Muffin Mondays: Carrot Muffins

My policy here with the girls is ask and you shall receive.... as long as you supply the ingredients. So when one of the second year students craved carrot muffins, all she had to do was supply me with a bag of carrots. She showed up a couple of days later with a nice sized bag and left with the reassurance that she'd soon have some muffins. She had expressed to me that she missed her mother's muffins. Now, I know of the carrot muffins she had in mind and honestly, they were more cake than muffin and more sugar than carrot. Wanting something a bit more...wholesome, or at least something that more closely resembled a carrot muffin, I turned to my book shelf. My first instinct was to go thumb through Carole Walter's Great Coffeecakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More. Therein, I found an excellent recipe for Old Fashioned Carrot Muffins. I eliminated the fruit and nuts, maybe because I didn't have them on hand or maybe just because I don't always like too many extras to steal away from the main ingredient. The only other changes I made were to substitute oil for the butter and I coarsely grated the carrots instead of using a finer, more puree like form. Even though initially that wasn't deliberate, I enjoyed seeing the bits of carrot in there. It was quite rustic and authentic, in my humble opinion. When I gave these to the student who commissioned them to taste, I could tell that she was disappointed because they were not her mother's. But when she took them downstairs, they were devoured instantaneously and I received glowing reviews from the head of the school who had managed a muffin. I myself quite liked them.

Old Fashioned Carrot Muffins

adapted from Carole Walter

8 ounces carrots, peeled

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

few grates fresh nutmeg

pinch of cloves

2/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a twelve cup muffin pan or line one with muffin cups. Set aside.
Grate the carrots. I grated them coarsely but do as you please.In a bowl, place all of the dry ingredients.

Whisk to aerate and combine.

Add the grated carrots,

and toss to coat in the dry ingredient mixture. Set aside.

In a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup, place all of the liquid ingredients.

Whisk thoroughly to combine.

Pour over the flour-carrot mixture,

and whisk just until combined, taking care not to overmix.

Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Using a large disher works well here.

Bake for 25-28 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center is clean or has a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Serve to hungry students ASAP.

Muffin Mondays: Chocolate Chip Muffins

It's been a long time since I've posted, but not for lack of things to post. Trust me, I have a backlog of things waiting to be posted. It's also not because I've lost interest-- on the contrary, I log on every day to check out the blog. So why have I been a stranger? Well, for the past two weeks, I have been in the south of Israel working for my "adopted" family while they are working on a program. The internet in the house is practically nonexistent, save for a couple of bars that go in and out. Pretty unreliable. Needless to say, it's almost impossible to upload photos. To my shock and surpise, I managed to get these few photos up and so I'm posting. These are the Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins that I made when I went to Jerusalem on a day off to hang out with A. It was quite fun. We went to a bead store and made each other keychains, watched Friends and a movie. I baked pizza for dinner (my first opportunity to bake in two weeks!!) and decided to make a late night snack, these muffins, with what she had around in her apartment cupboards. This recipe is adapted from the excellent Israeli book on chocolate called, More Chocolate. They are made with cream, and are therefore extremely decadent, but you can feel free to substitute milk. I made these muffins mini in her silicone muffin pan. I must say though that I can't stand silicone and I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. It's hard to get the muffins out and they dont brown as well because they obviously lack the properties of metal. In any case, these were still delicious muffins, with a silky texture and a creamy flavor. They are so yummy, rich and delicate that you could easily bake the batter in a greased cake pan and call it a cake. Although the batter is assembled as a quick bread, it is fairly loose, which results in the lovely crumb. Cake-like, indeed.

Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins
adapted from More Chocolate

280 grams flour
180 grams sugar
15 grams baking powder
chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
250 ml cream
1/4 cup milk
50 ml oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease well two mini muffin pans or one regular pan. Dont use silicone!

In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients,and whisk well to combine.Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the eggs, cream, milk and oil.

Blend well without overmixing. The resulting batter will be quite loose. That's ok. Scoop the batter as neatly as you can into the cups.

For mini muffins bake ten to fifteen minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool five minutes. Remove the muffins from the cups and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy with friends or for a decadent breakfast!

Muffin Mondays: Orange Millet Muffins

For a limited time only... Muffin Mondays is back.. and with the best muffins I've had in a long time! These muffins are what I baked in my effort to avoid studying for my exams. And my how successful they were. These awesome bites of sunshine come from Regan Daly's The Sweet Kitchen. Intrigued by the sound of millet in a muffin, I've had my eye on them for a bit and after seeing a small bag in the supermarket decided to go for it. I know.. I'm supposed to be emptying my pantry instead of filling it. But sometimes you need to buy stuff to get rid of other stuff. It's a vicious cycle. But the reward is deliciously moist muffins with a bit of cruch and the comforting flavor of orange that are excellent for breakfast on days when you have to contend with studying. Make these. You seriously will not regret it. This batter yields a generous amount so make now and freeze some for later.

Orange Millet Muffins
adapted from The Sweet Kitchen

2 2/3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup millet
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups orange juice
2/3 cup vegetable oil
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Liberally grease a twelve cup muffin pan. In a large bowl, place all the dry ingredients.Whisk until thoroughly combined.In a separate bowl, place all the liquid ingredients.Whisk well to combine. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients,and with a spatula fold gently to combine.Fill the muffin cups all the way to the rims. Dont worry they bake out nicely.
Bake until the muffins are nice and golden and a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs, about twenty five minutes. After five minutes, remove from the pans and place on a rack to cool. Store in an airtight container or freeze for longer storage.

Muffin Thursdays ;)

I know.. I've neglected Muffin Mondays. Trust me, I can't get it off my conscience. That's why I got so excited that I actually made muffins yesterday! But I was just thinking.. maybe so that I don't get in trouble with myself again, I'll change Muffin Mondays to once a month... at least until I get back to Israel and my muffin making schedule stabilizes. Phew. Feel much better! Anyway, these muffins were my way of using the remaining pumpkin puree and of giving my mother some thing guilt-free (sort of) during her busy school day. I adapted this recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Companion. On a whim, I just started swapping things out. I cut back the sugar and added some maple syrup, resulting in a lightly sweet but not overly sweet muffin and replaced some white flour with whole wheat. The pumpkin adds tremendous moisture so I omitted the oil. I also added craisins to add to the fall theme, although I decided I don't like the texture of craisins and raisins baked for too long. I'd omit them next time. But feel free to make whatever changes you want. This recipe yields about 24 nice sized muffins. I stashed about half in the freezer to be used as needed.

Pumpkin Muffins
adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
few grates fresh nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups canned or fresh pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 very large eggs (I used jumbo size)
1 2/3 cups buttermilk or low fat milk
1 cup craisins, optional

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease 24 muffin tins if you have. Alternatively, grease a twelve cup muffin tin and reuse this one.

In a bowl, stir the flours, spices, leaveners and salt.

Whisk to combine.
In another bowl, place the pumpkin.
Add the brown sugar and maple syrup,
and whisk to combine really well.
Add the eggs one at a time,
stirring well until smooth after each addition.

Add the milk to the bowl,

and stir until thoroughly mixed.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture,

combine well.
Add the craisins and, without overmixing, stir well.

Portion the batter into your muffin pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I can't remember how long it took- maybe around twenty minutes. After two minutes, remove the muffins from their tins and place them on a wire rack to cool completey. Don't try storing them until they are completely cool; if you do, you will end up with soggy muffins. And the last thing you want is soggy muffins. Trust me. I know.

Muffin Mondays: Strawberry Muffins

For this week's Muffin Monday, I bring to you my recipe for Strawberry Muffins that I developed only just yesterday for this occasion! I'm always surprised at the success of a recipe that I've invented but these rank up there as one of my favorite muffins. Inspired by the yogurt and jelly in my fridge (everything needs to go before I fly to New York on Thursday!!) I whipped these babies up. They are not overwhelmingly strawberry-y but you certainly taste it and smell it as well. You can always add more jam and add fresh strawberries as you please; unfortunately, it's not the season for strawberries in Israel, so that wasn't an option. Of course it is whole grain, using spelt, oat, and whole wheat flours, and relatively low in fat, as per my dietary considerations. These baked up beautifully brown and big and soft, with their caps climbing over the top of the pan. But with only a light spray of Pam, they came out so easily! No nudging this time and no broken muffins. They were kind of perfect in every way, if I may say so. Note to self: Keepers!

Muffin Mondays: Very Mapley Muffins

It's that time of the week again.... Muffin Mondays! This time I bring you, Very Mapley Muffins, a recipe that I recreated from a recipe in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book. But after I was through tinkering with it, the recipe only slightly resembled the original. And that's the way I like it. Unfortunately, this recipe was developed and made before my photo frenzy began, so there are no pictures of these. That should be incentive enough to go and try them for yourself! As I said before, these muffins are intensely mapley, due to the inclusion of both maple syrup and maple sugar, the sugar being a wonderful discovery for me. The 4 tablespoons go a long way here. Despite the low fat content, they remain soft and moist. These will keep at room temperature for up to three days; they'll get the fuzzies after that. For best keeping, stash them in the freezer and take them out as you want to enjoy them. And enjoy them you will.

Muffin Mondays!

About two months ago, I was hospitalized for an infection in my gall bladder due to gall stones. I know, a twenty one year old hospitalized for something that is supposed to occur to older people (I say that with much respect!). The humor of the situation wasn't lost on me. In my hospital room, I was the youngest of three. By decades. The doctors kept asking me what a young girl like me was doing in the hospital. Well now. On top of that, although this is my third year living in Israel, I'm a citizen for only less than a year. To be hospitalized after being here such a brief time... well I'm making good use of my insurance card. I kept telling myself that G-d likes to keep things interesting. But don't worry. Every time I thought about the fact that I was in the hospital for three days, pajamas, IV and all, I started cracking up.. at myself. Anyway, all this to say that when I was finally discharged, the hospital dietician gave me strict instructions on what to eat- basically I had to avoid a high fat diet like the plague. As it was, my diet didn't include half the things on the list that I needed to avoid. With the exception of bittersweet chocolate. I don't know how I made it so long without it. So in my quest to comply with said diet and incorporate whole grains (because it's my new obsession) so that I continue baking (because I just can't live without that) I decided to make a batch of muffins a week to keep on hand for a quick breakfast and adapt them to suit my dietary needs. And then I started this blog and I decided, why not integrate that idea and let y'all know about my muffin exploits? And so, Muffin Mondays was born! And, today happens to be Monday. My very first entry is a recipe I adapted and renamed, bear with me, Almond Scented Blackberry Spelt Muffins, quite a mouthful I know, although they can easily be adapted to your palate.
Despite the lack of fat, these muffins are surprisingly moist and tender with a nice burst of blackberry and sweet spelt flavor. Feel free to add more almond extract for stronger flavor. I added just enough for the batter to be lightly scented resulting in muffin that was only delicately almondy.