He’ll probably be saving the world.  I’ll be jogging my way to safety.  My parents will still be screening their phone calls with their answering machine.  Who is the hero?  Grandpa. 

I tell you all of this because Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (specifically the giant ((seriously giant)) kind from Costco) are my grandfather’s favorite.  He no doubt has a 48 pack of those giant muffins in his emergency kit.  You think I’m kidding.  I’m not.

Note:  my descriptions of Ham Radio here may hinge on trite and are most certainly superficial and inadequate.  

How many of these muffins did I eat Sunday morning?  What?  You weren’t counting.  Good.  I did count and it wasn’t pretty… I ate five of these muffins with extra glaze.  I had to.  I did.

These are simple muffins.  You know these muffins.  They’re no big surprise to you.  Lemon.  Buttermilk.  A little crunch from poppy seeds. Sugary lemon glaze.  It’s a beautiful thing.  If you’d like to freeze these beauties to enjoy all week, do so without the glaze.  Success.  

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins 

     adapted from Baking

     Print this Recipe!

2/3 cup granulated sugar

zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup buttermilk or sour cream

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 stick (8 Tablespoons) butter, melted until browned and cooled

2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (for topping the batter before baking)

For the Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar whisked together with 2 or 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a 12 mold, regular sized muffin tray with paper muffin liners, place the muffin pan on a baking sheet and set aside.  

In a large bowl, rub the granulated sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar is lightly colored and scented with lemon.  Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk (or sour cream) vanilla extract, melted butter and lemon juice.  

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together.  When almost thoroughly mixed, add the poppy seeds.  Divide batter between muffin cups.  Sprinkle each would be muffing with granulated sugar.  

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.  

Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.  If you’re freezing the cupcakes for future eating, skip the glaze.  It doesn’t freeze well.

Today’s Maple Pecan Muffins are dedicated to Tracey.  

Tracey, you are dear and darling… and 15, which is equal parts hard and rad, I know.  

Let me tell you a little about Tracey.  Tracey had her 15th birthday last week.  Tracey’s best friend Maggie sent me a pretty precious email asking me if I would send Tracey an autographed picture of myself for her birthday.  See,  Tracey is a great baker and a huuuuge fan of my site.  

I’m not the sort to have pictures of myself to autograph on hand… that would be totally weird,  so I sent Tracey a little birthday gift and handwritten note.  Easy enough, right?   In return Tracey sent me a very long, very excited, exceedingly adorable email to thank me for her birthday present.  Seriously friends… this girl is priceless.  

After reading Tracey’s email a handful of times (it was packed to the gills with information), here are a few things I want you to know about my new friend:

Tracey makes a mean lemon pound cake with blueberry sauce.  

Tracey almost set her house ablaze trying to make these doughnuts.  

Tracey is obsessed with muffins… and feeds them to her dog.  Let’s all just pretend like that’s normal.  

Tracey got a “Tracey the Baker” apron for her birthday.  Clearly I have competition. 

By sharing loads homemade cookies, Tracey is well on her way to becoming the most popular girl in school.  Don’t get too popular Tracey… it might be overrated.    

Tracey giggles a lot… not in emails, but this is just something I’ve surmised from being 15 and eating a lot of sugar once upon a time.

Tracey?  Is that Jesus peeking over your shoulder on your fridge there?  If so… awesome.  If not… awkward. 

Tracey these muffins are my little shout out to you because it seems like you get as excited about eggs and butter and sugar and flour as I do.  That makes me happy. Thank you. 

Oooh Maple Pecan Muffins.  Holy smokes these muffins are good. 

Here’s the trick with these muffins:  use real maple syrup.  Don’t even think about using the pancake syrup you might have hiding in your fridge.  No way friend-o!

These muffins are moist, sweet, drenched in maple flavor and just lovely for Autumn.  The pecans round out the sweetness and add just the right crunch.  Weekend breakfast?  Heck yes!  You win!

Maple Pecan Muffins

     adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

     makes 12-16 cupcakes

     Print this Recipe!

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

 3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg

1/2 vanilla bean scraped or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 Tablespoons browned butter (start with 6 tablespoons and melt it down just over 5 Tablespoons)

3/4 cup maple syrup, divided

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, plus 12 pecan haves (or the largest pecan pieces of the bunch for topping the muffins)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.  

