Chocolate Zucchini Banana Muffins

I can't believe it - I forgot to take a photo of this one!!

This came from the blog Grumpys Honeybunch
http://www.grumpyshoneybunch.com/2009/08/chocolate-banana-zucchini-muffins.html?
but was originally from All Recipes
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Zucchini-Muffins/Detail.aspx

Cut and pasted here for convenience:
Chocolate Banana Zucchini Muffin
adapted from allrecipes.com (per the advise of one reviewer)

3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 mashed bananas
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease or line two 12 cup muffin tins.

In a large bowl beat the eggs. Beat in the sugar, oil and banana. Add the cocoa, vanilla, zucchini and stir well.

Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom. Mix until just moist.

Pour batter into prepared muffin tins filling 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool.


I thought these were pretty good.  My biggest pet peeve with these is that they look just like chocolate cupcakes and so I was constantly expecting more of a cake taste with threw me off completely.  Husband of Cheerios thought they were good but would be great slathered with icing.  Both kids had them in their lunches and thought they were good but needed icing.  It didn't matter that I explained that muffins don't have icing on them.  It's a mental thing.  Try baking these - they are great muffins and only so - so at being a cupcake.  I won't make these again - I don't think.  It's too confusing for my brain.  :)

I brought the rest to work and put them in the lunch room anonymously with some post-it notes.  Here are the comments that I received: 
* Delicious! I don't usually like zucchini but it's perfect with the chocolate! Thank you!
* Super tasty! Well done!  A bit more dense than chocolate zucchini I've had in the past.  
* It was amazing! Loved the taste and it had the perfect amount of sweetness. Thank you!
* The zucchini adds a half Christmas-y feel to the muffin.  A great fall snack as it denotes the change of seasons.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

I pinned this on Pinterest last week. It can be seen on this blog:

http://www.crumbsandchaos.net/2013/08/mini-chocolate-chip-pumpkin-muffins/

These came together quickly and easily yesterday morning while I enjoyed a Pumpkin Spice mocha.  Hmm...I may have pumpkin on the brain.  Must be that time of year.  :)

No matter how good it tastes, Pumpkin always manages to look extremely unappetizing...like baby food...or worse.  Just close your eyes and smell it instead.  Miss Almost Vegetarian would disagree.  She walked through the kitchen wondering what smelled so bad.  Perhaps its an acquired smell.

I took this with my iPhone 4S - that's just fun.  LOL

As the blog author suggests these are delicious!

Of course, you have to take my word for it.  Mr Picky is currently on a "I hate all muffins" kick.  Husband-of-Cheerios peered down his nose at me saying "you KNOW I don't like pumpkin" while refusing my attempts to hand him one.  Despite her misgivings, Miss Almost Vegetarian took a tentative bite of one after spotting the chocolate and then handed it back to me saying in a brittle voice "I don't like this at all."  LOL   My plan is to take a small bag of them to Thanksgiving today and hand them out like party favours.  IF I remember to do this and IF I remember to update this post (far more likely now that the Blogger App is stable) - you can find out what happened. Otherwise you may need to nudge me about this.  :)

Update: I tried to update yesterday but my internet connection was flaky at best. Some of my family's reactions:

Dad-"these muffins won't leave this house!"

Chris - " I don't really like pumpkin but these muffins are addicting!"

Jen - " I saw you post these on Facebook and thought "yum"..."

Shannon - "good"

Since they depleted my supply - I *will* make these again. Probably this week. :)

Blueberry Orange Cornmeal Muffins

From Everyday Food
http://www.marthastewart.com/873228/blueberry-orange-cornmeal-muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest, plus 2 teaspoons orange juice
• 1 1/4 cups blueberries (7 ounces)
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners. In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup flour, cornmeal, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, butter, vanilla, and orange zest. Add to flour mixture, stirring until combined (do not overmix).
2. In a medium bowl, toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon flour to coat, then fold into batter. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until puffed and set, about 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Let muffins cool in pan on a wire rack.
3. Stir together orange juice and confectioners' sugar. Drizzle over muffins and let glaze set, about 10 minutes, before serving.
   
   
   
   I admit I was very lazy while making these.  My measurements were all about "good enough" and "eyeballing".  I spent more time singing and dancing through my kitchen than paying attention to following this recipe closely.
   As you can see by the uncooked muffins on the left - I may not have eyeballed my 1 cup yogurt accurately - the batter was a bit dry.
   Most of the blueberries sunk to the bottom of each muffin cup during baking but having a blueberry bottom layer was just fun.  These were actually really good!  Husband of Cheerios had a few of these and he really isn't a muffin guy.  My parents each had one too and said that they liked them.  I WILL be making these again.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Muffin Mania

I had a hankering for muffins the other day and so I tried Everyday Food's Blackberry-Oat bran muffins. I don't know why everything is highlighted in red.  Ignore that.  Sigh.

