Pumpkin Chocolate Walnut Muffins

I love making muffins. I think I've already said that before, many times, but it's true. I love how it's an easy snack, a nice quick breakfast and plus they can be really healthy. I have this one recipe I use as a base, I make them so often I know it by heart now. It's from the Healthy Oven baking book. This one here is a tweaked version.
Today I thought it was time to open the can of pumpkin and have a "pumpkin week"...And since anything goes with chocolate I decided to make them chocolate muffins.

Here's the recipe:

Dry ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup coco pwder, sifted.
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp EACH of nutmeg, ground cloves and ground ginger
Pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1 1/2 TBSP canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Turn on the oven at 350. Spray a muffin pan with some good ol' Paaaam.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
In another bowl, wisk all the wet ingredients until frothy, about 2-3 minutes.
Make a well in the flour mix, pour in the wet mix and stir until just combined. Add the cocolate chips and nuts and mix in, but don't over mix.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and unmold and cool on a rack.

Makes about 10 muffins. They will be gone in 2-3 days I garantee it!
(As I type this the man of the house is having his third one today...)

Blueberry Muffins with Quinoa and Flax

Blueberry muffins are pretty much a classic. In any good bakery you can find a berry muffin, most of the time it's blueberry. I know when I worked at Moguls in Whistler the blueberry muffin was our biggest seller. I'd make at least 2 batches of 24 every morning and by noon they were almost gone. It's quite a good breakfast, especially on the way up the ski hill!



There's no more ski hills in my life now, but I still love my blueberry muffins! The basic of this recipe is my go-to muffin recipe, easily adaptable, and it's low fat and packed with protein. It's from the "Healthy Oven" baking book, by Sarah Philips.
Here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat PASTRY flour, or all-purpose.
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
1/3 cup ground flax sseds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1 1/2 TBSP canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Set your oven at 350F and set the rack in the middle. Spray a muffin pan with canola oil.
In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and set aside.
In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients and whisk until frothy, about 2 minutes.
Make a well in the dry mix, add the wet and stri until just combined. Add the blueberries and mix lightly. Carefull not to overmix otherwise your muffins will be a bit tough.
Bake fo 22-25 minutes, until a kinfe inserted in the middle comes out clean.
*My oven is a bit "difficult", it doesn't brown things easily, so for the last 2 minutes I turned on the broiler. But if you do this DON'T WALK AWAY!!
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, unmold and cool completely on a rack.



Have a great day!

Pumpkin-Ginger Spicy Muffins

It's pumpkin season so here's a first pumpkin recipe! I say "first" because there will be a few more in the weeks to come...That one big can of pumpkin puree was BIG.
These muffins are really nice and spicy, with the ginger and the cloves. That's one thing I love about pumpkin. The spices that go with it are some of my favorites. Cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. Good stuff.



Okay here it is:

Dry stuff:

2 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or unbleached all-purpose flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

wet stuff:

1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 egg
1 TBSP canola oil

2 tsp crystalized ginger, finely choppede
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Turn the oven on at 350, set the rack in the middle of the oven and oil-spray some muffin tins.
Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside.
In another bowl beat all the wet ingredients and the ginger until frothy.
Make a well in the center of the dry stuff, pour in the wet stuff and the pecans and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. Do not overmix...(this would mean tough muffins, and we don't want that.)
Bake for 20-22 minutes(check after 20 and see...). Cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding.



I found them really good with margarine on it, but also applesauce rocks with these, since the spices go well with apple too!



Enjoy!

Banana-Carrot-Cranberry Muffins

Another day off today...so after a nice little outdoor swim I had to bake something. It was gonna be a "banana-something" because I had 2 very ripe bananas begging to be used.
But I also wanted to make something with carrots, for variety and because I've been making a lot of shakes lately, I want to keep my frozen fruit for smoothies!! So, I looked through some books, found a recipe for carrot muffins, but not using bananas. And then there's my favorite recipe of banana-oat muffins, not using carrots. So I took a shot and kinda combined the two. The carrot muffin recipe looked amazing as it was though, I will try it eventually!

These came out great, they are moist and light. The molasses taste comes out a little, but not over-powering. It gives it a nice darker color too.

Ok. Here's the recipe, adapted from Marg Ruttan's "Biscuits et Muffins":
(yields 9-10 big muffins)



Dry ingredients:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Wet ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
1 cup mashed bananas

1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Grease up some muffin molds, and turn the oven at 375F. Set the rack in the middle.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl, set aside.
In another bowl, mix all the wet until lightly frothy.
Pour the wet mix in the dry mix, along with the carrots and cranberries, mix until just combined, without over-mixing.
Scoop in the muffin tins(ice cream scoop works best), and bake for 20-25 minutes.
When they're done they will spring back when you press on them, or do the knife test...
Cool for 10 minutes in the molds, then carefully unmold and cool on a wire rack.

Very nice and tender muffins.



With margarine and a glass of juice, it's a nice little pre-workout snack or afternoon sugar fix.

Double-Chocolate and Walnut Muffins

Muffins of the week this week are kind of like a cross between muffins and...dare I say it,... cupcakes. Before I started this blog I used to make always the same muffin recipe, changing it a bit every week, but it was always the same "base". Now, I've been trying new recipes so that a)I'd have new "material" and b)you the readers don't get bored!! I have a cook book of ONLY muffins and cookies, which I love. And that "Healthy Oven" I always talk about, where this one came from, has a lot of good muffin recipes. As always, for these I added stuff because I can't just make a recipe like it's supposed to be and I have to admit, I really have a thing for walnuts, and other types of nuts and seeds. As for the chocolate chips, well, how can you go wrong with that?!



*On a side note, when I worked in Whistler at Mogul's coffee shop where I was doing the baking(best job of my life!!)and a little cooking, we were famous for our muffins. Whistler being a ski resort, people would come in at 7 am before hitting the slopes and grab a couple of muffins for the gondola ride. I would start at 5:30am, making dozens of muffins and by noon they were usually gone. Anyway,...we had a basic recipe, kinda healthy with oats and buttermilk, dark brown sugar,.. I wish I'd written it down...anyway so we could put anything we wanted in them, to keep in interesting. One day I was gonna do choco chip, but then decided to substitute coco powder for some of the flour and make it even more chocolate(don't know why the girls before me never thought of it...). They were so good! These double chocolate muffins became MY specialty. For some reason the other baker girl never made them, or not like I did anyway. Woah ok I'm rambling...My point is these ones remind me of my double-choco muffins from Mogul's, minus the oats. I should try them with oats next time...
Here's Sarah's recipe for chocolate fudgy muffins:

Ingredients, for 10-12 muffins:

Dry:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour(or all-purpose)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder(*you can sift it but i didn't because I kina like lumpy cocoa in muffins,...but that's just me.)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Wet:
1 ounce bittersweet or semisweet chocolate(1 square "Baker's chocolate").
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp instant espresso or instant coffee powder

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walunuts

-Preheat the oven at 350F, set the rack in the middle and oil spray muffin tins.
-Mix all the dry ingredients, walnuts and chocolate chips, and set aside.
-Melt the chocolate, let it cool a bit and mix in the melted butter.
-Transfer to a medium bowl, add sugar, appelsauce and all the other wet ingredients and whisk until frothy.
-Pour the wet mix in the dry mix, stir until it just comes together.
-Scoop in muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.
-When they're ready they will spring back when you press on them, or do the toothpick thing...
-Cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes and unmold carefully.

*If it's somebody's birthday, or if you just need a treat, go for it and ice them with your favorite icing!!



The coffee powder comes out really nicely in these. So they go great with a cup of joe!!
Enjoy!

Peach-Pecan Banana Muffins.

I've never been one to follow recipes very well. I love cook books and food blogs but I use them as inspiration rather that strict guidelines. I always change things, substitute or add. For cooking it doesn't really make huge differences but when it comes to baking recipes, one really has to know what will replace what in a recipe. You can't just, say, replace butter with oil. The consistency is different; the butter molecules interact with the sugar to make those little bubbles, oil won't!! Same thing for sugar v/s honey. It's a little tricky and it takes a few trials and errors to find out what works. Or a good cook book that explains it all...
Today I wanted to use up 2 very ripe bananas in either a banana bread or more muffins. I chose to bake muffins. I'll make a quickbread of some kind tomorrow or the day after anyway, I have a big swim meet this week-end and I need some yummy low-fat, high protein and healthy eats for in-between races.
Ok, so. Back to baking. Same as my cooking habits, I love switching things up in goodies as well. Muffins are great for that. And so is my most favorite book, again, "Healthy Oven"...(I'm gonna slowly bake my way through this thing I can feel it!!). The recipes in there are well explained, and substitutions are easy to make. This recipe is actually quite different than the original, so let's say it's "loosely adapted from...".

Ingredients:

Dry::
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour(o 1 1/2 cup TOTAL of the same kind of flour...doesn't really matter. just NO bread flour!!)
1/2 cup quick oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Wet:
2 ripe bananas, smashed up.(or as the recipe called for, 3/4 cup applesauce. fruit purees act in a similar way as butter with the sugar because of the pectin...it's all chemistry, right?)
3/4 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 TBSP canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup dried peaches, cut up in small pieces
1/2 cup roasted UNSALTED pecans
*or, as you might have guessed, any other type of fruit and/or nuts you wish...

Directions:
Set oven at 350F, rack in the middle, oil-spray muffin tins.
Mix all dry ingredients, set aside.
Mix all wet ingredients, beat/whisk until slightly frothy, for about 2 minutes.
Add wet to dry, with fruits and nuts, mix until just combined, without overmixing!
*Here it will seem very wet, but it's all good. Put a baking sheet under the muffin tray in case it spills!
Scoop into muffin tins, bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes and unmold carefully to a cooling rack.



**Today, I somehow forgot to set the timer...oups...but I kinda remembered the time it was when I put them in, it was half way through The Bold and The Beautiful(...i know...), so I was able to wing it...they came out fine.
This will give you about 9-10 muffins.
Enjoy!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Saturday morning is usually muffin baking morning. I always make the same recipe but this morning I was out of appelsauce and maple syrup, 2 major ingredients in this favorite recipe. But I had 2 ripe bananas and plenty of brown sugar so I looked through another one of my favorite baking books called "Biscuits et Muffins"(in french)by Marg Ruttan, and found a banana oatmeal muffin recipe. Perfect.


(now THAT'S a Muffin top!!)

Start by pre-heating the oven at 375F and grease muffins mold.
This recipe will yield about 9-10 big muffins.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour, or whole wheat pastry flour.
1 cup quick oats
1/2 cup brown sugar(or regular white sugar, but I prefer brown sugar with banana recipes...)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg(magical with bananas, seriousy.)

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter or canola oil
3/4 cup milk
1 cup very ripe bananas, smashed into a puree.(about 2-3 bananas)

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

-Mix all the dry ingredients, set aside
-Beat the eggs, then add the rest of the wet ingredients.
-Pour the wet in the dry, with chocolate chips, mix until just combined, without overmixing.
-Bake for 20-22 minutes
-Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, demold and cool on a wire rack.



*To make sure the muffins don't break when you take them out, put a cookie sheet on top, flip it and shake the pan a bit to make them come out. It might take a few minutes but that way you won't end up with separate tops and stumps.
**These muffins are very moist and tender, so be careful when they're hot, handle them gently...
***Also they freeze well, but make sure they are completely cooled before freezing, wrap in plastic wrap and in a anti-freeze ziploc.

This morning I couldn't help myself I had 2 of them(it's ok, I'm swimming later...). They go really good with coffee.



Happy Easter week-end!

Fruit&nut quinoa muffins.

Ok. So since I just made muffins this morning, and I make these muffins once a week I think it's fitting that it would be the first recipe I share here. I got it from Sarah Philips' book called "Healthy Oven", which is one of my favorite cookbooks because all the recipes in there are low in fat and healthier than "regular" baking. Now here I made a few changes in some secondary ingredients, since I eat these usually before going to swim practice I always add nuts for extra protein.
You'll need:


Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup oats or flakes of some sort(today I used quinoa flakes, but they could be oatmeal, barley, kamut or millet flakes, or a mix of whatever's in the pantry)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Wet ingredients:
3/4 cup UNSWEETENED applesauce
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup, or honey
1 1/2 TBSP canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup nuts(walnuts, pecans, sliced almonds, hazelnuts, the possibilities are endless!!)
1/2 dried fruit(raisins, craisins, dried apricots, or a mix of dried fruit...again...so many possibilites!!)

-Set the oven at 350, place the rack in the middle of the oven.
-Oil spray muffin molds.
-Mix all dry ingredients, set aside.
-Mix all wet ingredients until slightly frothy.
-Pour wet in dry, add nuts and fruits, mix gently with a rubber spatula, but do not overmix it otherwise the muffins will be tough and dry.
-Scoop in muffin mold, a little above the rim. Using an ice cream scoop here is the best, it'll give you nice and round muffin tops.
-Bake for 20-22 minutes.
-When they're done, put the tray on a cooling rack for 10 minutes or so, then unmold carefully.

*DO NOT open the oven door once they're in. Wait until 20 minutes, check with the knife test and if they need more time go 2 minutes at a time.
**Also, I usually put the muffin tray on a baking sheet. For my oven I find it works best. And if there's any spills it won't make a mess..!

So that's it! Super easy, super tasty, versatile and healthy.
Enjoy.