In a small saucepan, melt 6 tablespoons of butter over medium flame.  Butter should crackle and foam and then produce little brown bits at the bottom of the pan.  Turn flame to low, scrape brown bits from the bottom of the pan (that’s where all the flavor is hiding) and remove from heat to cook a bit before using.  

In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a small bowl whisk together buttermilk, egg and vanilla bean or extract.  

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients and stir with a large spoon until just incorporated.  Add melted butter and carefully mix until incorporated.  Add the chopped nuts and half of the maple syrup (you can eyeball half of 3/4 cup) and fold until evenly dispersed throughout the batter.  

Fill the muffin cups until about two thirds full (I was able to make 16 cupcakes).  Place a large pecan piece on top of each unbaked muffin and drizzle all of the muffins with the remaining maple syrup.  

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes or until a metal skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.  

Allow to cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes before removing to serve.

There are three things I want you to take away from this post.  No foolin’ around… I’ll get straight to the point.

One.  You’ll want to stop by tomorrow if you think you might like to be one of those people that attends my (holy heck yes!) summer party.  It’s in August.  It’s for real.

Two.  You know that part of the pedicure when the lady at your feet goes to it with a pumice scrub?  It’s at that point that I have to try with every ounce of who I am, not not not to kick her in the face.  I’m ticklish.  Extremely.  Now you know.

Three.  These blueberry muffins are (yes) perfect.  Straight forward.  Simple.  Summer.  One whole hell of a lot better than the stale coffee shop version… perfect. How often do I say something is perfect?  Not often.  Fact.

Browned Butter Fresh Blueberry Muffins

adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

makes 12 glorious muffins

Print this Recipe!

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the Topping

3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Keep an eye on the butter.  Melt and cook down the butter until little brown bits appear in the pan.  The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that.  Keep a close eye.  Remove from heat.

Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.  Add the brown butter and stir to combine.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl  Add milk and butter mixture all at one and stir gently to combine.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.  Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

I woke up to an utterly dreamy California morning on Tuesday.  The soft morning sun was just streaming through my bedroom window, the birds were singing good morning, and I knew that I had a whole basket of clean laundry for the week ahead.  Pretty sweet morning, right?

Sure… the only problem was that my brain was entirely unwilling to join  the sunny spirit.  Nope.  I felt like on  big stale loaf of bread.  After an extended love affair with my snooze button, I determined, behind closed eyelids, that the only thing that would change my circumstance was streusel topping.  On the shuffle from my warm bed to the kitchen counter I decided that blueberry muffins with streusel topping would flip the light switch in my brain.

There was only one problem with my blueberry muffin plan.  I had not a blueberry in sight.  No fresh.  No frozen… just a whole lotta outta luck.  After rifling through my freezer and fridge I emerged with the tail end of a bag of frozen raspberries, and half a jar of strawberry jam.  I figured that, brought together under the welcoming umbrella of streusel topping, these two would simply have to work.  Not but thirty minutes later, puffy streusel topped muffins found their way out of the oven and into my face.  While they didn’t pay that pesky credit card bill, or make that much needed dentist appointment, they at least kept me from crawling back in bed for a handful of hours.  Sometimes, that kind of help is just enough.

It’s not every morning that you jump out of bed ready for the world, fully equipped to make blueberry muffins.  When those morning escape you, I promise that with a little jam, the remains of your frozen fruit collection, and loads of streusel topping, you just might be able to set things right.

I’d like to think of these muffins as Anything Muffins.  Really, whatever kind of berry and whatever kind of jam will do you just fine in this recipe.  If it sounds good to you, it’ll most likely taste good coming from your oven.  Don’t deny yourself a warm fruity muffin just because the blueberry escapes you.

Raspberry and Jam Muffins aka Just about anything muffins.

adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook

Print this recipe!

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2- 1 cup frozen or fresh raspberries (or whatever berry you might have in your freezer or fridge, use as much of the bag or as little as you have left)

3 Tablespoons strawberry jam (or whatever fruit jam you have on hand)

For the topping:

3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.  Generously butter muffin cups or line with cupcake papers.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat; remove from heat.  Whisk in milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until well combined.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Add milk mixture and stir until just combined.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the berries and the jam.

