Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

My 5 year old has named these for me. I adapted the recipe from here. She adapted it from Smitten Kitchen.
They sounded good. So good that I had to leap out of bed and try them. Ok, well I didn't leap. I have a slipped or bulging disc so I hobbled. But they were well worth it. I am sure they are disappearing as I type this.

Preheat the oven to 350
Makes 12 regular (not large) muffins

Ingredients:
1 egg
3/4 C sugar
1/3 C canola oil
3/4 C milk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 C flour

In a large mixing bowl toss in your egg and sugar and beat well. Add in oil, beat, then milk - streaming it in slowly and beat well. Add your baking soda, cinnamon and flour. When all is well blended scoop into a well greased muffin tin. (I use Pam for all my baking. Or generic)

Place the muffins in the middle of your 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

When the muffins come out, let cool.
Meanwhile melt about 1/4 C of butter. (You will most likely have extra)
Place about 1/4 cup (approx) *cinnamon sugar mixture in a flat bowl or plate.

When the muffins have cooled slightly roll the tops in the melted butter and then roll them again in the cinnamon sugar. (If you need more use more.) Set on a plate. Repeat until all the muffins have been dipped and resemble the tops of cinnamon donuts.

Serve while warm and enjoy!

*To make cinnamon sugar mixture use 1/8 cup of cinnamon to 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. You can add more or less cinnamon to the sugar depending on your taste. I tend to keep this on hand in a glass jar to use on toast or sprinkled over slices of Granny Smith apples.

Apple Pie Quick Bread with Cranberries

This is based on my traditional quick bread recipe. I had half of a container of apple pie filling left and decided to dump it into some batter. The result was extraordinary! I will be making this as gifts for sure!

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 cups of sugar
1/3 cup of canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups apple pie filling*
3/4 cup of dried cranberries
1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional

Preheat oven to 375

In the bowl of your mixer beat together eggs, sugar and oil until pale yellow and fluffy. Add vanilla and baking powder and gradually add in the flour. When all is well mixed (mixture will seem dry - not to worry) add the apple pie filling* and cinnamon if desired. A chunky cinnamon flavored apple sauce might be a very good substitute. Mix well, add cranberries, mix well.

Into a pre-greased bread loaf add the batter.
Bake for approximately 1 hour.

The inside will be soft and moist!

Apple Pie Muffins

 Pardon my lack of photo but the muffins disappeared before I could get a picture!

2 eggs
1/3 cup of canola oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon, optional
2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups of apple pie filling
3/4 cup of raisins or cranberries

Preheat oven to 375

In the bowl of a large mixer add eggs, canola oil and sugar and beat well. Add in the vanilla, the baking powder and cinnamon*. Slowly add flour to the mixture, one cup at a time. When well blended add the apple pie mixture until well blended. Lastly, toss in cranberries or raisins.

Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop out batter in to muffin tin. Bake 20 - 25 minutes.

Makes 12

* Some pie filling brands contain cinnamon and others do not.
Comstock and Lucky Leaf are readily available in your grocery store in the baking aisle.

Sour Cream, Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

These were lemony-light-delicious and divine!!!  Proclaimed to be the best muffins I have ever made. I concur that they are up there on my top 10!

The special ingredients here are the blueberry flavored Ocean Spray cranberries. They have the consistency of a raisin or dried cranberry, but with the blueberry flavor. We like them better than the dried blueberries!

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup (or less) sugar
3/4 sour cream, light
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups unbleached flour
1+ cup of Ocean Spray blueberry flavored cranberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425

In a large mixing bowl beat together eggs and sugar, add oil and sour cream and beat until light and fluffy.
Add lemon juice and zest. Add baking soda and and flour. When well mixed add the dried cranberries.

