Tag Archives: muffins

Muffin of the Week: Turkey Day Detox

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How was your Thanksgiving? We had a lovely one-one of the best I can remember.

These muffins are great for the day after Thanksgiving because… well, you know.

Adapted from King Arthur Flour’s Morning Glory Muffins.

INGREDIENTS

Disclaimer: there are no cranberries in this recipe. But Caroline staged and took this picture yesterday, and I thought it was so pretty.

1/2 cup raisins
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups peeled and grated carrots (I had slightly less-threw in what I had)
1 large tart apple, peeled, cored, and grated
1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened (I omitted, because gross)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup sunflower seeds or wheat germ, optional (I used wheat germ)
3 large eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil — You can substitute canned pumpkin for oil at a 1:1 ratio, so I threw in that annoying leftover bit we always have when we make our pie.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup orange juice

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin, or line it with papers and spray the insides of the papers.
  2. In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water, and set them aside to soak while you assemble the rest of the recipe.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt.
  4. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut, nuts, and sunflower seeds or wheat germ.
  5. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and orange juice.
  6. Add to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened.
  7. Drain the raisins and stir them in.
  8. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 28 minutes, until they’re nicely domed and a cake tester inserted in the center of one of the inner muffins comes out clean.
  9. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling. Wrap any leftovers airtight, and store at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.

This Week’s Muffin: Mini Mediterranean Muffins

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It’s all book-writing and marathon-training here at the Blue Room. (Note to self-don’t have those things coincide in the future, mmm-kay?) Once those are both behind me I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled public rumination.

In the meantime, the weather is cooling off which means I’m making muffins again! This week’s recipe is one I love. It comes from Matt Kadey’s book Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports and Adventure. I’ve made several recipes from this book and liked or loved each one.

Kadey’s book is divided into Before, During, and After, with each section’s recipes formulated for that phase of exercise. Before features light, healthy, carb-fortified foods; During has stuff that’s easily portable (including your own gels!); After focuses on the right protein/carb ratio to replenish muscles and energy.

These Mini Mediterranean muffins came from the During section, but they’re excellent to snack on anytime. I used them on my last 20 miler, and it was so nice to have something savory to offset the gels and chews I rely on heavily.

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup finely ground cornmeal (I used regular cornmeal and it seemed finely ground enough)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons low-fat milk
1/3 cup olive oil
zest of 1 lemon (optional)
2 ounces finely chopped feta cheese (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup drained and finely chopped roasted red peppers
1/3 cup pitted, finely chopped Kalamata olives

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare 24 mini muffin cups with paper liners or cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients (flour through salt).
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, oil, and lemon zest.
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just blended.
  5. Fold in cheese, peppers and olives.
  6. Divide into muffin cups and bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out mostly clean. Cool on rack.
  7. Keep chilled for up to 5 days and transport in small ziploc bags. (I have frozen a bunch for The Big Day.)

Speaking of which! I’m still raising money for Teens Run DC. Read more about it and sponsor me here.

The Peace of Baked Things… A Poem, Plus Bonus Muffin Recipe

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What do you do when you’re discouraged about the state of the world?

I bake muffins. And jot poems.

With apologies to Wendell Berry’s poem The Peace of Wild Things:

The Peace of Baked Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I can’t sleep at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I creep down to the kitchen, socks on cold wood.
A clatter of bowls, hiss of spray on pans,
and a pillow of flour.
Leavening a perfect mound, whiter than white.
Follow directions and all will be well.

Now the liquid: thick buttermilk;
melted butter, a risen sun grinning wickedly from its bowl;
and an egg-the cracked one, from when my son fumbled the carton.
I whisk, wincing at the memory of his frustrated tears.

Then a pause over the two bowls.
Master over this one thing, I can suspend time indefinitely,
stop the culinary combustion for as long as I wish.

But such sovereignty is foolish.
The mess is meant to be mixed,
folded, scooped, baked,
and warmed-
for the teen who wakes herself before dawn,
the long-haired girl with the cat-ear headband,
the boy who broke the eggs.

~

Brown Sugar Butter Pecan Muffins (or loaf)

adapted from Real Easy Recipes

INGREDIENTS
2-1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup chopped pecans

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices; blend in brown sugar.
    Combine egg, buttermilk, and butter; add to flour mixture, stirring to blend well. Stir in chopped nuts.
  2. Scoop batter into 12 greased muffin tins (or a greased and floured 9-by-5-inch loaf pan). Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (45 to 50 minutes for loaf) or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

~

Psst… my 2015-2016 workbook/playbook is still available for a couple more days.
Find out more.
Get the workbook now.

Photo Credit: “baking” by Ballookey Klugeypop, Flickr, creative commons license.

This Week’s “Muffin”: Applesauce Spice Cake

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This week I put muffin in quotes because I actually made this as a bundt cake, but it would work perfectly well as muffins. Just bake for less time.

This cake was a central feature of our Wednesday family dessert as well as a lovely quiet conversation over tea with a friend on my back deck. No frills, but tasty and super easy!

I’d credit the source but I don’t know where I got this one.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil
7/8 cup brown sugar

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup chopped nuts and/or raisins, optional (I omitted)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bundt pan or muffin cups.
  2. Mix applesauce, brown sugar and oil in medium bowl.
  3. Sift together dry ingredients.
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry, mix well.
  5. Pour into pan and bake 40 minutes (cake) or 15-20 minutes (muffins).
  6. Cool on a cooling rack.

Muffin of the Week: Easy Cranberry, for the #RagnarDC Steeple Chasers

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A sign my daughter made for last year's Ragnar Relay team.

A sign my daughter made for last year’s Ragnar Relay team.

EDIT: I wrote this post early in the week, then spent the morning before Ragnar monitoring weather reports. As of this update, our team is still a go, but the muffins didn’t get made. So let’s call these muffins Hurricane Joaquin muffins instead.

It’s Ragnar Relay week here in the nation’s capital, and as this post goes live, our team, the Steeple Chasers, is somewhere in Maryland, making the long and hilarious 200-mile running trek from Cumberland to DC. You can read about last year’s Steeple Chasers adventure here.

Despite my injury, I’m staying on as driver and general merry-maker. And muffin provider. This week I went with something simple, with no weird ingredients that might be tough on runners’ tummies. I also made mini-muffins so people can pop a little one in their mouth if they need a quick burst of energy.

EASY CRANBERRY MUFFINS — adapted from Eating on a Dime

INGREDIENTS
  • 2 cups Flour
  • ¾ cup Brown Sugar
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 2 Eggs
  • ¾ cup Orange Juice
  • ⅓ cup Vegetable Oil
  • 1 cup chopped Cranberries
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Coat muffin pan with cooking spray. (12 regular sized muffins or 24ish mini muffins)
  3. Mix together flour, brown sugar and baking powder. Set aside.
  4. Beat together eggs. orange juice and oil.
  5. Add wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until moistened.
  6. Fold in cranberries.
  7. Spoon into prepared muffin pan.
  8. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
  9. Cool on a wire rack.