TWD: Mochaccino Muffins

I like making muffins. They are simple to put together and you don’t have to frost them. They usually aren’t as sweet as cupcakes. They make the perfect snack. And these chocolate coffee muffins are no exception.

The batter includes a shot of ground coffee, some coffee extract, some cocoa, and some chocolate chips. I really expected these to have a strong chocolate taste. But they didn’t. And to me that’s a good thing because I really don’t like coffee. I actually found these to be a little bland. But I still liked them.

The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Dorie: sweet, salty, and simple. (page 68)

For more muffins visit Tuesdays with Dorie.

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{CC#14} Apple Muffins

The Man has been asking for something sweet.  The cheese cake is gone as are all the cookies.  So this morning I made some nice muffins from eating to beat high blood pressure my cookbook for February’s Cookbook Countdown.

Dutch Apple Muffins1

These came out well.  We both liked them.  They were fairly sweet and moist.  The crumble topping just added to the flavor and the apples just seemed to melt into the muffin.

1 2/3 cup AP flour {I subbed in 1/2 with whole wheat}
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal + 1 tsp cinnamon
2 TBL margarine
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp apple pie spice
salt to taste
1 1/4 cups unsweet applesauce
1/4 cup veggie oil
1/2 cup fat-free egg substitute
1 large apple peeled and diced

375 Degree oven.

Mix together the crumble topping: 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 /2 cup oatmeal/cinnamon mix, and margarine. Set aside.

Mix together the rest of the flour with the baking soda, salt, oatmeal, and apple pie spice in a medium bowl.

In another bowl stir the applesauce, oil, remaining brown sugar, and egg sub together.  Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix just to combine.  Add in the diced apple.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full and sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top.

Bake about 20 minutes or until done.

The recipe said 12 muffins but I ended up with 14.

Each muffin: 220 calories. 7 gm fat. 35 gm carb

The recipe is on page 33.

I’m linking this post with Cookbook Countdown 14 hosted by Kitchen Flavours and Emily’s Cooking (Makan2)

 

{IHCC} Iozza’s corn and bacon muffins

It’s Potluck Week with I Heart Cooking Clubs. and the second to the last week to cook with Curtis Stone.  And I still have several recipes I really want to make…..

These muffins are made for Curtis by his Mum when he is home.  I can see why he likes them.  Full of bacon, corn, seasonings, and cheese.

Slathered with butter they are perfect for breakfast.  They can be mixed and finished in about 30 minutes.

• 12 ounces hardwood-smoked bacon, coarsely chopped {+ 1/3 cup bacon drippings}
• 2 1/2 cups AP flour {I used 1/2 WWF and 1/2 AP Flour}
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups grated white sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup fresh yellow corn kernels (from 1 cob)
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh chives {I think they needed more.}

Fry the bacon  over medium heat until nice and crisp.  Reserve about 1/3 cup bacon drippings.

Mix together the flour, salt, pepper, and baking powder.  Mix together the egg, milk, bacon drippings, corn, chives, and 1 1/2 cups cheese.

Mix the milk mixture into the dry ingredients.  Pour equal amounts into each muffin cup which have been brushed with bacon drippings.

Sprinkle remaining cheese over the muffins.

Bake 18 minutes (mine took 15) or until golden brown.  Cool slightly then run a small knife around the the muffins and remove from the pan.  

Serve with warm butter.    {Recipe makes 12 muffins)   Similar Recipe here.

These were good. Definitely a repeat.

More Pot Luck at I Heart Cooking Clubs.

 

 

{SRC}The Sweetness of Savory

Do you have moments you savor? I do. A particular time with My Babies. A weekend away with The Man. Fishing with Dad. Yep! All important moments to keep in the memory for later.

Well, this month I found something else to savor. A new blog to read and cook from thanks to The Secret Recipe Club – Savory Moments.  This blog is run by Amy and covers

“My journey to learn more and more about food and cooking..”