Spoon into 12 well greased muffins tins. (We use a non-stick spray)
Bake for about 24 minutes

Glorious Morning Muffins

I've finally figured out what works for us in the mornings. It's only taken 9 years! If you have kids you understands. Mornings are H.E.L.L! No one can ever get it together on time. Getting up is a struggle for one, getting everything together in a timely manner is a struggle for another... getting dressed is something that the third child absolutely does NOT want to do. I have decided to see what would happen if I let them sleep in. Instead of getting the kids up at 7:00 I get them up at 7:30. We leave the house anywhere between 8:00 and 8:15. I have found this way they are very much more efficient with their time. When they got up at 7:00 it was as though there was too much time on their hands and too much dawdling and we were constantly racing the clock. The most time consuming event is breakfast. One doesn't want much... one wants nothing... the other has no idea what she wants. Everyone loves muffins, right? Sometimes I bake them the night before and pop them into the oven to warm for a half hour, and sometimes I make the batter at night and leave the baking until the morning. Breakfast to go... and my version of fast food is healthy. I use local or cage-free eggs, lighter ingredients (milk, sour cream, etc) and pack them with fruit! When I can, I substitute half of the flour for wheat flour. But there are some muffins that simply taste best with regular unbleached flour.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 or less cup sugar
3/4 cup light sour cream
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
1 zucchini, shredded
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions
Preheat oven 325

In a large mixing bowl beat together eggs and sugar. Add in oil and sour cream beat until light and fluffy. Add baking soda and flours. Mix well. Finally stir in carrots, zucchini, raisins and cranberries.

Pour batter, distributed evenly, into 12 nicely greased (we use a non-stick spray) muffin tins and bake 20 - 24 minutes. Tops will get nicely browned and crisp.

Zucchini Muffins with cranberries and chocolate chips

I adapted this Zucchini muffin recipe from Smitten Kitchen. She had adapted hers from several sources. So I guess, this is a mutt of zucchini bread recipes. Whatever you call it I call it delish!

This recipe makes 2 loaves or approximately 24 nicely sized muffins

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup Canola oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup each dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional -  I wanted to add the raisins but I had run out!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour  24 muffin cups or spray them with Pam like I do. If I hadn't run out of pretty liners I would have used those.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.
Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and as well as chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using. Mix well.

Pour batter into cupcake tins. (I used a small cookie scoop.)

Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let cool if you can stand it!

Healthy Snacks for the Family

Photo from Flickr

I don't know about you, but lately it seems I hear groans when my kids want a snack and I suggest they grab a piece of fruit. Fruit? How drab! How boring! How healthy Mom! "I don't want anything healthy!" That's a funny comment because in this house they're not getting anything that's not... On a rare occasion we'll have hot chocolate with marshmallows or whipped cream, or something homemade and fresh out of the oven. Most days, however, the boring healthy stuff!

Kids are like adults. Food must be appealing. If I have time I'll make up a nice presentation. I also try to get creative and mix things up a bit. We all need variety and kids are no exception.

Fresh fruit in a bowl on the counter might look pretty to a grown-up, but kids need a little more in the wow department...

Snack ideas -- Fruit
My kids love party toothpicks... the more festive the more fun. Serve some of the following with fancy toothpicks!

Blueberries in yogurt
Blueberries in yogurt over lowfat granola
Blueberry Smoothies
Strawberries
Strawberries dipped in yogurt (vanilla) and then dipped in sprinkles
Apples cut up with peanut butter
Apples cut up with peanut butter and drizzled with honey
Apples dipped in *cinnamon sugar
Bananas drizzled with honey
Bananas with peanut butter
Bananas dipped in yogurt and then dipped in sprinkles

Snack ideas -- Non-fruit!
Pita chips and hummus
Pretzels and hummus
Veggies and hummus (not as popular with my kids!)
Pretzels with mustard
Pretzels with Queso dip -- the jarred variety is actually fairly low in fat and calories... just watch serving sizes!
Pretzels with *melted cheese
Pita chips and salsa
Baked tortilla chips and salsa
White corn chips (Syder's is lower in calories and sat fat then regular tortilla chips) and salsa

