Tag Archives: muffins

January 9, 2011

Corn-Bran-Clementine Muffins

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Oh muffins, it’s been so long! It feels like forever since I’ve baked my favorite goodies. I suppose I’m getting pickier about recipes and inspiration has taken a back seat to things like holiday travel and wedding plans.
Without further adieu, I bring you a muffin with definite promise but some unfortunate shortcomings. I’m not writing these off as a failure but they’re not my favorites…yet.

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I was inspired by the huge basket of Clementines brightening the table. Their juicy little sections had to be good in a muffin! Starting with a recipe from Bob’s Red Mill, the only thing I changed was the fruit, from raisins to Clementines. I suppose I added some nutmeg too. Who can resist nutmeg and orange?
The corn-bran combination is a winner but I don’t think oranges are the right fruit with these grains. The Clementines were very juicy but the cornmeal seemed to suck them dry. The orange flavor was fantastic and I loved the crunchy corn. When I make these again, I’ll amp-up the wet ingredients, stick to the raisins from the original recipe, and throw in some marmalade for fun!
I’m sharing the original recipe and my somewhat sub-par variation because I think these muffins are definitely worth experimenting with. Maybe some of you can come up with a better orange twist!

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Corn-Bran-Clementine Muffins
Adapted from Corn-Bran-Raisin Muffins from Bob’s Red Mill

1-1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup agave nectar or honey
2 large eggs
Zest from one Clementine Mandarin orange
3 Clementine oranges, peeled and chopped into small pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine cornmeal, bran, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs, then add oil, yogurt, agave, and orange zest.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mixing gently till barely combined.
Fold in chopped oranges.
Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups with liners or lightly oiled. I made 12 mini and 10 regular muffins.
Bake at 400 F. for 12 minutes (8 minutes for mini-muffins).

Eat them while they’re hot with butter or try something different and let me know what you come up with!

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December 6, 2010

Buckwheat Coffeecake Muffins

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        First: as muffins go, these are way up there on my list of favorites. They’re easy to make, contain some unique ingredients, and are a healthier alternative to rich coffeecake. Before I get to the muffins, though, I’ll share a long overdue egg-related item.
        This town’s little bare-shelved market with brown lettuce and dusty cans was a sad stand-in for a grocery store. That’s where I scrounged minimal supplies for dinner yesterday: frozen spinach, a red pepper, bread, and eggs. With those ingredients, a new egg sandwich was born! It was way, way too dark for pictures so I have no evidence. There will be future incarnations of the baked egg sandwich, though. It was just what I’d been craving: heaps of sauteed greens topped with eggs and sandwiched between pieces of rye bread. The whole thing went in the oven in sandwich form and the eggs cooked under their bread tops.

        Now, on to the sweets. Before I started on dinner, I went to work on a recipe I’ve had in my ‘to make’ pile for a while. When I spotted this Buckwheat Coffeecake recipe on my bag of buckwheat flour it seemed too unusual and potentially scrumptious to ignore. Buckwheat is great in pancakes but coffeecake was a new one to me. I was also intrigued by the graham cracker crumb topping for this cake. Graham crackers, butter, and brown sugar are undeniably good. Crisped in the oven on top of a cake they’re dreamy.
        I turned the original Buckwheat Coffeecake recipe into muffins for two reasons: practicality and my obsession with muffins. Handing Lee a muffin when he’s at the helm of the boat on one of the recent 30 degree mornings is much easier than serving cake. I reduced the crumbly topping by a lot, making my version a bit healthier than the original. The graham cracker crumbs are still buttery, sweet, and messy.
        I realize that plain, brown muffins aren’t particularly Christmasy. They don’t sparkle, include candy canes or ginger, and there’s nothing red or green about these muffins. I did add a subtle Christmas hint with a sprinkle of nutmeg. In fact, buckwheat and nutmeg produce a deep, rich flavor that makes me think of warm fires and pine-scented living rooms. With cup of Trader Joe’s Vanilla & Cinnamon Black Tea (my current favorite), any frigid morning on the boat feels cozy.
        I am including the original recipe as well as my muffin version. This is one of those cases where I should have probably made the original first so I would know what I had changed. Maybe Christmas morning at my mom’s new house would be a good opportunity to try the unaltered coffeecake.

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I still haven’t figured out how to get my (hopefully temporary) camera to take pictures that aren’t blurry!

Buckwheat Coffeecake
From Bouchard Family Farm Buckwheat Flour package (a Maine product)

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Topping:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat eggs, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl.
Add oil and flours and mix till well blended.
Pour batter into greased 8x8x2 pan.
Mix ingredients for topping and sprinkled over batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

Buckwheat Coffeecake Muffins (makes 10 muffins)
Adapted from the recipe above

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Topping:
3 graham cracker sheets (6 squares) made into crumbs
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat egg, sugar, applesauce and baking powder in a bowl.
Combine flours and nutmeg in a small bowl.
Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir till just blended.
Pour batter into 10 muffin cups, lightly oiled or with silicone liners.
Mix ingredients for topping and sprinkled over muffins. There should be enough to cover the tops of all 10 muffins.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.