And she has done a great job.  She has a wonderful collection of recipes that she is keeping for her family and her recipes focus on fresh, local, and healthy.  I was excited to find so many delicious recipes that were also easy to make:  Cheddar ham and broccoli quinoa casserole, Peanut butter cup bars, Creole chicken with cheddar and scallion grits,  and Tomato-basil soup are all saved for later.  So if I’m making those later, what did I make this time for SRC?

Lt’s start with breakfast.  Pancakes.  Pumpkin Pancakes.  With Maple syrup and toasted pecans  I love pancakes.  They are probably my favorite breakfast.  More than waffles.  More than eggs and bacon. m So when I saw these Pumpkin oatmeal pancakes {for two} I knew I had to try them.  It was the right thing to do.

They reminded me of pumpkin bread.  Full of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and brown sugar.  I made just a couple of changes.  I increased the pumpkin to 3/4 cup rather than 1/2 and I added some cooked 7-Grain cereal to the mix.  I figured a little more fiber wouldn’t hurt  Then instead of toasted walnuts, I used toasted pecans.  I do enjoy pecans in or on my pancakes.  Perfect.  Amy said these were for two and I ended up with 8 medium sized pancakes.Perfect!  I think these would make good waffles as well.

 Next on the list I found several muffin recipes.   I love making muffins.  No frosting. No papers to peel off.  Just out of the oven and eat. Sweet?  Not Sweet?  How about some delicious healthy muffins?

Whole Wheat Muffins to be exact.  With a little brown sugar to bring out the sweetness of the bananas.  Amy suggested folding in some walnuts, cranberries, or chocolate chips but I opted for some big sweet blueberries instead.  Blueberries are so good for you so adding them to the whole wheat muffins makes them almost guilt free.  And delicious.

That’s what I made to have around for a snack.

For supper we had…

…Bacon Cheeseburger Pie.  This is not your usual hamburger pie.  Instead of adding some veggies and covering with mashed potatoes this pie is baked in a pie crust with all the ingredients of a bacon cheeseburger – thus the name!  There’s bacon, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and yellow mustard. And of course, lots of cheese.  Amy used  Yancey’s Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger cheese but I could not find that here in South Podunk so I followed her suggestion and used a sharp cheddar mixed with some crumbled bacon. YUM!!

I have the ingredients for her Cheddar Broccoli soup and the Cheddar ham and broccoli quinoa casserole waiting in the wings.  Looking forward to making them real soon.

Thanks for some great healthy recipes,  Amy.  I enjoyed my visit.  I’ll be back!

For more recipes from the Secret Recipe Club just follow the Frog.

 

{SRC} With a little bit…

..of luck…

you get assigned to a blog for Secret Recipe Club that has lots of simple, and tasty, recipes. And that is what happened this month when my Secret Assignment was A Little Bit of Everything which is written by Julie WAY up in the plains Nebraska. And I mean way way up because I am WAY down in the Deep South of Louisiana. She has been blogging since 2009 and has a collection of recipes to prove it.

As usual, and we are all in the same boat each month, it was hard to find JUST ONE recipe for SRC so I tried several. And they were all good. And all simple.

It has FINALLY turned cool here which means I could enjoy a nice bowl of oatmeal {I don’t like oatmeal, or soup, in the summer. Just too hot! I know, I’m weird.} and lucky for me Julie had a Pumpkin Oatmeal on the blog.

It is full of all those wonderful pumpkin pie spices, pecans, and maple syrup. It was just right. I wish I had made more than just 1/2 of the recipe.

There was also a recipe for Butterscotch Pumpkin Muffins

Talk about tasty. Ditto on the pumpkin spices and then add in the butterscotch chips and it was a definite winner.

1 3/4 cup flour, sifted
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Create a well in the middle of the mixture.
In another bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin and butter. Stir in the butterscotch chips. Pour into the well of the dry ingredients. Fold together just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not ove rmix.
Spoon batter into greased muffin tins. Spoon batter evenly into muffin tins.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Place on a rack to cool.

Oh, yeah, and then I drizzled some with caramel. MAYBE a little over the top, but hey….

We eat a lot of ice cream year round. Or at least The Hubs does. So I had to make Julie’s Cake Batter Ice Cream.

