EASY Applesauce Muffins

I have always enjoyed baking with applesauce.  I love how it can replace oil and still give a nice moist texture to what I am baking.  I recently discovered a beautiful recipe for muffins that uses 1 1/2 cups of applesauce.  This large amount of applesauce not only replaces some of the oil but it gives a wonderful flavor to the muffins.  

My girls gobbled up these muffins.  "Yum, yum",  they said.  They had them for breakfast heated up with a lovely pat of butter smeared on it and then again for snack after school with a layer of PB.  I had quite a few myself and found that I liked them best heated up with a cup of tea.  Whether you are looking for a healthy muffin for breakfast or a sweet treat for an afternoon snack this is the muffin recipe for you.  I altered the original recipe just a tiny bit by splitting the flour into 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 whole wheat.  I also added some chopped walnuts and an apple chunk to the top of each muffin to give it a special appeal to the aesthetics and texture of the muffins. 

Best part of this recipe.  It's EASY!!  Let's make some muffins friends!

EASY Applesauce Muffins
(recipe slightly adapted from Catch My Party)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs 
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 apple - peeled, cut into chunks

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 2 regular size muffin tins and set aside.   

In a large bowl combine well first 8 ingredients (all of the dry ingredients) and set aside.  In a medium size bowl combine eggs, oil and applesauce - stir well until thoroughly combined. 

Add wet mixture into the dry mixture - mix well all together with a wooden spoon.  Batter will be thick. 

Fill prepared pans 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle muffins with chopped walnuts and insert one apple chunk into the top of each one.   Bake for 20-22 minutes or until muffins are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool slightly and serve. Store muffins in an air-tight container.  Enjoy!!! 

Happy EASY Applesauce Muffins Baking!

Brown Butter Blueberry White Chocolate Muffins

Brown Butter Blueberry White Chocolate Muffins....what a mouthful!  A delicious mouthful for sure.  Tart blueberries, sweet white chocolate and the nuttiness of browned butter all surrounded by tender crumbs topped off with a sweet crumble.  A blueberry muffin recipe that is a MUST. 

 

How is it that I have missed the boat for so long on browning butter?!?!  Oh. My. Goodness. Do I LOVE browned butter!!! The taste that it adds to this muffin recipe is wonderful. I can not wait to bake more with browned butter! That being said be warned as you will most likely see many more recipes in the future on my blog with browned butter.  Do you have a favorite recipe that uses browned butter?  PLEASE do share!!!


I love that Joy the Baker has come out with her first cookbook as this is where I found this lovely muffin recipe.  If you have yet to purchase this book do yourself a favor and treat yourself to it.  It is packed full of GORGEOUSLY scrumptious recipes.  A talented and oh-so-sweet blogging friend of my mine, Carrie from Bakeaholic Mama, hosts a fabulous blogging event every Sunday that features a recipe from Joy's cookbook.  This event is called, Sunday's with Joy.  Take a peek at it as I am sure you will find lots of fun and delicious recipes from Joy The Baker that you will want to try. :-)

Brown Butter Blueberry White Chocolate Muffins
(Slightly altered from the recipe found in Joy The Baker Cookbook)

Muffin Ingredients:

7 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup white chocolate chips (my addition)
2 cups fresh blueberries (I used frozen bb's and it worked just fine)

Topping Ingredients:

3 Tbsps unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbsps sugar


Directions:

1.  Place oven rack onto the upper third of the oven and then preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners and then set aside.

2. Make muffin batter first by browning the butter.  Place 7 Tbsps of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Butter will first melt, then forth and then lastly crackle - which is the water cooking out of the butter. The crackling will subside and then the butter will start to brown - this happens quite quickly so keep your eye on the butter so that it doesn't burn. Remove saucepan from heat when you see that it becomes a medium brown color and it has the wonderful nutty smell.  Immediately pour hot butter into a small bowl and set aside.  This will allow your butter to not continue to cook and possibly burn.

3. In a small bowl whisk to combine,  milk, egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Add in browned butter and whisk to combine.  Set bowl aside.

4. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar and baking powder.  Whisk all together.

5. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients all at once. Stir to combine. Do not over mix.  Add in white chocolate chips and blueberries and gently but thoroughly stir all together. .

6. Scoop muffin batter into prepared muffin tins.  I used my lovely medium scoop for this step.

7. Make crumble topping but combining cold butter, flour and sugar all together in a medium bowl. Incorporate butter with the dry ingredients by either using a pastry cutter or your fingers.

8. Sprinkle crumble topping over muffins.  Pop muffins into preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and when a toothpick is inserted in center comes out clean.  Serve muffins warm or at room temperature.

Happy Brown Butter Blueberry White Chocolate Muffins Baking!

Buttermilk Berry Muffins

Lately I have been dreaming I warmer days.  Days filled with beautiful sunshine hot enough to make us yearn for cool waters to play and swim in. Berry picking is another activity that I identify with warm and sunny days.  Unfortunately right now here in Southern NH warm weather is far far away....well at least another 3 months away I should say.  So in the meantime I have chosen to bake with berries.  If I don't look outside (at the snow and ice) and just stay cozy in my kitchen (with my berries) warm weather is possible in my world.

I love how this recipe provided such yummy muffins.  The texture was soft and almost cake like - many thanks to the buttermilk. The flavor of the berries along with the lemon zest gave off a delicious sweetness with just a touch of tartness from the lemon.  The original recipe only called for blueberries but because I had some lovely raspberries frozen from last summers picking I decided to add those in too.....thus the "berry" muffins. 

I consider buttermilk the magic of all recipes when part of the ingredient list as it adds such a perfect taste and texture to the recipe.  Please don't let buttermilk intimidate you as it is made so easily with milk and a splash of lemon juice.  Let those two characters sit together for a couple of minutes unstirred and viola you have buttermilk!

Buttermilk Berry Muffins

(recipe recipe slightly adapted from Warmth in the North)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter - at room temp

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs - at room temp

2 cups flour - divided

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 heaping cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 heaping cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

2 Tbsp sugar - for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.  I used regular size muffin tins but will make jumbo muffins next time I make this recipe.

2. In a large bowl cream together butter, sugar, lemon zest and salt until light and fluffy.  Add in eggs one at at time. 

3. In a medium bowl combine 1 3/4 cup flour and baking powder.  Add to butter mixture alternately with the buttermilk.  Mix all together just until incorporated. 

4. Toss berries with remaining 1/4 cup flour in a medium bowl and then gently fold into batter.  Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins. 

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool and serve.

Enjoy!

Dreaming of warm weather! :-)

Happy Buttermilk Berry Muffin Baking!



It Is Secret Recipe Club Time!

Recently I joined a fun cooking group online called, The Secret Recipe Club.  Oh. My. Goodness what fun! I was assigned a LOVELY blog and from that blog I got to choose a recipe to make and then share with all of you.  But I couldn't reveal the blog or the recipe until today!  So without any further waiting my secret recipe for today is, Mini Pumpkin Muffins....

.... from the wonderful blog, Everyday Sisters. :-)

Not only did I enjoy this recipe (as I am sure you guys will too) but I fell head over heels in love with this blog!  Four (yes, FOUR...two of which are identical twins and all four of which are just lovely inside and out -  I can tell by their sweet smiles.) sisters have created and contribute to Everyday Sisters. All of them are just lovely - I feel like I know them personally now that I have been following them for the past month.  I felt honored to get to know them via their blog.  I love the variety of recipes that they offer such as Bistro Style Pasta Neapolitano (super yum looking and simple to throw together), White Zinfandel Sangria (one of my all time favorite kinds of drinks...the recipe lots so GOOD!) and Blueberry Cheesecake (which won an award!).  Yup, I did a lot of drooling as I looked through their blog. So many yummy recipes!! :-)

 

I loved these Mini Pumpkin Muffins! These little gems only required 5 ingredients - simple, yummy and fun.  Nothing better than that. Amen! And because they were so yummy and simple to make I made a batch to send to my oldest daughter's Halloween party at school today. I think all the kiddos will love them!

