Banana Nut Muffins

I'm back in baking mode and it feels great! It's wonderful when you have time to do something for yourself once in a while. Last weekend, I found some time for myself and made these muffins. I bought a bunch of bananas at the beginning of the week and they ripened so quickly. I don't like eating overripe bananas so I couldn't even try to eat them quickly. I had to bake with them. The only problem is that I can't stand the smell of banana bread but I couldn't think of anything else to make with these overripe bananas. I was on a muffin kick at the time anyway so I stuck with this recipe.



I chose this recipe because the blogger wrote that these aren't as strong as normal banana bread might be in terms of flavor. I guess it's true because I thought these turned out delicious - moist and nutty. But maybe my taste buds matured some more. It might just be the smell because I still couldn't handle that but I can certainly handle the tastiness that was these banana muffins. I'll eventually come to love them. It took me until college to realize that vegetables are tasty too! (Sad.)

Who knows when I'll be able to bake again so I'm gonna enjoy these as much as I can. I've started graduate classes and it's taking me a bit more work to get back into academic mode. This week was also homecoming week at my school so it's been crazy! And even though it's Friday, I'm not as excited about it because I know I have to be back at school tomorrow night to work the homecoming dance. At least I'll be able to see some of my students dressed up and having fun!

Banana Nut Muffins
From Apple Crate

4 overripe bananas
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup nuts, finely chopped [I used walnuts]

Peel the bananas. Mash them roughly with a fork, leaving some chunky pieces for texture. Place half of them in a large mixing bowl. Set aside the other half of the bananas.

Add sugar to the bananas in mixing bowl, beat them together for 3 minutes with an electric mixer until a frothy mixture forms. Add butter, eggs and vanilla. Mix together until combined. Add flour, baking soda, salt, remaining bananas and nuts. Stir until just combined. Do not over mix.

Scoop the batter into a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake at 350F for 16 - 18 minutes until baked through. Serve with softend butter.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

The calendar may not be ready for Fall, but I sure am. This weekend's weather was so nice - temperatures in the 70s, sunny with a cool breeze - just what I like. I don't want the hot and humid summer days anymore. Plus, Fall means we are closer to Thanksgiving Break. To get myself in the Fall mood, I decided to make something with pumpkin. I bought 2 cans last year just to have in my pantry, but these would be great with fresh pumpkin puree too. I'm lazy - making fresh pumpkin puree was too much work for me when I tried it last year so I stick to the canned stuff.



I've said before that I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie, but pumpkin baked into bread or muffins or cakes sure is yummy. These muffins are exactly that - yummy! The cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of the muffins before baking add a sweet crunch to the top, the insides are super moist, and the chocolate chips add a surprising sweetness in every bite. I ate these warm while the chocolate chips were still soft and I melted.



Have this recipe ready to make on a nice Fall day. It's coming soon - the Autumnal Equinox is this Sunday, September 22!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
From Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15 ounce can)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp pumpkin-pie spice (made my own mix using this)
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp cinnamon

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tbsp sugar in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Baked Pumpkin Donut Holes

I love the Holidays as much as the next person. Seeing Christmas lights hanging around town fills me with joy. Watching Christmas specials of my favorite TV shows makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Praying for snow (or maybe even a White Christmas) becomes a daily routine. But we are still in early November and Thanksgiving has not even passed yet. So I don't understand why, when I walked into Target yesterday, I saw Christmas decorations and Christmas wrapping paper and Christmas everything. It's just way too early. I think this comic pretty much sums up how I feel.



Even on Foodgawker, I'm seeing Christmas cookie recipes. I'm not ready for that just yet, so I'm sharing a fall recipe today. Another one with pumpkin! But seriously, pumpkin is such a hit with everyone that you've got to make this one, too. Again, just like the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, the pumpkin flavor is subtle. Making these donuts does take more effort, but it's definitely worth it. And you get a lot out of one batch.



When is it acceptable to start listening to Christmas music and putting up Christmas decorations? I would probably say the day after Thanksgiving... What about you?

Baked Pumpkin Donut Holes [Makes 24 donut holes]
From Two Peas and Their Pod

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned plain pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup milk

4 tbps unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven 350F. Spray a 24-cup mini muffin tin with baking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. In a separate, large bowl whisk together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the muffins bake, melt butter in one bowl and combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.