Divide batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

For the topping:

Combine all the topping ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 18-22 minutes.  Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes, then run a knife around edges of muffin tops and carefully remove from cups. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I woke up this morning ready to celebrate Friday.  This, despite the fact that I’m convinced that I’m due at least fourteen hours more sleep, and moving past the idea that I deserve a sleep re-do for having fallen asleep with all the light on, teeth unbrushed and (gasp!) bra still on.  I don’t get a do-over, or more sleep… but I do get a Friday, and that’s a little bit of all right with me.

This week, I overheard someone say “Whatever… you know that Thursday is the new Friday.”  Hm… I don’t know where they work, or how they pull that off, but to me “Friday is the same, old Friday”… and sometimes “Saturday is the new Friday” making “Sunday the new weekend”.

Wanting to celebrate Friday as the same, old Friday got me thinking about all the great little moments I had during the week.  You know… the little things- getting a card in the mail from Mom, or finding a crumpled ten dollar bill in your back pocket.

What are the three best things that happened to you this week?   Think on it.  Here’s what I’m workin’ with.

1. I dropped a cake I had just baked on the floor.  We can talk more about that later,  but thought to myself:  ok, well that shouldn’t happen again for another few months.  I’m glad that’s out of the way.  Then I wanted to yell and swear, but there was no one around to hear it, so I didn’t bother.  This restraint for lack of an audience later made me laugh at myself.

2.  I’m sitting here, in this very moment, enjoying a cup of hot tea and a few of my dad’s buttermilk biscuits.  It’s quiet and sunny and just warm enough to not regret my warm covers in the other room.  Quiet simplicity is a week highlight for sure.

3.  I’m going up to Oakland this weekend.  I’m going to wear a dress.  Don’t try to stop me.  Both things are going to happen.

In the meantime, I think you should take these Cinnamon Raisin Pull-Apart Muffins for a spin.

These Pull Apart Muffins might be a problem.  See, they’re as fun to eat as they are delicious.  They’re basically, a pizza crust recipe, patted down, doused with flour, cinnamon and sugar, then tossed with a buttery brown sugar mixture, cut into chunks and packed lightly into a greased muffin tin.  They bake up into loose muffins made up of doughy, spiced chunks of yummy breakfast goodness.

Cinnamon Raisin Pull Apart Muffins

Print this recipe!

makes about a dozen muffins.

3 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
2  tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 Tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

handful of golden raisins (optional)

more flour, granulated sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball.

If you are finding this step difficult, one of the best tricks I picked up from my bread-making class is to simply pause. Leave the dough in a lightly-floured spot, put the empty bowl upside-down on top of it and come back in 2 to 5 minutes, at which point you will find the dough a lot more lovable.  The dough should looks like this after the first knead.

Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (a spritz of cooking spray perfectly does the trick) where you had mixed it —

one-bowl recipe!-dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.  I placed my bowl of wrapped dough in the fridge overnight instead of leaving it out for two hours.

Dump it back on the floured counter (yup, I leave mine messy), and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.  If you’ve left your dough in the fridge overnight like I did, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, place the covered bowl of dough near the oven, or on a stovetop burner that doesn’t get too hot, bringing the dough to room temperature faster.  After it’s been out of the fridge for about 30 minutes, dump it onto a floured counter, press the air out and knead the dough into a smooth, happy ball.  Return to the down to warm up a bit more, and rise just a bit more, about 30 minutes more.  Your dough should be doubled in size from the previous night.  The dough should look like this after the second knead.  Smooth!

Grease a muffin pan with vegetable shortening and dust it with flour.  Set aside.  On a well floured work surface, dump out the dough.  Press out with your hands until your dough is about 3/4-inch thick.  The shape doesn’t matter so much.  Begin to cut the dough into small chunks.  Mine were just smaller that one inch chunks.  If the dough sticks to your knife, just flour you knife a bit.  Once cut into chunks, sprinkle the pieces with a bit of flour, a handful of granulated sugar and a generous dusting of ground cinnamon.  Toss on the counter top.

In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, flour, cornstarch, raisins and cinnamon until well combined.  I brought my mixture together with my hands.