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

(recipe from Everyday Sisters)

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin (NOT pie filling)

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil (I used canola)

sunflower seeds - optional - (I used chocolate covered sunflower seeds as that is what I had on hand... which worked out pretty well!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease mini muffin tins or line with cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients except for sunflower seeds. Mix until well combined. 

3. Stir into batter sunflower seeds or you can wait until muffin batter has been scooped into tins.

4. Scoop batter into muffin tins.  I did so with my small scoop from Pampered Chef.

5. Bake for 11-13 minutes.  Cool for a couple of minutes in pan and then remove to serve and enjoy.

YUM!

A special thank you to Ellen, Nanci, Karen and Susan from Everyday Sisters for being part of the Secret Recipe Club so that I could have you as my first Secret Recipe Club blog.  Also, I'd like to thank Amanda who created this cooking club and Tami for hostessing my group.  I can't wait to find out which blog I get for the month of November!

Happy Mini Pumpkin Muffin Baking!

Apple Crumble Pie Muffins

Fall has arrived and I am totally embracing the season by baking as much as I can with apples. Watch out because I have a bunch of apple recipes coming your way in the next couple of weeks. 

Here is a little picture of our first apple picking outing of the season this year....so much fun but TONS of mosquitoes nagged at us as we picked.  I seriously have no patience for mosquitoes (especially when they bite my kiddos!!!).  Rrrrrrr!!!

 One of the first things I made with the apples we picked that day was a lovely batch of muffins called,  Apple Crumble Pie Muffins.  Seriously, seriously good muffins is produced by this recipe.  And yes, the muffins do remind me of apple pie as they are packed full of chopped apples, cinnamon goodness and a perfect crumble topping. Best of all they are super easy and quick to make.  The longest part of this recipe is the peeling, coring and chopping of the apples.

The original recipe suggested making regular size muffins but I choose to make the muffins in my jumbo size muffin tins.  I was able to make 9 jumbo muffins out of the batter. 

Apple Crumble Pie Muffins

(recipe was found on This and That - lots of fun recipes found throughout this blog)

Crumb Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Muffin Batter Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2/3 cup veggie or canola oil

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk (I made my own by squirting in a couple tsp's of lemon juice into the milk and letting it sit for a couple of minutes)

2 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups peeled and diced apples

Directions:

1. Prepare topping by combining all crumb ingredients in a medium size bowl.  Set aside as you make the muffin batter.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare muffin batter by taking a large bowl and whisking together brown sugar, oil, egg, vanilla extract and buttermilk all together until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt.  Add sifted flour mixture into wet mixture.

4. Fold in diced apples - mix just to combine....you don't want to over mix batter as your muffins will have a tough consistency if over mixed.

5. Grease muffin tins or line with muffin cups.  Fill 2/3's of the way up.  Sprinkle muffin batter cups with crumb topping.  Pop in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (time maybe less if making regular size muffins).  You will know that the muffins are done when they are golden brown and tops will spring back when touched.

I know you will enjoy these muffins!

Happy Apple Crumble Pie Muffin Baking!



Two flavors of New Hampshire in one muffin

I am always proud to say that I live in NH.  I love that not only does my state have direct access to the ocean but also to the majestic White Mountains. The best of both worlds. 

 Yes, NH has long, WHITE and cold winters but also has a soft and precious (sometime very wet) season of spring that is followed by a HOT and humid summer which then leads into a spectacular season of fall with colors of reds, oranges and yellows. NH is blessed with four seasons....some are easier than others...but usually we can find beauty and happiness at some point in all of them. 