Blackberry-oat bran muffins by everyday food

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2/3 cup oat bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar, divided
2 large eggs
2 teasoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups chopped blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk together, flour, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

2. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla combined. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in 2 additions, alternating with buttermilk and beat until combined. Fold in blackberries

3. Divide batter among muffin cups and sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon sugar. Bake until a toothpick in center of muffin comes out with moist crumbs attached, 20-25 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack five minutes, then transfer muffins to rack and let cool completely. (store in an airtight container up to 3 days)

I figured that while I was at it why not make more so I made Anna Olson's Strawberry banana muffins as seen here http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Fruit/recipe.html?dishid=7791

                     Ingredients

• 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar, to toss with strawberries
• 2/3 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F and grease or line muffins tins with paper cups.
2. Toss strawberries with 2 Tbsp sugar and set aside. In a large bowl, stir banana, remaining ½ cup sugar milk, egg whites, oil and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir dry ingredients into banana mixture just until blended. Fold in strawberries and spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before turning out.

Both easy to make - here is how they turned out:

The giant chunks of strawberry are very visible!

The blackberries distributed themselves nicely.

Now I should confess - my family doesn't like either one of these.  They grudgingly tried these and either made fake yummy faces or grimaced and ran away.  I guess you have to make do with my ratings only since I actually like muffins.  LOL

This is actually the third time I have made the Banana Strawberry ones.  They are VERY low fat which I think is the reason I keep making them.  :)   These muffins are ok.  They aren't great.  They are quite heavy and need...something.  The base is there but they are lacking something to make them awesome.

The blackberry bran are good.  I will make these again.  Right now these live in my freezer and I dip in a couple mornings a week when I haven't had time to eat before leaving the house.

Oatmeal Muffins

Friday January 20, 2012

Way too cold outside.

Stuck at home because my car wouldn't start.

Being stuck at home should have been a good thing in bad weather but I had planned on making muffins for a 4-H function the next day with my day off. To do so, I was going to make a trip into town for groceries (I had NO butter and there wasn't even ANY milk in the house). Since going to town was out of the question, I decided to check my freezer and pantry for options. I found some buttermilk neatly packaged in 1 cup portions in the freezer (am I ever glad I did that the last time I had leftover) and a bag of dried cherries from Costco. Now knowing what I had in the house I went to the computer and searched the Epicurious website for recipes and found one that I could make fit with what I had.

OATMEAL MUFFINS

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Oatmeal-Muffins-361819

RATINGS:

Heather - 10 - "Definate keeper"

Brad - 9 - "Good, for a healthy muffin"

4-H Moms - 9.5 - "Can we have the recipe?"

NOTE:

I did make a couple of substitutions. I used almonds instead of pecans and dried cherries instead of blueberries.

Pumpkin-Seed Muffins

I bought a BIG can of pumpkin puree last week as I was in charge of dessert for our Thanksgiving meal. I ended up with some leftover so for breakfast this morning I decided to make myself a batch of muffins. I had to dig wayyyyyy back in my Everyday Food Magazines to find this recipe. It is from issue #16, October 2004 in the "have you tried?" section.

PUMPKIN-SEED MUFFINS

1/2 cup raw green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)*

1 1/3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup packed light-brown sugar**

1 cup pumpkin puree

6 Tbsp melted butter

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Spread seeds in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until puffed and browned, about 10 minutes. Set aside. Raise oven heat to 375.

In large bowl mix together flour, baking powder, allspice and salt. Reserve 3 Tbsp seeds for topping; mix remaining seeds into flour mixture. In a medium bowl whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, butter and eggs. Add to dry ingredients; mix until JUST incorporated.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Divide batter among cups (the Pampered Chef large scoop is PERFECT for this); sprinkle with reserved seeds. Bake until muffins are lightly browned, 25-30 minutes.

RATINGS:

Heather -10 - "I don't even like pumpkin but these are good"

Brad - ? - "Unrated at this point since he isn't home from work yet to try them"

NOTES:

* I didn't toast the pumpkin seeds. The ones for inside I just tossed in raw and the ones for on top I used the Brown Sugar Spice Pumpkin Seeds I made last week.

** I didn't have any light brown sugar, I used it all up this weekend, so I used 1/2 white and 1/2 dark brown and it worked fine.

Zucchini and Banana Muffins

Score another good recipe for using up zucchini! I think I mention my love of muffins every time I post another muffin recipe, but I do really love muffins for breakfast. This recipe is from Everyday Food Magazine Issue #85 under the heading HEALTHY START. It doesn't use oil or butter so they are lower in fat than other recipes.

ZUCCHINI BANANA MUFFINS

1 3/4 cups flour (I used 1 1/4 c white flour, 1/4 cup buckwheat flour and 1/4 cup graham flour)

1 cup lightly packed light-brown sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

1/3 cup mashed ripe banana

3/4 cup whole milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add zucchini and banana and stir to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg and vanilla. add milk mixture to to flour mixture and stir to combine (do not over mix).

Divide mixture among muffin cups (I used muffin top pans). Bake at 350, about 20 - 25 minutes (17 for muffin tops).