A slice of toast with peanut butter or peanut butter and honey or peanut butter and banana
An English Muffin with *melted cheese
English muffin with peanut butter/jelly (English muffins are a great choice. 110 calories per muffin!)
A bowl of soup. Soups are (for the most part) low fat and filling!
Mixed nuts -- watch portions!
Trail mix -- *make your own!
Granola -- lowfat or make your own and watch portions!
A plate of cheese, crackers and apple or pear slices
Pudding made with skim or 1% milk
Deviled eggs -- made with lowfat mayonnaise. 1 egg (2 halves) packs a bunch of protein!
Popcorn
Mixed dry fruit (with or without nuts)
Crudites (veggies) and lowfat dip

Finger sandwiches (smaller and leaner than their regular counterparts!):
Using Pepperidge Farm Very Thin bread
   Turkey
   Ham
   Cucumber
   Tuna

Kabobs (Kids love these!)
Fruit kabob -- String together various pieces of fruit on to a bamboo skewer
Veggie kabob -- String together various veggies (cucumbers/cherry tomatoes/peppers) onto a bamboo skewer with a small dish of lowfat dressing to dip into
Fruit and cheese kabob
Veggie and cheese kabob

Breakfast for snack!
2 waffles, pancakes or pieces of French toast cut into strips -- honey or maple syrup for dipping
Cereal
Life -- sweet without an overload of sugar
Cornflakes or Rice Krispies drizzled with honey
A small bowl of oatmeal with raisins or dried cranberries (not the instant please!)
Muffins (homemade are healthier, smaller and contain less fats)
   Blueberry
   Apple
   Banana
   Pumpkin
   Sweet potato
   Oatmeal raisin
(Plenty of recipes in this blog to choose from!)
Fruit breads
Made with very little fat (canola oil) these make a nice snack or breakfast
Strawberry
Apple
Zucchini
Blueberry
Pumpkin
Banana
(Plenty of recipes in this blog to choose from!)

* Pretzels (or Triscuits or pita chips) with melted cheese
Preheat oven to broil (hi)
Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil
Place desired amount of pretzels on cookie sheet
Sprinkle generously with your favorite shredded cheese (cheddar, Mexican, etc)
Place under broiler and watch closely until the cheese starts to bubble and turn a golden brown.
Remove from oven and place on a plate with mustard for dipping, if desired.

* English muffins with melted cheese
My kids (as do I!) love these and they are a much better and healthier substitution to the fat-laden grilled cheese sandwich.
Preheat oven to broil (hi)
Halve your English muffin and place in toaster until lightly toasted
When done place sliced cheese (cheddar, American, etc) on each half
Place aluminum foil on a cookie sheet
Place English muffin with cheese on cookie sheet
Place in oven and watch closely until cheese starts to bubble and turn brown.
I am normally not at all a lover of American cheese, but melted on this it is fantastic!

* Trail Mix
Equal amounts raisins and or dried cranberries and nuts such as dry roasted peanuts mixed with half the amount of chocolate chips. Sometimes I add the Pepperidge Farm pretzel goldfish to this as well. So much more less expensive to make your own!

Best Ever Blueberry Muffin Cake

In the midst of holiday baking madness I had completely forgotten that I had offered to bake muffins for three class breakfast parties. In addition to baking gifts for 23 teachers and staff members, I now had the (dreaded) chore of baking muffins for roughly for 48 kids and 6 teachers. Time was of the essence... I needed to make something quickly that would be ready the following morning. The problem was, I was running out of time. I had an hour to clean up and get myself ready to bring the kids to school for their Winterfestival performance. There was noooo way I could bake that many muffins in that time. I also knew that by the time we got back home it would be too late and I would be exhausted. So I did what any lazy home chef would do. I made the batter (I tripled the recipe) and stored it in the fridge. The next morning, at 6:00 am, I got up and poured it into three round cake tins. Sheer genius I tell you!!!

I followed this recipe, which is my all-time favorite, and baked the cake rounds for about an hour. When they had risen and were a beautiful golden brown on top, I took them out of the oven, let them cool a few minutes and transferred them onto plates. I wrapped them in foil and amazingly they were still warm when the kids had them at school. All three cakes were devoured... not one morsel left over for me!