Another special part of NH is what is grown and produced within our state.  Berries of many kinds are grown and cultivated in abundance.  In the dead of winter I will start counting down the days as to when the first day of berry picking will begin.  I live for berry picking! - in particular blueberry picking.  Strawberries are wonderful to pick but the duration of blueberry picking seems to last longer than the quick 2-3 week season of strawberries.  Another speciality flavor of NH is maple syrup.  Pure maple syrup is like gold in my eyes.  Its sweetness not only exists in its flavor but also in how it is produced. Long hours of gathering the sap from the maple trees which is then followed by even longer hours of boiling down the sap is what makes maple syrup come alive.  What a gift PURE NH maple syrup is!  

In my discovery of this muffin recipe I rejoiced that it combined two of my most favorite ingredients in the whole world...blueberries and the flavor of maple syrup.  And let me tell you my happiness was not in vain as the muffins came out AMAZINGLY delicous.  Delicous I say!  Thank you RECIPE girl for sharing this recipe.  Thank you VERY much.

Blueberry Maple Muffins

(recipe from the fabulous blog, recipegirl.com)

Ingredients:

2 cups AP flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plain yogurt (I used greek yogurt)

3/4 cup sugar

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs, at room temp

1/2 tsp maple extract

2 Tbsp AP flour (for tossing over the blueberries)

2 Tbsp sugar (also for tossing into the blueberries)

1 cup fresh blueberries (I am sure frozen blueberries could be used if you don't have fresh)

Directions:

1. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin (although my batter gave me a "bakers dozen" of muffins) with non-stick spray.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. 

3. In a medium bowl combine yogurt, 3/4 cup sugar, melted butter, eggs and maple flavoring.

4. In a third bowl combine blueberries with 2 Tbsps flour and 2 Tbsps sugar - toss gently to coat berries.

5. Combine dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.  Do NOT over mix...batter will be lumpy.  Mix just until flour is barely visible.  Add in blueberries, gently.

6. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins.  An ice cream scoop works great for this step.

7. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle of a muffin comes out clean.  Allow the muffins to sit for 5 minutes before removing from pan and goobling up serving.

Happy Blueberry Maple Muffin Baking!

p.s. NH is a great place to live if you are looking to relocate.... ;-) 



Coffee Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Love muffins?  How about the flavor of coffee?  Or chocolate?  Even better how about coffee and chocolate together IN a muffin?  YUM right!? Here is a muffin recipe with all that coffee and chocolate yumminess in one place.

In the original recipe for these muffins two sources of coffee flavorings were used - instant coffee granules and coffee flavored liqueur.  Because I did not have the instant coffee I used freshly brewed Starbucks coffee along with Kaluha (YUM!) and coffee extract (which I decided to add to the recipe in an extra effort to give the muffins a nice coffee flavoring paired with the chocolate chunks).   The coffee flavor in the muffins was good (especially after the muffins sat for day and the flavor was able to really set in) but next time I think I will tweek the recipe further with more coffee flavoring so that the essence of coffee is more pronounced.

Over all this recipe was a hit and I wouldn't be sharing it with all of you Sweetie Pies if I didn't LOVE it myself.  You get my drift right?

Coffee Chocolate Chunk Muffins

(recipe was adapted from a food blog called, Diana's Desserts.  I have been delighted to find her blog!)

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 Tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 Tbsp boiling water

1 Tbsp Kahlua (or another kind of coffee liqueur)

1 tsp coffee flavoring (optional - I had this in my pantry and added it into the batter in attempt to give a full flavor of coffee..which basically worked but next time I think I will add about a 1/2 tsp more of this flavoring)

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks ("chips" would be just fine if you don't have "chunks" on hand



Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin with jumbo cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl beat together butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla, dissolved coffee, coffee flavoring and coffee liqueur until well blended.

3. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beating until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chunks.

4. Scoop batter into lined muffin pan cups.  I used an ice cream scoop to do this which worked great!

5. Bake in preheated oven for 22-25 minutes or until centers spring back when lightly pressed.  Just look at these lovely muffins!  Man, do they make me happy!

Serve warm or at room temperature with a nice hot beverage of your choice.  Enjoy!

Happy Coffee Chocolate Chunk Muffins Baking!

Do you know the Muffin Man? How about the Muffin Woman?

