Chunky Banana Bran Muffins

My mom always has a batch of muffins ready to go at a moment's notice. Since I have been home on maternity leave, I have had people come over for lunch often and it's always nice to have something homemade for lunch. Since my meal planning resolution was exclusively for dinners however, sometimes lunch ingredients don't always make it into the mix so I'm going to try my mom's trick: freezing muffins.

I made this recipe for Tim and I, but it made a dozen muffins which we can't eat fast enough so I took half of them, and froze them. Now if I have some unexpected visitors, I can easily pull some out of the freezer and it looks like I just made them! Brilliant.

These muffins, from The Barefoot Contessa, were moist and delicious but what I love is that you could probably have a lot of fun with the add-ins, too. Next time, I'm going to add blueberries to the mix instead of raisins for an added punch of antioxidants, colour and flavour. What add-ins would you try?

Chunky Banana Bran Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/8 pound (1/4 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup large diced bananas (about 1 large banana)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
• Combine the bran and buttermilk in a bowl and set aside
• Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on a high speed for about five minutes, until light and fluffy
• With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time
• Scrape the bowl then add the molasses, orange zest and vanilla (the mixture will look curdled)
• Add the bran-buttermilk mixture and combine
• In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture until just combined. Do not overmix.
• Fold in the raisins, banana and walnuts with a rubber spatula
• With a large spoon, fill the muffin cups full and bake for 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pans.

Recipe from The Barefoot Contessa at Home

Mixed Berry Muffins

It's berry season here in Ontario and I had an absolute abundance of berries on hand when I decided to make these. I laughed when I looked at these half way through cooking because the recipe told me "these muffins hide a sweet surprise" -- but the surprise of the berries were bursting all over my muffin tin. I actually think they looked better than if they were just a plain looking muffin. 

I will note that the "muffin" was pretty dense though -- more like a shortcake or even a scone. These would work really well as a summer dessert too -- add some fresh whipped cream and some extra berries on the plate and you're done!

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 2 1/2 cups mixed berries (I used blackberries, strawberries and raspberries)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest

For the muffins:

• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup  butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Combine all the filling ingredients in a small saucepan. Gently bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes until the berries give some of their juices. Set aside.
• For the muffins, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the butter, milk and egg in a small bowl. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
• In a 12 tin muffin pan, use half the batter and spoon into each cup. Then spoon a layer of the filling and the add the remaining batter.
• Bake for 20 minutes.

Recipe from 500 Cupcakes

Zucchini and Chocolate Chip Muffins

I'm having a cooking love affair with zucchini. It's such a lovely ingredient to cook with and because of it's high moisture content, everything I make with it is so moist and delicious.

Zucchini muffins seemed weird to me, but I was happy to add chocolate chips to it (as per the recipe!). As this recipe was from www.allrecipes.com, lots of people suggested that this was a great way to feed vegetables to children. Truthfully, I don't agree. In a dozen muffins, there was one large zucchini, which nets out to hardly one serving. Either way, I really enjoyed these and they certainly didn't last long in our house!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

• In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
• In a separate bowl, combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla.
• Stir dry ingredients into wet until just combined.
• Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.
• Pour into greased muffin tins.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Recipe adapted from www.allrecipes.com

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

This recipe came from one of my favourite sites to scout recipes: www.allrecipes.com. On this site, someone will post a recipe and then other bakers and cooks can rate the recipe and write in what they liked about it -- or didn't like about it -- and often what recommendations they had for it. I like this site in particular because I enjoy other new chefs commenting on recipes and appreciate the feedback they offer.

This blueberry muffin recipe had 3,750 comments and received 4.5 out of 5 stars. And let me tell you, that many people certainly weren't wrong! This recipe is oustanding, ridiculously easy and full of ingredients I already had on hand (huge bonus). Plus, the crumble topping was a nice treat!

One of the things in particular I noticed when mixing this was how thick the batter was. It was unlike anything I had ever made before -- really dense and more cake-like than muffin. It bakes up really well and I wouldn't call the muffins light and fluffy, but they have a nice substance to them. Don't be shy on the blueberries either!

The original recipe said this made eight muffins, but I stretched it to 10 (in a regular muffin tin) so I had room on top to add the crumble mixture.

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 blueberries
• 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. 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.




Print recipe for To Die for Blueberry Muffins

Muffin Frittatas

This is the new Egg McMuffin. 

These met all the criteria for a weekday breakfast:

• easy to prepare (even better to make the night before and just microwave in the a.m.)
• healthy -- loaded with veggies and protein
• good for on-the-go

I made this frittata mixture and simply put them in (note: well greased) muffin tins. You could add any combination of veggies that you like and any kind of cheese to dress them up -- or down -- as you like. 

Next time I'm going to experiment with a strata recipe, which I think will make these a little denser (the difference, as far as I can tell, is that in a strata there is bread). These would also be great as mini-muffins as a nice brunch appetizer. Stay tuned for more variations of this one!

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk (if you use skim, mix some 5 or 10% cream with it so it's not too runny)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup zucchini, diced
• 1/2 cup yellow pepper, diced
• 1/3 cup diced tomatoes

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper until blended.

Add cheese and veggies, mix well.

Ladle into well greased muffin cups. About 1/4 cup each -- makes 10 to 12.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until just set.

Cook on rack for about 5 minutes, but as soon as they come out of the oven, run a paring knife around the edges (this will not only help get them out, it will make clean up a breeze).

Serve warm.

Recipe adapted from www.allrecipes.com

Print recipe for Muffin Frittatas

Orange Cranberry Muffins

These muffins were extremely moist and the batter was even really not like any other muffin batter that I've made before. The orange muffin on its own would have been really good, but I decided to add some craisins (cranberry raisins). For T, this put the sweetness scale over the top, but I really enjoyed them. So much in fact, that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

Either way, I'd definitely make these orange muffins again but instead of the craisins, I would maybe add some walnuts or raisins instead, just to try something different.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp taking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup craisins (optional)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, soak oats in warm orange juice for 15 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and mix in oat mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, blend flour, baking powder, soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir into batter.
4. Stir in vanilla and craisins.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans (greased or with paper liners). This batter will be really liquidy, but the muffins will be soft and moist!
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Recipe adapted from www.allrecipes.com