(No picture of the end product... I was way too much in a rush!)

Apple Cinnamon Muffins... hot out of the oven!

Nothing says fall like apples. Nothing speaks to me like apples cooking... It's my all-time favorite scent. Warm apples... cinnamon... brown sugar.... If I'd had enough apples I would have baked a pie... or an apple crisp... or cobbler. But I only had three. And truth be told they were almost past their prime. So I decided to cut them up, let them sit in a little brown sugar and cinnamon and toss them in to some muffin batter. The best part of these muffins was that the work was done at night. I simply took the batter and placed it in the refrigerator overnight. All I had to do this morning was scoop them out into muffin tins and bake them! These apple cinnamony delights were gobbled up in no time!

Ingredients:

3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup, plus 1 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbs butter
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup lowfat milk
2 1/2 cups of unbleached flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375

In a medium sized bowl add cut up apples and 1 tbs of brown sugar and cinnamon, set aside.
In a large bowl add butter, oil and brown 1/2 cup brown sugar, mix well.
Add eggs, vanilla and mix well.
Add baking powder
Add alternating, 1/2 the flour, milk, 1/2 of the flour and combine well.
Fold in apples and all the cinnamon and brown sugar.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap overnight or scoop into muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes.
If left in fridge over night, take out batter about 15 minutes prior to baking to bring to room temperature.


let cool before serving and enjoy!

Simply Out of this World Peach Plum Muffins

Martha Stewart might pick the fruit right from her own fruit trees or go to a farmer's market or Whole Foods store to have only the freshest of pitted fruit on hand, but I tend to use fruit that is a little less than perfect in my baking. Fruit that has an extra blemish or is a bit over-ripe usually find their way into some baked goods. I hate waste. I had a few peaches and plums that had seen better days... until they found themselves in these muffins!

This recipe was adapted from Elizabeth Allston's Best Blueberry Muffins. Because hers are really the best. I have found this muffin to be successful when other fruits are substituted as well. You can taste the butter, the vanilla and the bursts of fruit. I made a dozen large muffins... they didn't last two full days!

1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, or slightly less
2 large eggs
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tsp. baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt
2 cups (approx) of stone fruit, pitted, skin removed cut into small pieces 2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup of milk
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (I omit this)


Heat oven to 350. Grease 12 regular muffin cups, or use foil baking cups.

In a medium bowl beat butter until creamy
Beat in sugar until pale and fluffy
Beat in eggs, one at a time
Beat in vanilla, milk, baking powder and salt
Add flour, mix well, and fold in fruit
Scoop batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle with nutmeg sugar.
Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Let muffins cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Mixed Berry Muffin: Wednesday Morning's Breakfast

I had a half of a bag of leftover raspberries from the other muffins. So I decided to make another batch of something. The more I make over the weekend, the more I have to offer the kids during the week!

I decided a mixed berry muffin would be a perfect and simple choice.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of mixed berries -- when not in season I use frozen berries that have thawed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a large bowl or mixer beat together butter and sugar, add eggs yogurt, vanilla and mix well
Add baking powder, flour, mix well.
Fold in berries.

Line muffin tins with liners or a non-stick spray and scoop batter evenly into 12 tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes,

Raspberry Citrus Muffins

I'm a morning person but I am not. I love to get up early and write but I need to be in bed with my cappuccino while doing so. I don't want to have to get up unless I absolutely have to. I love the idea of getting up early and baking so that the kids will have some fresh out of the oven muffins ready for them for their breakfast. As much as I aim to do this I fall short. Way short. I have even thought about having the batter ready and scooped into muffin tins the night before. But with the after school rush of sports and homework and dinner this never happens. So I will stick to using my weekends. I'll bake a couple of batches and freeze them and take them out as needed. I still pop them in the oven before serving... so they still have that warm out of the oven feel and taste. This is the best I can do for now!