Okay, it wasn’t completely her recipe. I have fallen in love with the No Churn ice cream so I used her amount of cake batter {3/4 cup} in the no churn. What a great Idea!!! You can have your cake and ice cream at the same time. Add some sprinkles and it’s a party in a bowl!!

So here it is the weekend before the reveal and I still have about 10 items on my list from Julie’s recipes:

Breakfast Pies
Butternut Risotto
Taco Bake

Which just happen to be the next three on my list. I cannot put my whole list so you bettr just jump on over to A Little Bit of Everything and check them out your self. AND, when you click on her lists they come up in PINTEREST!! Now why didn’t I think of that?

And for the rest of the SRC delights you can find them by clicking below:

 

{WWDH} too easy blueberry muffins

Waking up to a warm Blueberry muffin makes a Monday worthwhile. Even though I had to make them myself it was still a great way to start the day.

You can actually use just one bowl to mix these up and, according to Donna, the variations are endless. Which is probably why I added lemon to my batch.

We usually don’t include the recipe but I made some low-sugar changes.

2½ cups (375g) self-raising (self-rising) flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (220g) caster (superfine) sugar and 1/2 cup Stevia in the Raw (or other blended no calorie sweetener)
½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil
1 egg
½ cup (125ml) milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon oil
300g fresh or frozen blueberries
granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
Place the flour, baking powder and sugar in a good sized bowl. Make a well in the middle. Place the oil, egg, milk and vanilla in the well and whisk to combine. Slowly work the liquid into the flour mix until just combined. Add the blueberries and mix to combine. Spoon mixture into a a regular muffin tin using paper baking cups. Sprinkle the tops with sugar and bake for 30–35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack.

I made a few to test for sweetness and ended up adding about a 1/4 tsp of raw Stevia. That made them just right. If you don’t have raw stevia use a little more of your favorite non-sugar sweetener.

The original recipe is HERE.

This week was Chaya’s turn to choose. And she chose well.

We visit and leave your links at Wednesdays with Donna Hay so hop on over and see what the others thought of the muffins.

 

{ABC} Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

A new year. A new collection of sweets and treats for Avid Baker”s Challenge. For the last two years we have been baking from the King Arthur Flour site. This year we are changing gears and baking from Christina Marsigliese‘s blog, Scientifically Sweet. Cookies. Bars. Brownies. Cakes. Pies. Tarts. If it’s a sweet treat then it is on Christina’s blog. Like these choco chip muffins.

I did make a few changes in an attempt to “healthy-fy” them. My changes are in green. The original recipes is HERE!

3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon {I used a heaping tsp.}
¾ cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 medium bananas, previously frozen)
1/3 cup LITE sour cream
1 large egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 cup Stevia in the Raw
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line mini-muffin pans with paper liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; whisk together to blend evenly and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together mashed bananas and sour cream until smooth. Whisk in egg, sugar, canola oil and vanilla extract until well blended. Add the flour mixture and the chocolate chips and fold gently until just combined. Do not over-mix.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until the muffin tops spring back when touched gently and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean despite any melted chocolate chips, 10 – 15 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

YIELD: 36 mini muffins.

These were nice and chocolatey and just sweet enough with the combination of sugar and Stevia. Perfect little bites just the right size to satisfy a sweet tooth when your teeth want sweets WAY too much!!!

Check on The ABC page for more chocolate treats.

 

{Tea Time} Butternut Squash Cake

I am trying to figure out why this particular cooking group has existed for the last 3 years and I had never found it. I mean really! TEA TIME TREATS!! As much as I love Tea and Scones! Well, I have now and this is my first post for this group.

Yes, I would like some tea, thank you!

The Challenge was VEGETABLES in a Tea Time Treats – either sweet or savory. This time of the year we are harvesting winter squash so it was perfect way to use some Butternut Squash in These Mini Butternut Squash and Cranberry Cakes.

