Muffin Recipes

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Gluten-Free Mixed Berry Muffins
Peach Struesel Muffins
Pumpkin Muffins
Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

It's almost Fall, and at our house that means also apple-picking season!  The boys and I went to pick apples last week and thus we are making everything apple this week!  Apple and cheddar cheese slices for snacks, homemade apple sauce, apple pancakes for breakfast later this week, and of course, these yummy apple muffins!  I love Fall foods!  Pictured are mini-muffins.  I froze my regular sized muffins for baking up later this Fall and Winter. 

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Recipe adapted from http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/04/whole-wheat-apple-muffins/

2 cups (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
2 cups (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose unbleached flour**
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tbsp. cinnamon
2 sticks (1 c.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. dark brown sugar, packed, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp. warm water
2 cups plain greek yogurt
4 c. apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped (about 4 large apples)

**I use the Ultra-grain blend from Costco.  It bakes like a white flour but has 9g whole grains per serving so I feel a little better about using that then plain white flour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Line muffin tins with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, cream together salt, granulated sugar, and 1/2 c. brown sugar.  Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and flaxseed meal mixture and cream well.  Gently mix in the yogurt.  Do not over mix.  Combine with the dry ingredients.  Fold in the apples.

Divide mixture into muffin tins.  Sprinkle tops of muffins with remaining 1/4 c. brown sugar.  Bake for 10 minutes, turn down heat to 400 degrees and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

Enjoy!

Makes about 3 dozen regular sized muffins or gazillions of mini-muffins (an approximation).

Food for Thought: As always, here is my favorite tip about muffins. If you don't want a large amount of muffins right now, freeze the batter uncooked in the muffin tins.  Use the foil muffin papers.  They will hold up in the freezer better.  Then, when they have been in the freezer for about 2 hours, dump out of the pans and into freezer bags.  Label your bags or you will have mystery muffins!  When you are ready to eat them, simply pop the muffins, frozen, into your muffin pans.  Bake as per the usual instructions adding 5-10 minutes of baking time to allow for the thawing.  Yay for easy freezer cooking! 

Peach Struessel Muffins

I had a case of delicious Colorado peaches and although we love to eat them, we are only able to do so much before they start to get overly ripe.  So, I have been researching peach recipes and bookmarking my favorites in order to get through the peaches.  I would hate for them to go to waste!  These muffins were easy to make and delicious!  I made a double batch and then froze half of them (uncooked batter in muffin papers) and baked half of them up for a gathering I was going to.  They were delicious and it is so nice to have a variety of muffins ready to bake right in the freezer.  Best trick ever, Sarah B.!

Peach Streusel Muffins

Recipe from www.myrecipes.com

1/4 c. butter, softened
1/3  c. sugar
1 large egg
2 1/3 c. all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen peaches, peeled and chopped
1/4 c. sugar
3 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 1/2 Tbsp. butter, chilled

Instructions:

Beat 1/4 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add 1/3 cup sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg, beating until blended.

Combine 2 1/3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with milk, stirring well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract, and fold in chopped peaches.

Spoon muffin batter into greased or paper-lined muffin pan, filling two-thirds full.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon; cut in 2 1/2 tablespoons butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over muffin batter.

Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans, and cool on wire racks.

Food for Thought: I did not in any way make these sneaky or healthier in any way, there are easy things that could be done.  Substitute whole wheat flour for half of the flour; use 1 Tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 3 Tbsp. warm water instead of the egg. Hope you enjoy them! 

Chocoate Zucchini Muffins

I needed a way to use up more of the zucchini I got at the farmer's market.  I ran out of cinnamon on my previous batch of zucchini bread so looked for a new way to bake it up.  These turned out delicious - moist and flavorful without being too sweet.  After sharing them at our family reunion this past weekend, we have received a cousin rating: 10 out of 10! 

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

adapted from www.joyofbaking.com

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1 c. baking cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. flaxseed meal combined with 6 Tbsp. warm water
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. coconut oil
1/2 c. apple sauce
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 c. shredded zucchini

In a large bowl, combine flours, cocoa, baking soda and powder, and salt. 

In a separate bowl, blend the eggs, flaxseed meal combination, sugars, coconut oil, apple sauce, and vanilla.  Blend well.  (If coconut oil is still in solid form, heat slowly over low heat on the stove, allow to cool, and then add to mixture.  If you do not have coconut oil, canola oil can be substituted.)