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, room temperature
2/3 C sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 eggs
1/2 C sour cream
1/4 C orange juice
Zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
2 C flour
2 tsp. baking powder

- beat together sugar and butter
- add eggs and beat well
- add OJ and zest
- add sour cream
- add baking powder and flour, mix well
- fold in about 1 1/2 C raspberries -- I used frozen, thawed, about 1/2 bag


Pour batter into lined or greased muffin tins and bake at 375 for 25 - 30 minutes. (Test with a toothpick)

Makes 12 muffins

Cherry Ricotta Muffins

This recipe was totally inspired and borrowed upon from Giada deLaurentis' Nonna's Lemon Ricotta Biscuits


Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 stick of butter, room temperature
* The zest from 1 lemon
* 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
* 1 large egg
* 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
* 1 Cup + of dried cherries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift together flour, baking powder and soda. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar, add egg, mix well. Add almond extract, lemon zest and ricotta. Mix well.

Add flour mixture to batter and blend well. Fold in dried cherries.

Line muffin tin with 12 liners and scoop batter into the liners.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

Let cool 5 minutes and enjoy!

Note: The Tipsy Housewife would most definitely pour a good swig of Limoncello into the muffin batter to enhance the lemon flavor from the zest prior to baking! And then she might take a swig herself ;)

Pancake Muffins

 

I so cannot take the credit for this. I saw it on my friend Andrea's blog and it sounded interesting. So I thought I would give the idea a try. I used a boxed pancake mix (Aunt Jemima's is my favorite) though you could use any recipe from scratch. I followed the directions on the box for the pancakes, then added 2 over-ripe bananas and mixed well. I sprayed some cooking spray into the mini muffin pan and then poured the batter to the top. This made 27 mini muffins -- most likely there would be fewer muffins without the fruit.

I baked the muffins in the oven, preset to 350 degrees, for 20 minutes. Note that these muffins will not turn golden brown like regular muffins do.

We served them with bacon and dipped them into warm syrup. They were deelish!

Can't wait to experiment with other fruits and flavors now!

This would be a great thing to serve for a sleepover as they are easier to make than the pancakes are.

 

Dip your mini muffin into syrup and YUM!

Snowy Days and Banana Muffins Never Get Me Down!

a snowy day calls for the fresh smell of banana bread baking in the oven... but we are too impatient to wait the hour it takes to bake a loaf... so we take our favorite recipe and modify it to make muffins that take only 20 minutes to bake in 350 degree oven...

Makes 18 muffins... that's 9 for me and 9 for you ;)

Cornmeal Muffins with Cranberry Butter

This recipe is Ina's. So I knew it would be perfect! To give it a festive Holiday flair I served these delicious muffins with my Cranberry Butter. D-lish!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup medium cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 extra-large eggs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, and eggs. With the mixer on the lowest speed, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until they are just blended. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each one to the top. Bake for 30 minutes, until the tops are crisp and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly and remove from the pan.

The Cranberry Butter was out of this world good! In fact it was so good that I packaged up a small jar to bring with us to my aunt and uncle's to serve with the not overly sweet orange cranberry bread where it was received with much appreciation!


Cranberry Butter

You might be wondering where I came up with this idea... how strange to mix fruit and butter... but not really! Years and years ago (Ok, centuries ago!) I had my first job at Williams-Sonoma. I loved it there. We were heavily promoting the bread machine at the time and there was always something baking in the store. It smelled heavenly! Whenever we baked simple breads we always had something to serve on them. We concocted all these crazy and delicious spreads. We would combine jam and honey and butter to create the most magnificent Fruit Butters! I can still taste them on the warm, just baked breads... Ahhh... So anyhow, that was the influence behind this creation. I think you will like it a lot!

Directions:

1 stick of butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
1 1/4 (give or take what you have leftover) of home made cranberry sauce or relish (or whole berried canned cranberry sauce)
2 Tbs of honey

In a small food processor (I use my Cuisinart mini chop) place all your ingredients in food processor and pulse until the result resembles raspberry jam. The butter will be blended but you will see white "flecks." This is good!