Fill the muffin tin to the halfway point with dough chunks, softly packing them in.  Top with about a tablespoon of the sugar mixture, then top with more dough chunks, packing lightly.  Finish with more sugar mixture.  That’s four layers for each muffin.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 12-15 minutes, keeping an eye on them after 12 minutes.  Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes.  Run a sharp knife around the edges of each muffin then gently scoop out of the muffin tin.  Enjoy!

There are moments in my life when I know that I’m a baker to the core.  I had one such moment today.  Why?  Well, I was thinking about cornbread all day.  Of all things!  Cornbread.  I was turning over cornbread formulas in my head, thinking of possibilities, researching recipes and jotting down notes.  That’s how I know I’m a baker, because I think about cornbread for hours on end.  And even if I were stuck in some random job as an accountatnt, I’d be the accountant that thought about cornbread all day.

It turns out that thinking about cornbread is like opening a can of worms.  There are so many styles! There’s the sweet style cornbread with sugar and honey.  There’s the dry unsweetened cornbread with fresh kernels mixed in.  There’s skillet corn bread.  There’s corn muffins.  I could go on and on… and I did, in my head, all day.  It had to be just right.  So I came up with Brown Butter Cornbread Muffins with Fresh Blueberries and Apricots.

Allow me a moment of self congratulation because frankly, I nailed it!

And now I’ll share.

While these muffins are simple in their ingredients, they pack the maximum amount of flavor.

Let’s start with the butter.  Browned butter brings out an almost nutty flavor in the butter.  That little bit of time over the fire adds a tremendous depth of flavor, and aroma.

Cornmeal is important too.  I chose a medium grain stone ground cornmeal.  The medium grind adds just a hint of crunch.  Brilliant!

Fruit was my summer addition to these muffins.  If you wanted to serve the muffins with chili or something savory then leave the berries out.  As a morning muffin, the fresh blueberries and diced apricot add an delicious touch.

Other delicious contributing factors-  sour cream and honey.  Sour cream gives the muffins a light tender crumb. Yes, more tender than buttermilk.  And honey adds a depth of flavor to the sweetness.

Now, these muffins aren’t over the top sweet.  If you like the your muffins on the sweeter side, increase the sugar from 1/4 cup to a heaping 1/3 cup.

Brown Butter Cornbread Muffins with Fresh Blueberries and Apricots

Print this recipe!

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cornmeal, medium grind

1/4 cup sugar, or a heaping 1/3 cup for sweeter muffins

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup sour cream

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted until lightly brown

2 Tablespoons honey

1/3 cup blueberries

1/2 cup fresh apricots, diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

On a stove top, in a skillet, melt 3/4 of a stick of butter over medium high heat.  After the butter is melted, keep an eye on the pan, occasionally swirling the butter, until the crackling stops and the butter is a light amber color.  This may take about 5 minutes.  Measure about 1/4 cup of melted butter and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Combine egg, sour cream, milk and honey.  Stir until no lumps remain in the sour cream.  Pour browned butter into the egg mixture and stir to incorporate.

Stir wet ingredients into dry until just moistened.  Fold in blueberries and diced apricots.

Spoon batter into lined muffin tins and bake at for 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Serve warm or at room temperature.  These also freeze very well and defrost in the microwave after 15 seconds.  Hope you enjoy!

I’m a sucker for treats warm out of the oven.  But really, who isn’t!?  One of my favorite things to burn my mouth on is muffins fresh out of the oven.  I thought I’d treat myself to some classic blueberry muffins, but when I saw frozen black raspberries in the grocery store, classic blueberry went right out the window.  The raspberries add loads of flavor and tons of sexy purple black coloring.  These muffins are perfect, fresh out of the oven for a weekend breakfast, and then freeze well for a mid week breakfast treat.  And I sure do like my breakfast treats.  I can’t help myself.

Try these muffins with any berry, fresh or frozen.  Well… hold back on the frozen strawberries.  They’re too big.  But blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or any combination you think is festive and inviting.  Go nuts and show off your muffin stylings!

Black Raspberry Breakfast Muffins

adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook (which I can’t get enough of!)

Print this recipe!