Mix together wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.  Fold in zucchini.

In muffin tin lined with muffin papers, scoop batter.  Bake muffins at 350 degrees for 20-23 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 2 dozen muffins.

Food for Thought: As always, this is a great muffin recipe for freezing.  Simply pour batter into muffin papers, flash freeze for 2 hours, and then empty into a freezer bag.  When ready to bake, don't thaw.  Simply place in muffin pan and bake at same temperature adding 5-10 minutes to the baking time.  It is helpful to use the foil muffin papers as the paper ones tend to fall apart when baking after freezing.

Gluten-Free Mixed Berry Muffins

I had a potluck style brunch to go to and signed up to bring a variety of muffins and breads.  I knew that there were one or two people who followed a gluten-free diet and have wanted to try for a while now to make some GF foods so this was my opportunity.  I did a bit of research and found many blog sites dedicated to gluten free cooking (and many with adaptations to eliminate the "allergy" foods like eggs, gluten, dairy, etc.) so it was easy to find something to bake.  My gluten-free friend said they were tasty and I liked them too.  However, quinoa flour is something of a distinct taste so perhaps test it out yourself before making a large batch.

Gluten-Free Mixed Berry Muffins

Recipe adapted from http://glutenfreeday.com/?p=62

2 c. quinoa flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 c. mixed frozen berries
3 Tbsp. oil
4 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
1 ripe mashed banana
1/2 c. apple sauce
1 c. milk
1 tsp. lemon juice
powdered sugar

Instructions:

Combine flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Stir in the frozen berries. 

In a separate bowl, combine milk and lemon juice and let sit for a few minutes.  Add to that the oil,  maple syrup, banana, and apple sauce. 

Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir.  Do not overmix.

Divide into 12 lined muffin cups or into 24 mini-muffin cups. 

Bake at 340 degrees for 20 minutes (mini-muffins) or 30 minutes (regular sized muffins).

Good for You (if you can believe it) Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

This recipe is one of my two year old's favorites... though he tends to pick through and eat all the chocolate chips first and then ask for another muffin - my kind of guy!



Good for You (if you  can believe it) Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Adapted from a recipe on: www.fortheloveoffood.net

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 T. flax seed meal mixed with 3 T. warm water

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1/4 cup pureed veggie (carrots, sweet potato, or pumpkin)

1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt (preferably low fat, Greek yogurt)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large, very ripe bananas

1 cup dark chocolate chips

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, white sugar and brown sugar until well combined.

In another bowl, mix the flax seed meal, oil, pureed veggie, yogurt, vanilla and mushed bananas until mixed thoroughly.

Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients without over mixing. Add the chocolate chips and fold them into the batter.

Pour batter into muffin papers 3/4 full. 

If freezing, place muffin pan in freezer for 2 hours and then pop muffins into Ziploc baggies for cooking later.  Keep frozen until ready to cook.  Place in a muffin pan and follow directions below adding 5-10 minutes of cooking time.

If serving immediately, bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

Healthy, yet Tasty, Pumpkin Muffins

Healthy, yet Tasty, Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 15 oz. cans pumpkin
2/3 cups cooking oil
4 Tbls. flax seed meal combined with 12 Tbs. warm water
1 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Topping:
1 Tbls. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine flour and baking powder in a small bowl. 

In a large bowl combine remainder of ingredients (except topping) and mix thoroughly.  Add the flour mixture and combine until just mixed.

Fill muffin papers approximately 3/4 full.  Mix remaining 1 Tbls. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon and sprinkle over the muffins.  (If freezer cooking, place muffin tin in freezer for approximately 2 hours and then put muffins in bags.  Follow baking instructions below.)

If baking immediately, bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.

If from frozen, keep muffins frozen until ready to bake.  Place frozen muffin batter in a muffin pan, and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.

Makes 32 muffins.

Food for Thought:
Another easy way to make this recipe a bit healthier for your unsuspecting children (and husbands) is to substitute pureed cooked vegetables (or even easier baby food veggies, preferably carrots, sweet potato, or squash), or applesauce for half of the cooking oil in the recipe.  They are still just as moist and flavorful with fewer fat calories and another dose of veggies or fruits for you.