This was delicious on the cranberry bread as well as the corn muffins... I can't wait to have some more in a bit!

A is for Apple (muffins)

School is but a day or two away. Most likely you will want to spend the last day of summer outside, in the yard, at the beach or park with family and friends. Unless it's raining where you live. Or you have a sick little one. Then you'll want to bake. Why not bake something healthy and nutritious and delicious? Give the kids this treat before school starts tomorrow. You'll thank me!

Ingredients:

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

3 cups of flour, unbleached

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup of canola oil

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup of skim or 1% milk

2 small or 1 large apple cut into 1/4 inch pieces (leave the skins on for extra fiber!)

1 cup of raisins (dried cranberries could be substituted)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

- In a large mixing bowl add your dry ingredients, mix well
- Add eggs, oil, milk and vanilla, mix well
- Stir in apples and raisins

Line muffin tins with paper liners or spray with a non-stick cooking spray.

Fill each cup about 3/4 to the top.

Bake for about 25 minutes.

(My muffin tins are 2 different sizes. This made 48 muffins, medium and large.)

We gobbled up a few initially and then placed the rest in a Ziplock bag and tossed them into the freezer. For future use.)

It's the Great Pumpkin Muffin (Charlie Brown)!!!

I love pumpkin. Anything pumpkin. I love that my kids love pumpkin too. It's so good and healthy for them too. We make lots of pumpkin breakfast goodies in the fall. It's September and the heat and humidity have left New England. The cool, crisp air is perfect for baking. Yesterday I made some fabulous pumpkin muffins. Always a hit around here. I added dried cranberries and raisins for a perfect breakfast or morning snack. We're running out quickly!

Ingredients:
3 cups of unbleached flour
1 tbs pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 - 3/4 cups of granulated sugar
1 can of pumpkin puree
4 large eggs
3/4 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of skim or 1% milk
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Pour mixture in to muffin tins either well greased or lined with cupcake liners. (I use a small ice cream scoop and fill each tin about 3/4 to the top.)

Bake in oven for 25 - 30 minutes... check for done-ness with a toothpick after 25 minutes.

When done remove from oven and let cool.

A perfect taste of fall!

Yogurt Spice Muffins

I was looking for a recipe yesterday in which I could use some of my yogurt and strawberries in a muffin. I have some berries about to turn. I didn't find what I was looking for, instead I found a recipe from Food & Wine. It looked really good. I tweaked a few things to simplify it -- instead of adding nutmeg, and allspice and cloves and cinnamon I used pumpkin pie spice. I love the rich spicy flavor. I opted to cut out the butter (4 tbs) and make these a low fat muffin -- Paula, I see you shuddering over there! And to add texture and fiber I added a cup of oats. And raisins because my kids go nuts over raisins. Other than that, it's the same recipe!

These are not a light and fluffy muffin, but are dense and very filling. They were fabulous fresh out of the oven and the following morning I popped them in the microwave for 12 seconds to warm them a tad.

Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose flour (I used unbleached)
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tbs. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 Tbs. pumpkin pie spice
2 large eggs
1 cup of vanilla (or plain) low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1+ tsp. vanilla extract (I always add extra!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together dry ingredients, set aside
In a large bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, yogurt and apple sauce and vanilla. Mix well, gradually add in dry ingredients, mix well until all is combined. Fold in raisins and oats.

Spoon the batter in to prepared muffin cups. (Use liners, because there is no oil in this recipe the muffins will stick!) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until read. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Like an oatmeal raisin cookie for breakfast! As my daughter said after her first bite "I've never had a muffin before, until I had this!"

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups of applesauce (unsweetened)
2 cups of raisins
2 cups of oats

Directions:

In a mixer cream the butter and brown sugar. When well mixed add eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl sift together dry ingredients, and add to the mixture alternately with the applesauce. Mix well. Stir in raisins and oats.

Pour into lined muffin tins and bake for 20 - 25 minutes until firm to the touch. Let cool about 5 minutes before serving.