Remove muffins from oven and cool for 2 minutes. Dip each muffin in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar to coat. Serve muffins warm or at room temperature.

Blueberry Muffins: New York Times vs Cook's Illustrated

My mom has gone blueberry picking thrice just within this week. The blueberries take up about half the space in our freezer and there is no more room. More are sitting out on the counter waiting to be eaten or frozen. I would estimate that a total of 50 pounds has entered this house. This only means I need to get my apron on and become a mad scientist (or a mad baker/cook?). I'm going to try to make as many different foods as possible with the overflowing blueberries.

First up, muffins. I've saved tons of blueberry muffin recipes so that I can eventually weed out the ones that I don't really like. I made half-batches of two different recipes in order to do a comparison test. As with anything else, it was difficult to choose which two to start with, but I eventually landed on what Cook's Illustrated calls the best blueberry muffins and a recipe from the New York Times cookbook (that's gotta be good, right?).



So far, the score is two against one. My sister likes Cook's Illustrated's recipe because it is more dense and it uses oil and butter as opposed to all butter. My mom and I like the NYT recipe because it's a bit sweeter. I also love the sweet crunchiness of the top. NYT's was less of a hassle to make as I don't need to make a quick version of blueberry jam to swirl into the muffins. My swirling skills are not up to par, so they really didn't turn out too well. If I were to make Cook's Illustrated's muffins again, I would opt not to make the jam, but I would definitely go for the lemon sugar. I didn't this time, but I wish I had! I'm sure it would have made these muffins taste a lot better. I don't think that would've changed my mind too much though so I wouldn't necessarily call them the best.



Jordan Marsh's Blueberry Muffins (New York Times recipe) [Makes 12 muffins]
From Indochine Kitchen

- 2 cups all purpose flour (280 g)
- 1/2 tsp salt (3 g)
- 2 tsp baking powder (8 g)
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter (120 g), soften
- 1-1/4 cups plus 1 tbsp sugar (280 g plus 1 tbsp)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup whole milk (125 g)
- 2 cups blueberries, rinsed and picked over (250 g)

1. Grease muffin cups. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
2. Cream the butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar in a large bowl, until light. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add to the flour mixture alternately with milk, beating just until smooth.
3. Crush 1/2 cup blueberries with a fork, and mix into the batter. Fold in the remaining whole berries.
4. Fill the muffin cups with batter. Sprinkle the remaining tbsp of sugar over the tops of muffins. Bake at 375F (190C) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from the pan. Store, uncovered, or the muffins will be too moist the second day.

Best Blueberry Muffins (Cook's Illustrated recipe) [Makes 12 muffins]
From Tracey's Culinary Adventures

For the lemon sugar topping
- 1/3 cup sugar (2 1/3 oz)
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest (about 1 lemon)

For the muffins
- 2 cups (about 10 oz) fresh blueberries
- 1 1/8 cups sugar (8 oz) plus 1 tsp
- 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 oz) all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp table salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temp
- 4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. To make the topping: Combine the lemon zest and sugar in a small bowl and rub together with your fingertips until fragrant.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 F with a rack in the upper third. Spray your muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Combine 1 cup of the blueberries along with 1 teaspoon of sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, mashing the berries with a spoon and stirring frequently. Continue cooking until the berries break down and the mixture has a thick jam-like consistency; the volume should be reduced to about 1/4 cup. Transfer to a small bowl and cool to room temperature.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. In another large bowl, whisk the remaining 1 1/8 cups of sugar and the eggs together until pale yellow and thick. Whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Add the buttermilk and vanilla and whisk to incorporate fully. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture along with the remaining 1 cup of blueberries. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold until the dry ingredients are just moistened - the batter will be lumpy, that's fine. Don't overmix.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared wells of the muffin pan - each well should be completely full. Add one teaspoon of the blueberry jam to the center of each well of batter. Use a skewer to gently swirl the jam into the batter. Sprinkle the muffins with the lemon sugar.
6. Bake for 17 to 19 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins are golden and they spring back when gently pressed. Transfer the muffin pan to a wire rack and let the muffins cool for 5 minutes before removing them to cool completely.