RATINGS:

Heather - 10 - "Super moist"

Brad - 9.5 - "Nice blend of banana and zucchini"

Cinna-Mini Muffets by Melanie

As adapted from the cookbook Kids Do Baking by Company's Company

2 T Butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg

3/4 cup milk
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

2T melted butter

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Place over rack in center position. Turn oven on to 400F.  Grease 24 mini-muffin cups with cooking spray. Set aside.  Put first 3 ingredients into medium bowl.  Beat until light and creamy.

Add next 3 ingredients.  Beat well.

Put next 3 ingredients into small bowl.  Stir.  Add to milk mixture.  Sitr until just mixed.  Fill 24 mini muffin cups full with batter.  Bake in oven for about 10 min until toothpick inserted in centre of a muffet comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for 5 minutes.

Brush muffet tops with butter.  Put second amount of sugar and cinnamon into large shallow bowl. Stir. Remove muffets from pan to cinnamon mixture. Toss until coated. Arrange on wire racks to cool. Makes 24 muffets.

DH thought these were ok as did I. The cookbook says these will remind you of doughnut bites and yes - they did.  Mr. Picky thought these were the yummiest thing I have ever made.  Miss Almost Vegetarian scarfed hers down very quickly too.  All in all though, I'd rather eat a doughnut.  :)

Thursday Meals by Heather

Last night I had a dream about peanut butter banana muffins, so this morning when I got up I figured I would find out the recipe and give it a go. This recipe came in a booklet with the mail (I think that it was done by Robin Hood Flour but I can't confirm as I just ripped out the page) and this is my first time trying it.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

3/4 cup mashed banana

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup chocolate chips

(today I used Skor bits instead because Brad likes them better)

Combine wet ingredients in medium bowl. Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add chocolate chips and mix lightly.

The recipe says to divide evenly into 10 muffin cups but I got 18. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

Rating:

Brad - 8.5 - "good thing this made more than it said, I ate 5"

Heather - 7.5 - "I like the flavor combo but there is room for improvement"

A very rare occurrence happened today. Brad and I got to eat lunch together. Rather than waiting until I get home from work (at 9:00) to have our big meal we figured we would have lunch as our big meal today. Yesterday I took out chicken to cook for supper but ended up going to Kandy's on my way home so it never got cooked. I was going to make stove top with it today (guilty pleasure) but after conferring with Brad we decided to make one our favorites, tomato orzo. This recipe is from Everyday Food Magazine May 2008. It was a side dish for a chicken recipe. When I first made it, I made both the chicken and the orzo. The chicken was a miss but the orzo has become a staple side dish for us.

Tomato Orzo

1 cup orzo

1 cup grape tomatoes (cut in half if big)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

(today I used cilantro and I have used dill before as well)

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Cook orzo until al dente. Drain well and return to pot. Add tomatoes, parsley, butter, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to combine.

We normally make a separate vegetable with this but today (much to Brad's dismay) I decided to try tossing some asparagus in the pot while the orzo was cooking instead. I love it and would do it again. Brad said I shouldn't mess with a classic, and to cook the asparagus separately.

Rating:

Brad - 10 - "in my top 2 favorite side dishes"

Heather - 10+++ - "mmmmmmmmmm"

Mmmuffins!! by Heather

I have said before that I could eat soup everyday for lunch.

Well I could eat muffins just about everyday for breakfast!

Last Friday I finally got around to using that buttermilk I bought to make bran muffins (it's about time, it was almost past it's best before date).

Carrot Apricot Bran Muffin Bars*

http://canadianliving.com/food/carrot_apricot_bran_muffin_bars.php

*I made a couple of modifications. I make them into muffins not bars. This time I deleted the apricots (I was giving some to Kandy and she doesn't like fruit in her muffins) although sometimes I add dried cherries instead of the apricots and they are great.

This batter is so light and airy. It uses 4 tsp of baking powder so it puffs right up!

As a side note: if you don't have a large scoop from Pampered Chef, you should get one. It is the PERFECT size for muffins.

Rating:

Brad - Not rated, he keeps forgetting that they are there

Kandy - "Those were soooo good, when are you going to post the recipe"

Heather - 10 - "My favorite bran muffin recipe"

On Sunday we were all home in Hilda for a visit and when debating what to have for breakfast Erin (sis) said "You know what I haven't had in a long time? Blueberry lemon muffins!" Which I found funny because a friend had called me on Friday asking me for that recipe. So we whipped up a batch to have as dessert to our eggs and hash browns!!

This recipe comes from The Best of Bridge series. I have The Best of The Best and more and it is on page 11 (I don't know which book it was originally published in).

Super Blueberry Lemon Muffins

In a large bowl mix

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

zest of 1 lemon

In a medium bowl mix
1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

Add together and stir until just mixed. Stir in 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes

When slightly cool make topping for muffins.

Combine

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tbsp lemon juice

Dip tops in lemon butter then into a little bit of sugar.

Rating:

Brad - 10 - "YUMMY"

Heather - 10 - "PERFECTION"

At the top of the page in the book it says "these will disappear as quickly as you make them!" It's true. You may want to make a double batch.

I have also made these with raspberries instead of blueberries before and they were also delicious.