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November 16, 2010

Everyone’s Muffins

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        It’s a grey, blustery day in Maryland (hence the sky replacement for the poorly lit pictures I’m not too happy with). I woke up indecisive about what to bake. With Thanksgiving fast approaching something suited to that holiday seemed appropriate but I’m just not in the holiday mood quite yet. Maybe it’s because this will be the first Thanksgiving I spend away from family. It’s time for Lee and I to start our own traditions!

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        I guess I’m working my way up to Thanksgiving because today’s muffins are dinner table appropriate, or a great start to a long day in the kitchen. As an added bonus (or a requirement at some tables), these muffins are vegan. Laurel’s Kitchen included vegan recipes back when even vegetarians were still considered wackos. Everyone’s Muffins were so named for their acceptability to all diets, even those that exclude milk and eggs. Hey, they’re also great when you’re in Maryland and you haven’t been to the grocery store since New York! Actually, I went to the store yesterday but I still really wanted to make these muffins!
        This is the second time I’ve made Everyone’s Muffins. I followed the recipe exactly the first time but tweaked one ingredient for this batch. The leftover brown rice in the ice box caught my eye and was much more accessible than the master supply of oats I’d need to raid since I just emptied the container in the galley. Cooked brown rice seems like a nice addition to bread. It adds that chewy rice texture, fiber, and protein. In retrospect, though, I should have adjusted the amount of liquid in the original recipe because my muffins turned out very. very moist. They will probably be better after sitting overnight but the rice obviously didn’t absorb as much liquid as uncooked oats would have.
        Oh well. They taste good and they’re good for us. I love “un-sweet” muffins like these. You can butter them up and slather them with jam (or cranberry conserve, perhaps). Eat one for breakfast, serve them with dinner, make muffin sandwiches – these are as versatile as muffins get.

Everyone’s Muffins (Oatmeal Variety)
From Laurel’s Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey
Makes 12

1 1/2 cups warm water*
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 cups rolled oats*
2 pinches nutmeg

*I replaced the oats with the same amount of cooked brown rice. If you do the same, try decreasing the amount of water by 1/4 cup or so.

Dissolve the yeast in the water in a large bowl.
Add the salt, oil, sugar, and whole wheat flour and beat well.
Add the oats and nutmeg and beat vigorously (you’ll have a batter not a dough).
Cover the bowl with a towel and leave it to rise in a warm place for at least an hour.
Stir down the batter and spoon it into lightly greased muffin tins (or use silicone cups in a muffin tin. I think paper would stick).
Let the muffins rise for about another hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. and bake muffins for about 20 minutes. The tops will be brown and crusty.

If I make these with rice again I’ll decrease the liquid and maybe increase the baking time. Maybe I’ll just try the other variety of Everyone’s Muffins – Buckwheat! Now I need to focus on more pressing matters…

Any suggestions for a vegetarian Thanksgiving for two?

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November 3, 2010

Jammy muffins and a wild week

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        Finally – a chance to sit down and write something! A week isn’t really that long to go without a post but I’ve really missed my blog, not to mention all the fabulous blogs I love to read! There was really no way for me to sit down at my computer this past week, let alone bake something to write about. MuffinEgg has undergone a visible change, though. I joined Foodbuzz and Lee took care of the technical hosting set up. Things are still under construction so you may see more changes in the coming weeks.
        Lee and I had a traumatizing passage on our boat last Friday that left us shaken and discouraged. We faced some serious wind and waves and spent half the night trying to get to shelter before things could get any worse. If you’re interested, you can read the full story here.
        After what felt like a near death experience, I needed some serious baking therapy. Warming up the boat with the oven was also a motivating factor, since it’s been ridiculously cold for the past few days. Muffins were first on the to-bake list. Lee had requested “stuffed muffins” so I decided to inject my cranberry conserve from last week into some whole wheat muffins. We have been really enjoying the conserve on toast and in PB&J sandwiches. I wish I had more than two jars of it left!
        I wanted to try the whole wheat muffin recipe in Joy of Cooking for my jam vehicles. It’s a simple recipe with room for lots of variations. My variation ended up halfway vegan out of necessity. Lee ate the last two eggs that morning so flax took their place. I did use regular milk but you could make these muffins completely vegan by simply using non-dairy milk.
        Biting into a sweet, tangy pocket of cranberry conserve makes these muffins gooey and satisfying. The batter isn’t very sweet but the nutmeg makes it more than just a vehicle for jam. I think I’ll be playing around with jam-filled muffins more from now on.

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Jam-Filled Whole Wheat Muffins
Adapted from Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

1 2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal + 1/4 cup water
1 1/4 cups milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar
1/4 cup honey or agave
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Your favorite jam or preserves

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Whisk the flours, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, combine flaxseed meal and 1/4 cup water, allowing it to sit for a few minutes.
Add the vinegar to the milk, then combine milk with the flax mixture, honey, and oil. Beat until well blended.
Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients, stirring briefly to combine.
Spoon into muffin cups lined with paper or silicone liners, filling each about half full.
Add a teaspoon of jam to the center of each muffin.
Cover the jam with the remaining batter.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned. (Mine did not rise above the edges of the cups so don’t worry if they’re not getting huge)

        Hopefully I’ll be a little better connected from now on. Our internet access has been problematic and it was harder than I thought it would be to get back into the rhythm of transient life.

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