Donut Muffins

My fairy tale class lasts two hours and we get a break halfway through class. My professor decided that we should have something to munch on during the break so she made a sign-up sheet for everyone to choose a day to bring in snacks. So far, we've had chips, Doritos, sugar cookies, Capri-Sun (I was extremely happy about this), and Oreos to share. Last week, somebody made chewy chocolate chip cookies and another made homemade toffee, which were amazing! Today was my turn.



Donut muffins actually do taste similar to donuts. Obviously, it's not as good as the real McCoy, but instead of eating something fried, why not eat something baked and smaller in size? I made these in mini-muffin pans just so they are easier for my classmates to eat. I don't know if that was a better idea than making them bigger. If you have self-control, maybe; otherwise, you'd think that because it's tiny, it wouldn't hurt to eat one more and another and another... But biting into that crunchy sugary exterior is so delicious. I had a little too much while making these this morning, so I didn't have any during snack time.



If you use a mini-muffin pan as I did, 15 minutes in the oven is probably enough. I did 10 minutes initially but they were too soft. The extra five minutes brings out more flavor in the muffins and gives them a sturdy interior.

Donut Muffins [Makes 48 mini-muffins or 12 standard muffins]
From Good Life Eats

- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup oil
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup milk

- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon

1. Grease one standard size muffin pan.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine. Fill standard sized muffin tin with the batter, using a scant 1/4 cup per muffin. If using mini-muffin pan, use 1 tbsp batter per muffin.
3. Bake at 350F for 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl. Combine the white sugar with the cinnamon in another bowl. Shake muffins out while still hot. Dip muffins in butter, then into the cinnamon sugar. Let cool.

Morning-After Cranberry Sauce Muffins

I have never had cranberry sauce in my life. As I mentioned before, my family and I did not start doing traditional Thanksgiving dinner until this year. I was going to make it, but apparently my sister is not a fan of cranberry at all. But when I came back to school, I noticed we had 2 cups of cranberry sauce in the fridge as they were leftovers from a housemate's Thanksgiving dinner. Nobody seems to like cranberry sauce outside of Thanksgiving and I didn't really want to give it a try, so we had no idea what to do with it. After a bit of searching around, I did find a recipe for muffins. It uses quite a bit of cranberry sauce so it's a great recipe to use up leftovers. A healthy breakfast or snack so you don't feel too guilty about any overeating you might have done on Thanksgiving dinner.

You can definitely add more flavors if you'd like. Maybe a teaspoon of vanilla extract or orange zest. The original recipe said to add cinnamon in the instructions, but cinnamon was not one of the ingredients, so I didn't add it, but you can add 1/4 teaspoon for even tastier muffins.



Morning-After Cranberry Sauce Muffins [Makes 12 muffins]
From Serious Eats

- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup whole-grain wheat flour
- 1 cup oats
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups of leftover cranberry sauce
- 1/2 cup skim milk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Line muffin tin with paper baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, combine regular flour, whole-grain flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; mix well.
3. In medium bowl, combine milk, oil, cranberry sauce and egg; blend well.
4. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients all at once; stir until dry ingredients are moistened.
5. Fill muffin cups about three-quarters full. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

Every time I look at the bag of cornmeal in my pantry, I frown. What am I to do with it? Cornbread was out of the question because I eat it only with chili and I was not about to cook up a storm for a big pot of chili. I've tried making polenta, but I don't think it's the right kind of cornmeal or I just fail every time I make polenta so I was not about to tackle that again. Just then, my sister requested Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins and I thought What perfect timing!

After eating these, I don't know if I could go back to regular blueberry muffins. I forgot how great cornmeal can taste. I thought that it wouldn't be too noticeable as the amount of cornmeal seemed small, but the taste was all there. Something about the cornmeal added a sort of coarseness and heartiness to the muffins. I really liked the change from the regular all-flour dense muffins. I might even prefer it to cornbread, as sometimes I think cornbread can be too coarse and crumbly for my tastes.

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins
From The Baker's Daughter

- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar [as always, I reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup]
- 1/2 cup heavy cream [me - 1% milk]
- 2 eggs
- 7 tbsp melted butter
- 2 cups blueberries

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and sugar.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, eggs and melted butter and pour into the flour mixture, whisking to combine.
3. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray or place liners. Fill each muffin cup with a scant 1/4 cup and top with the blueberries. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sugar.
4. Bake at 375F for 20 to 25 minutes until evenly browned.