3/4 stick (6 Tablespoons) unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups berries (I used frozen black raspberries)

Put a rack in the upper third of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.  Generously butter or spray muffin cups.  This recipe makes 12 standard muffins.  If using paper cupcake liners, you don’t have to grease the muffin pan.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat; remove from heat.  Whisk in milk, egg, yolk, and vanilla until well combined.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Add milk mixture and stir until just combined.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the berries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.  Sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar.  Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 18-20 minutes  Cool in pan of a rack for 15 minutes, then run a knife around edges of muffin tops and carefully remove from cups.  (I used paper cupcake liners, and didn’t have to grease the pan.)  Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Remember those Low Fat Chocolate Muffins I was working on last week?  Well I’ve found a winner!  These Two Bite Chocolate Chunk Muffins are sure to satisfy that nagging chocolate craving.  Now, if you have a craving for something like… I dunno… dark chocolate cheesecake with extra thick hot fudge, then I suggest you kindly decline one of these muffins and go find that cheesecake.  That sounds like a no nonsense craving.  But if a light, chocolatey bite is just what you need, then these will certainly do the trick.

I hesitate to call these low fat.  I’m not a low fat kind of girl.  I go through about 50 pounds of butter a week.  There’s nothing low fat about that!  I did make some adjustments to the recipe to take these muffins into the realm of reasonable eating.  Not one ounce of those 50 pounds of butter went into these muffins.  That’s a start, right?

Two of these mini muffins have 114 calories.  Yes, I counted.  Because I care!  These are for you Drea!

Two Bite Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Print this recipe!

adapted from somewhere in internet land.

makes 18 mini muffins (about 1 Tablespoon of batter each)

1 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar or 1/2 cup sugar if you like your muffins sweeter

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup light sour cream

scant 1/2 cup 2% milk (if you use skim, your muffins will be even lower in calories!)

1 Tablespoon canola oil

1 egg white

3.5 ounces chopped dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the center of the oven.    Measure all of the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl, and whisk together.  In a separate bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients and whisk to combine, trying to get as many lumps as possible out of the sour cream.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients all at once and stir to incorporate.  Once mixture in combined, fold in the chocolate chunks.

Grease a mini muffin pan.  Scoop the muffin batter into a tin with a tablespoon measuring spoon, using one tablespoon of batter per muffin cup.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in the muffin tins for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

]]> http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/03/two-bite-chocolate-chunk-muffins/feed/ 19 http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/02/gnarley-muffins/ http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/02/gnarley-muffins/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:12:32 +0000 joythebaker http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/archives/24

While they may not be the prettiest muffins you’ve ever laid eyes on, they just might be the healthiest.  These little gems are packed with banana, apple and flax seed goodness.  For those of you who aren’t nutrition obsessed California dieters,  flax seed are rich in fiber and Omega-3 fatty acids which helps protect against heart disease and cancer.  In these muffins, flax seed meal (ground up flax seeds) replace butter and oil.  How great is that!? No butter, no oil muffins!  Just healthy fats in a yummy, moist, fruit muffin!

The fruit in this recipe help to keep the muffins deliciously moist.  I used grated apples and mashed bananas, although the recipe calls for carrots instead of bananas.  Really, use any reasonable fruit of veggie you like: zucchini, apple, carrot, banana, pear, pineapple.  Go crazy!

And!  This is also my entry into February’s Weekend Breakfast Blogging Event- created by Saffron Trail and hosted by Tasty Palettes.   This month features Healthy Eats, and what could be healthier than fresh fruit and flax seed muffins? Serious Yum.

Gnarley Muffins

adapted from Bob’s Red Mill

Print this recipe!

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup flax seed meal (if you live near a Trader Joe’s, you can get flaxseed meal and oat bran there!)

3/4 cup oat bran

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 cups carrots, shredded

2 apples peeled and shredded

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

3/4 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Using a wooden spoon, mix together flour, flax seed meal, oat bran, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

2.  Stir in carrots, apples, raisins and nuts.

3.  Combine milk, eggs and vanilla.  Pour liquid all at once into the dry/fruit mixture.  Stir until ingredients are moistened.  Do not overmix.

4.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Yields 15 medium sized muffins.

Healthy trans fat free muffins. Your heart say ‘Thanks!’