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup WW flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
2 cups pureed butternut squash
2 cups sugar and 1 cup Splenda {or 3 cups sugar}
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup dried cranberries

You can use all AP flour, or use all sugar, or leave out the cranberries, or add in some nuts. It’s a very versatile recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl combine sugar, eggs, butternut, and applesauce.
Add dry ingredients slowly to the wet and mix just until all the dry is ingredients.
Stir in cranberries.
Baking Times:

Mini loaves and muffins – 20 to 25 minutes
Large loaf – 1 hour

Yield: 2 full loaves or 8 mini loaves and 6 muffins.
After cakes/muffins have cooled drizzle with Cinnamon Glaze.

1 cup (4 ounces) glazing or confectioners’ sugar
1 – 1 1.2 tsp cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

The mini loaves, sliced, are just right for a sweet tea with a good cuppa.

Tea Time Treats is hosted by Karen of Lavander and Lovage and Janie of The Hedge Combers This month the hostess is Karen so visit her Tea Time Page for all the wonderful Vegetable Tea Time Treats.

 

{WWDH} apple, date, and cinnamon muffins with maple oats

Thanks to Gaye, we made muffins this week for Wednesdays with Donna Hay. And they were good muffins. Lots of apples, lots of dates.

This is a whole wheat muffin stuffed with grated apple, chopped dates and oats. And did I mention there is also Maple Syrup in them AND on them. And then topped with an oat, syrup crumble and drizzled with maple syrup. I did sub in Stevia for the 3/4 cups of sugar {and threw in about 1/8 tsp of bulk stevia for a little extra sweetness.} Next time I will add a little more cinnamon and maybe a little extra syrup.

This was good one, Gaye.

Check out

Gaye’s
Sarah’s
Chaya’s
muffins

The recipe came from a newspaper clipping but if you want to try it HERE is the link.

 

{SRC} In the Habit of Baking

I have been in a baking funk. I haven’t felt like doing ANY baking. Which is unusual for me. I LOVE to bake. Even when it’s hot. I bake. Until recently. Thank goodness for SRC because the blog assigned to me was so full of goodies to bake I just HAD to get back into the kitchen. In case you are wondering, SRC is the Secret Recipe Club. Each month we are assigned a blog to cook from and, in Group C, we REVEAL on the third Monday of the month. This month’s assignment was a good one because thanks to Jamie at Our Eating Habits I am out of my baking slump!

I usually pick two or three recipes to feature on the SRC post. Usually savory. But this time I went strickly for baking goodies.

We started out with Jamie’s

Blueberry Muffins

This is the first year our Blueberry bushes have yielded enough berries to actually use in something. So exciting to know I will have fresh berries in the freezer.

3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Stevia
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Mix together the milk , oil, and egg. Reserve 1 tbl dry ingredient mix. Add remaining dry ingredients to liguid and stir until just combined. Toss berries with about 1 Tbl flour mixture. Gently fold in blueberries.

2. Line muffin tin with paper liners (or grease) and scoop in batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 22 minutes. Original Recipe

I added a simple Lemon glaze. Perfect for Breakfast. Snack. Dessert. Blueberries!

Then we were completely out of cookies, so…..

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar + 1/2 cup Stevia
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup Eggbeater
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Beat together the butter, peanut butter, sugars and Stevia.
2. Add Eggbeaters and vanilla, beat together again.
3. Add flours, baking soda, and salt, mix until just comes together.
4. Beat in chocolate chips and oats.
5. Bake for 8 minutes at 375 degrees, transfer to cooling rack. Original Recipe

The cookies didn’t last long. Between the Peanut Butter and the Oatmeal in the cookies they made for one perfect cookie.

The Man eats sandwiches most days for lunch so I bake bread every week. This week I used Jamie’s recipe for

French Style Baguettes

Jamie’s recipe made 2 large baguettes but I made 4 by cutting the dough into smaller pieces. I also subbed out some Whole Wheat for some of the flour. These were good and made great sandwiches. Just the right amount of ‘chew’ with the WWF. So much better than ANY store bought bread. You can find the recipe HERE!

So I am out of my Baking Funk. Spending the day with Jamie in the Kitchen was just the therepy I needed. Of course with all the other recipes I pinned there will be more days spent in the kitchen with Jamie.

Discovering new foodie blogs through SRC is always good for one’s baking psyche. Check out the other discoveries from the SRC members below.