Today I am the Muffin Woman....I have Coffee Cake Muffins for you!  Yummy, full o flavor and goodness Coffee Cake Muffins.  One of the BEST parts of this recipe is that it has a ribbon of brown sugar and cinnamon that runs right through the middle of the muffins.  Super, duper YUM-O! 

Do you have a favorite muffin recipe?  Please do share!  I adore any kind of muffin and have been looking for a long time for a GOOD Coffee Cake Muffin recipe - I'm delighted to say that I think I've found it!  Here we go....

Coffee Cake Muffins

(recipe from SwEEts by E - a blog FULL of yumminess!)

Streusel Ingredients:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, softened

Muffin Ingredients:

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 cup AP flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter, COLD

1/4 cup applesauce

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Streusel Directions:

1. Mix flour, sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl.

2. Add in softened butter using a fork...

 - mash until well combined....

  Place streusel mixture into fridge while you make the muffin batter.

Muffin Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line regular size muffin tins with liners or spray with non-stick baking spray.

2. In a large bowl combine/whisk flours, sugar, baking powder and salt....

  Cut COLD butter into small cubes and then add to flour mixture....

  Using paddle attachment, mix the butter into the flour mixture until fully incorporated.  This will take about 2-3 minutes on medium speed.

3. Mix in applesauce then add in egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract....

  Mix all together until just smooth - don't over mix!

4. Take streusel topping out of fridge.  Place a spoonful of batter into each muffin mold and then 1-2 tsp of the streusel topping...

 followed by another spoonful of batter and lastly another 1-2 tsp of streusel topping.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove muffins from oven and then place on cooling racks for 10 minutes before serving.  Store any left-over muffins in a well sealed container.

Enjoy!

Happy Coffee Cake Muffins Baking!

**Many of you have been sending me wishes of good luck and happiness for the birth of my second child -which will be happening any day now- ....thank you ALL so much!  I am now on maternity leave from work and just waiting patiently for the Bambino to arrive. We don't know the gender of the baby. We chose to wait for the baby's entrance into the world for us to find out - I LOVE surprises!!!  I am feeling good - no signs of going into labor in this very moment....I guess anything can happen at any time!  I'm just hoping for a quick and uncomplicated labor like I had with my daughter.  I am optimistic that this will happen. :-)  Lots of gratitude for all your sweet messages and happy thoughts sent my way....I truly appreciate it!  xoxoxo to ALL! **

Mini Pecan Muffin Cutie Pies - Week #3 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

Happy 3rd Week of Christmas Cookies!!!

This recipe is dedicated to all of you that love pecans and anything "mini" - you are going to LOVE this gem of a recipe! 

Okay, so technically these little Cutie Pies are not cookies, bars or candies but they are seriously a scrumptious little treat and absolutely perfect for a holiday treat platter. And, they are super super easy to make! 

After seeing this recipe on Lick the Bowl Good (Hey, Monica!) I knew as soon as I promised my Dad that I would help provide refreshments for his art show this past weekend that these little gems would be perfect.  Perfectly delicious and perfect for people to just grab as they were looking around at all my Dad's beautiful photographs.   And I have to say, I was soooo right!  They disappeared just like that!

Mini Pecan Muffin Cutie Pies

Ingredients:

*1 cup chopped pecans - don't be afraid to add in an additional 1/4 cup if you'd like your Cutie Pies to be even more pecan-y

*1/2 cup flour

*1 cup packed brown sugar

*2/3 cup butter, melted (10 1/4 Tbsp = 2/3 cup butter)

*2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Combine all ingredients in bowl....

.... and mix until well combined.

3. Spray mini muffin tins (24-28) and fill 3/4 of the way full....

....pop in oven for about 18 minutes.

4. Cool for 5 minutes then remove cutie pies from pans onto a wire rack to continue cooling comopletely.  Do not let them sit too long or else you are going to have to put in some extra muscle power to get them out of the pans.

Hello there Cutie Pie!

Enjoy!

Happy Mini Pecan Muffin Cutie Pie Baking!

Week 3 Twelve Weeks of Christmas: