Coffee Spice Sour Cream Muffins

I love muffins. Seriously. Which is probably partially why I've got a few extra pounds that could stand to disappear. But probably never will. Because I love muffins. Besides, they make for easy work breakfasts. Well, those and pancakes or waffles. I freeze pancakes or waffles and throw them in the toaster at work to reheat, and voila! Breakfast! Same with muffins, except I throw them in the microwave instead of toaster. At any given time, I've generally got at least 2 or 3 types of pancakes, maybe some waffles, and at least 1 or 2 types of muffins to choose from. Grab and go! 

Anyways, these muffins were my attempt at a slightly better breakfast for when I go back to work this week (oh, hello 4:30am, I haven't missed you one bit..). They're filled with flaxseed to make them slightly healthier, and tons of cinnamon and coffee.

Ingredients: 
1/3 cup hot coffee
1 tsp instant coffee
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup flaxseed
2 cups flour
1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º. 

Combine hot coffee and instant coffee in a small cup and stir until the instant coffee is dissolved. Set aside. 

Combine oil, sugars and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir in sour cream and coffee mixture. Add flaxseed and combine. 

In a separate bowl combine remaining ingredients and stir slowly into wet until just mixed. Divide the batter evenly between 16 lined muffin cups (about 1/4 cup each). To top, I combined 2-3 tbsp brown sugar with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and sprinkled on top of each muffin before baking. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Raspberry Sour Cream Muffins

I'm on my last week of maternity leave. It's a bit of a bittersweet thing. On one hand, I'm a bit saddened to think about leaving my newest little bundle of joy and losing the ability to sleep past 4:30am on the weekdays. On the other hand, I'm losing my mind. I'm not the "stay at home" type. I admire people (like my husband) who have the patience/sanity/etc for it, but it's definitely not my thing. I need to be working. Thankfully I'll be headed back at the very beginning of the busy season, so there will definitely be no shortage of things to keep my mind off of the wee one without his Momma. 

For today though, it's all about relaxing still. The oldest is off to her fourth day of Kindergarten, so it's just the boys at home. Which means it's a lot more quiet than it would normally be with Princess Jabber home. What do you do with quiet? You make delicious muffins and sit down with them and a cup of coffee of course. These muffins are soft, fluffy, moist.. They've got that nice crust on top from the caramelized sugar and just a hint of spice and raspberry. They're the perfect almost-fall muffin! 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sugar (plus extra for sprinkling on top)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp corn starch
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º. Line a muffin pan with 10 liners, set aside. 

Mix together oil, sugars, egg, vanilla and sour cream. Add remaining ingredients (except raspberries) and stir until just combined. Fold in raspberries. My raspberries were frozen and pretty broken up, so there weren't really any big chunks in my muffins, but that turned out to be perfect. 

Divide batter evenly between the 10 liners and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Banana Blackberry Muffins

What happens when you have too much fruit given to you that needs to be used up ASAP? Well, you throw it into a muffin, that's what! I mean, really, why not? Everyone loves muffins! These could definitely be made into a "healthier" version.. substitutions needed for that will follow the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups mashed banana
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup french vanilla coffee creamer (can also just use heavy cream instead)
1/2 cup butter, melted (1 stick)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen will work, just be gentle with the fresh!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º.

Combine banana, sugar, vanilla, egg, sour cream, creamer/cream and butter until well mixed. Add flour, baking soda, powder, salt and cinnamon, stir gently on top of the wet ingredients and then mix into the wet until just combined. Gently fold in the blackberries. Spoon into a lined muffin tin (this makes a little over 2 dozen muffins, so you'll need more than one tin or more than one go-round in the oven) until cups are about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

For healthier version substitute:
Sugar - whatever sugar substitute you generally use! Check the container for what the baking ratios are. Splenda, for instance, is 1 cup for 1 cup of sugar. Can also use 1/2 cup honey instead. 
Sour cream - 1 cup of yogurt! 
Creamer/cream - 1/4 cup evaporated milk
Melted butter - add an extra banana
Flour - you can use 1 cup AP flour and 1 cup whole wheat for a whole wheat version.. Or for you folks that need GF, you can use whatever flour you generally use. Just know that it will likely change the texture, rise, etc of the muffins. 

Cinnamon Scones

Well, I'm finally starting to get back into the swing of things now that baby boy is getting settled into the world. I can't believe it's been almost three weeks since he's made his entrance! He's a million times quieter than my other two monsters, but he still has his needs and that doesn't leave me with a lot of time to do other stuff besides a handful of chores here and there. My poor kids have eaten a lot of cold cereal recently for breakfast.. I have been trying to do what I can once in awhile to have a nicer breakfast, and today was one of those days. I LOVE scones, and I am a cinnamon addict. Plus, there isn't a lot easier than scones! These ones are a little less dense than scones generally are, but they're packed with cinnamon-y, buttery scone-y flavor. They were PERFECT with a cup of coffee, and easy to eat with a baby on my chest. 

Ingredients: 

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup cold butter, grated (1 stick)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp butter flavoring (optional)

2 tbsp softened butter
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400º.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar. Add grated cold butter and stir to combine. In a medium measuring cup or small bowl, combine buttermilk, egg, vanilla and butter flavor. I like nice buttery scones, so I added the butter flavor, but if you don't like things to taste like they're swimming in butter, feel free to leave it out. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix until just combined. Form into a circle about 1" thick on a parchment lined baking sheet. Spread softened butter on top of the circle, then top with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut the circle into triangles, but leave it put together. You just want to make it easier to get apart later. Bake for 10-15 min, until golden brown and the center springs back a bit when touched. Break apart on the score lines you made and enjoy! Preferably with a cup of delicious coffee!

Homemade Monkey Bread

I've mentioned before that I'm normally not a sweets person.. However, this kid I'm carrying apparently has quite a sweet tooth. I think I've eaten more cookies, cake, etc over the last 8.5 months than I have in the last 8.5 YEARS. And tacos.. But that's another monster. Anyways. This far along in pregnancy, I'm really trying to make things as easy as possible without sacrificing too much. This recipe seems to really take care of that! The dough is made in a bread machine, chopped up, dunked in melted butter and cinnamon/sugar, thrown into a pan, left to rise awhile longer, and then baked! And EATEN.  And enjoyed. Sorry about lack of pictures, there wasn't a chance to grab any before it was devoured! Super delicious, and tender, donut-like dough. Yumm! 

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 cup warm milk

1/3 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp regular active yeast

2 tbsp canola oil (or melted butter)

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Cinnamon/sugar coating:

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tsp cinnamon

6 tbsp melted butter

Directions:

Combine warm milk, water, sugar and yeast in a bread machine. Let sit for about 10 minutes (it will be all nice and bubbly at this point). Add remaining dough ingredients in order listed and set to dough cycle. Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar, set aside. Once the dough cycle is done (usually about an hour and a half), cut or tear the dough into small pieces and roll into balls. Dunk in melted butter, then into the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture and drop into a greased bundt pan. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise for about another 1-2 hours, until doubled in size. Remove plastic and bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes until the top is deep brown and you see caramel bubbling around the edges. Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, and then turn out onto a plate to serve. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Oh hello, long time no see! I'm sorry for the long absence, friend. I have come back for you. With a great recipe even! I love muffins in the fall. They make the house smell AMAZING, and the by-product of a house warmer/freshener is also mighty tasty! They also make for a mighty fine contribution to the breakfast table at work on a Saturday morning when we're all there working overtime. There's nothing like getting tons of work done in peace and quiet while being able to wear your sweats and eat whatever goodies were contributed that weekend. These are SO much healthier than the donuts or bagels that usually get brought!

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 - 3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon + 1/2 tsp 
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar + 1 tbsp
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil (can sub applesauce for an even healthier version!)
1 cup old fashioned oats + 1tbsp


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º. 

Combine all ingredients up to sugar in a large bowl. Set aside. Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and oil together in a small bowl (or a glass measuring cup like I did!). Add to dry ingredients, mix until mostly moistened. Add oats and stir until everything is just combined. Don't over mix it! This is not the recipe to get your aggression out on. 

Line a muffin pan with liners, put roughly 1/4 cup of the batter in each cup. Sprinkle with 1tbsp oats + 1tbsp sugar + 1/2tsp cinnamon (mixed together ahead of time of course). Bake for 18-23 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. You may need to try again if you hit a chocolate chip. Just wipe it on a towel. Or get a new one. Or, if you're going to eat that one anyways, lick it and try again. Go ahead, I won't tell. Remove to a cooling rack. Or if you're like me, a dish towel laid out on the counter. Whatever. They won't last long, I promise. 

This recipe makes 15 muffins. Yes, I'm sorry, I know it's an odd number, but that's what happens when you do your own thing with total disregard for the real world and their measurements trying to keep you down. Flour power, man! Okay, I'm done. 

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

I don't know about you, but my FAVORITE season is fall. It's caramel apple cider, sitting by a fire and watching the storms hit season. It's also the season that people start cooking awesome things again because it's finally cooled off enough to do so. The first thing I start seeing is PUMPKIN. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin. It's good in a pie, and a few select other things, but normally, I pass on it. These however.. The pumpkin cuts down on the sweetness of the cake mix, and gives it almost a marshmallow texture! They're definitely not the prettiest things I've ever made but they are definitely one of the tastier. 

This recipe started out as an attempt to make a recipe I've seen floating around on Pinterest.. One box of cake mix + one can of pumpkin = epic muffins. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. So, I  made some adjustments.. Ready for this? 

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate fudge cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)

1 can of pumpkin (15oz, NOT pumpkin pie filling)

3 eggs

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup applesauce

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup old fashioned oatmeal

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325º. 

Combine all ingredients until just well mixed. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. You may need to re-try if you hit a chocolate chip. Let them cool in the pan for at least a few minutes, they're like little pillows when you first take them out, so if you don't want to mangle them, you'll need to let them rest. 

See how fluffy they are? Marshmallow-y, chocolate-y, and YUM. 

Blackberry Peach Muffins

I love muffins. They're easy to make, portable, (usually) attractive, and tasty! Not to mention they're usually fairly healthy, especially the whole wheat and/or fruit variety. Like these. I love baking with fresh fruit. Seriously. Nothing better. I was contemplating throwing some chocolate chips in these, but why would I ruin some perfectly good fruit? No. I was also going to throw in some oatmeal, but that was forgotten due to.. well.. me. I'm sure that these would be terrific with some rolled oats thrown in. *sigh* Next time, my friends. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 1/4 cup sugar (Or Splenda)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup finely diced peaches, heaping
1 1/2 cup blackberries, fresh or frozen

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º.

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, beat well. Add flours, baking powder, milk and applesauce and combine. Fold in fruit gently. Divide between 15 muffin cups (lined or well-greased). They will be almost full, these won't rise much. Sprinkle the top with coarse sugar, if desired. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with no batter. 

The result is essentially a peach-blackberry cobbler in a wrapper, except healthier! It's not too sweet (I used Splenda in mine), but the fruit is perfect and juicy still. Oh, did I mention that it's gorgeous? 

Bacon Maple Cupcakes

I'm a bacon kinda gal. And it shows. More than it should. Needless to say, I hopped on the bacon craze train once it came rolling through with no hesitation. I won't go down the bacon booze road, and bacon mints make me gag (I worked for the company that made them for a Christmas season right after high school, and I spent a few hours tagging them one day.. I smelled like bacon and mint forEVER afterwards..). Give me a good piece of bacon though, and I'm a happy camper.. Unless you've got more and you're not sharing.. 


Okay, enough with my trying to stop myself from rambling about how much I love bacon.. These cupcakes are not traditional cupcake. They're actually closer to a sweet muffin. But I'm okay with that. Mostly because there's bacon involved. Bacon makes everything better. 

Ingredients:


Cupcakes:
4 1/2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tbsp solidified bacon grease
1 egg
5 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/4 cup milk
1/4-1/2 cup bacon crumbles


Maple Glaze:

1 c powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla



Frosting:
1/2 c butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 tbsp maple syrup
2 c powdered sugar


Directions:


I'm going to paste the original directions here. They're better than I could ever give you, folks.


What you’ll do–
* 1) Cook some bacon in a fry pan (about 6 thick strips). Reserve the drippings and place in the fridge to solidify. Mince 1/4 a cup of the bacon. The chef should eat whatever is left to assure that the bacon is tasty.
* 2) Beat the crud out of the butter and solidified bacon fat ’till light and creamy. Add the brown sugar and maple syrup and beat well until combined.
* 3) Add the egg and beat until incorporated.
* 4) Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and powder together.
* 5) Add some of the flour and mix, then some of the milk, then continue to alternate the dry and wet ingredients, ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in the bacon. Taste and add more maple syrup, flour, or milk if needed for desired taste. Keep in mind the maple frosting is very sweet, and to add in very small increments for alterations as maple syrup in large amounts can break a cake batter.
* 6) Scoop into cupcake papers and bake at 350 F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be sure to rotate the pan after the first 15 minutes for even baking.

Now for my part:


For the glaze, mix glaze ingredients together in a bowl. Dip cooled cupcakes in glaze, let excess drip off, let set for an hour or so.

For the frosting, cream butter and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and maple syrup, beat to desired consistency. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Garnish with bacon pieces and/or coarse sugar.

Berry Breakfast Muffins

Summer is coming. I love berries. There is no better combination I think than brown sugar, cinnamon and BERRIES. I recently made some cranberry orange muffins from a box mix (I despise box mixes, but occasionally they're necessary in a pinch..). I had been avoiding it because I realized after I got home that the box said it only made 11 muffins.. Not 12.. I have an aversion to odd numbers like that. I could handle 8. Or even 10. But not 11. I just can't do it. Being the brilliant person I am, I realized as I was staring at it for the two hundredth time that I had some blueberries in my freezer. Just enough to make up for a missing muffin. YES! So I added them. And it turned out wonderfully. All twelve of them!

*GENIUS*

So. Having an aversion to intentionally uneven numbers and boxed mixes, I set out to find my own. And they turned out HEAVENLY.

YYYUUUMMMM-OOOO!

Okay. Ready?

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup regular flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup orange juice
2 eggs, beaten
6 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup frozen blueberries (can also use fresh if available)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º.

Soak cranberries in orange juice at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl (everything up to the cinnamon on the ingredients list). Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until just mixed. If you're using fresh blueberries instead of frozen, you may want to fold them in at the very end after everything else is mixed so that they stay whole.

Scoop 1 tbsp of batter into lined (or very well greased) mini muffin cups or 1/4 cup into lined (or very well greased) regular muffin cups. Bake mini muffins for 12-16 minutes, regular size for 23-28 minutes, until a knife/toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.


If you want these to have more of an orange flavor, you can also add some orange zest, 1tsp to 1tbsp, depending on how much orange you want in it.

Applesauce Muffins

It's been far too long since I baked something. A whole week! Given, part of it is because I've been trying to be good and make sure that at least most of what I made last weekend was gone first. While browsing the web tonight, I found a recipe for applesauce muffins. I've been searching for a good way to use up the Costco case of applesauce I bought awhile back, and muffins are such an easy breakfast. I knew I had to make some NOW. The original recipe came from the Wilton website, and there wasn't much I had to alter! 

Some variations could include substituting a cup of the regular flour for a cup of whole wheat flour. You could also add some dried oats, chocolate chips, bananas, raisins.. The possibilities are endless. I've made this version, along with the variations below. 

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup applesauce 

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º. Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners, set aside. 

Whisk together eggs and brown sugar until well combined and fluffy. Add vanilla, butter and applesauce and mix until well combined. 

Dump flour, soda, baking powder, spices and salt on top of wet ingredients, mix lightly with a whisk or your fingers, then combine gently with wet ingredients. 

Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full with batter. This made 23 muffins for me, the original recipe says it should only be 12, but I'm not complaining. The more the merrier! 

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a knife/toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and tops are golden brown. 

Variations:
-Substitute one cup of whole wheat flour in place of one cup of regular flour. 
-Add one cup of oats
-Add one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Look at the oozy goodness!

(I did all of the above variations in the same batch, but you can definitely do them separately!)

Now, the original recipe says that you can add raisins to this, but why would you want to spoil them? I'm not a big fan of raisins myself, and neither are my kids (which is exactly why I've got a box of raisins sitting in my pantry that I bought close to a year ago..). Because of the applesauce in them, these are incredibly moist muffins, and a bit sticky, but wonderful. I had a problem with them sticking to the bottom of the muffin liner, but it wasn't really a big problem. 

Pictures to come soon. 

Baked German Pancakes

One of my favorite memories growing up is when my mother would make german pancakes for breakfast. It had to be one of my favorite breakfasts, and it still is. It's so simple, and it's GOOD. My favorite part growing up was watching how the "walls grew", and now my kids enjoy the same thing.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º. Place the butter in a 9x13 pan, and place in the oven while it's preheating. Make sure to keep an eye on it while you're preparing the rest, and remove it from the oven when the butter is completely melted.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs lightly, add milk and combine. Add flour and combine. Batter will be lumpy. 

Once the butter is melted, remove the pan and pour the pancake batter on top. If the batter sat for a minute before you were able to pour it in, give it a quick stir before pouring, it will form a crust of sorts on top. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until set. 

See how simple it is? I told you! And it's delicious! My husband adds syrup to his, my kids and I add a dusting of powdered sugar, sometimes if we have whipped cream, we'll add that too. This is so versatile, you can add whatever you want to it. I'm sure that it would be DELICIOUS with some bacon crumbles baked in, or maybe some jack cheese and green chilies and enchilada sauce? YUM! The possibilities are endless. You'll love how the edges puff up and form the wall, and the lovely textural difference between the "walls" and the fluffy BUTTERY center. 

Another note. Yes, this is VERY buttery. I've used margarine before (yes, again, out of desperation), and it came out okay, but REALLY, Paula has a point on this one yet again. Everything is better with BUTTER. 

Glad I could share this with you all, I know it'll become a favorite in your house too!