Apple Muffins

It's been a while...I know, I know. I have been baking and cooking I promise. Sometimes I remember to take pictures, and sometimes I don't...who would have thought that it would be so "difficult" to keep up a blog with a newborn :op

Anywho, the three of us went on our first vacation the other week to New York where we got to lounge around, explore western New York, visit Niagra and...go apple picking! Of course we got a ton of apples and I couldn't wait to get them home to bake something! Now, last year I had tried to make apple cinnamon muffins and they turned out pretty horrific. And this year, I vowed to try again.

So glad that I did because the recipe that I used this time is definitely a winner. LOVED it! I haven't been able to stop eating them and neither has Brad. I made them this past Saturday, and in the past 3-4 days, just the two of us have eaten 19. Yikes. Oh, and my brother ate 1 when he came over this morning.

The recipe was simple enough. I didn't do anything different except kept the peels on the apple only because 1) I didn't read that you were supposed to peel them until after I cut the first one and 2) You never know when the "Big Boy" is going to wake up so I was trying to be as fast as possible and peeling would have just created an extra step. Also, the recipe said it would make 18 but I ended up with the 20. Definitely didn't mind having the extra two! And two of our apples yielded 3 cups, but we picked pretty large apples. Oh, and 24 mins wasn't long enough for me but perhaps that was due to high moisture content of orchard apples? Not sure, just don't be alarmed.

Apple Muffins
found on The Girl Who Ate Everything (recipe by Marissa Pinon)

 
2 cups sugar 

2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (around 3 apples)
Brown sugar for topping (around 1/2 cup)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.
• Cream together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. 

• Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.

• Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the diced apples.

• Fill paper liners almost to the top, about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

• Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes. Makes 18 muffins. 

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

So what do you do when you have some bananas that are overly ripe and strawberries that are on their way out? Make Strawberry Chocolate Chip Banana muffins of course!

I don't even remember when and where I first saw this recipe, but I must have bookmarked it thinking that it looked intriguing. And then it was forgotten about in the depths of my internet bookmarks...until Jacob came over one day asking if I could take some black bananas off his hands. So I dove into the archives and rediscovered this recipe.  

I have to admit, I was slightly apprehensive about this concoction the more I thought about it. Strawberries and Chocolate? heavenly. Chocolate and Bananas? Excellent. Strawberry Banana? Perfect. But all three? together? at once? But I decided to take the plunge anyway, and I am oh so glad that I did.

 

Perhaps it is just a phase, but these are probably one of my favorite muffins right now. I've made them a couple of times since first trying out the recipe and they have never lasted more than a few days, even with just Brad and I! And the great thing is, is that others enjoy them as well, so I know it's not just me and my funky pregnancy hormones. :op Plus, it only makes 12 muffins, which is a perfect amount I would think.

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
by For the Love of Cooking

• ½ cup of butter, softened
• ¾ cup of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 overripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• 10-12 fresh strawberries diced
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then coat a muffin pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy.

Add the eggs, bananas, and vanilla then continue beating until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together, mix well. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir until just combined.

Add most of the diced strawberries and most of the chocolate chips then gently mix them into the batter.

Spoon the batter evenly into each muffin tin. Place the remaining strawberries and chocolate chips on top of each muffin. 

 

Place into the oven and bake 18-20 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

 

 Let the muffins cool on a rack. Slather with butter and enjoy!

Strawberry Muffins

Summer is in fact one of my favorite seasons...and autumn...and winter...I know, I know, there are only four. But nonetheless, Summer is great because it's full of birthdays (including my own), free events, warm weather, and of course fresh fruit. Blueberries, as you may know, are my favorite but strawberries are pretty great too.

The other day at Aldi, strawberries were on sale for 99 cents and they actually looked decent so I picked up a few packages. We ate some and made strawberry lemonade and I made homemade strawberry frosting. This morning as I was looking in the fridge, I noticed I had just about a cup of strawberries left so I decided to whip up some strawberry muffins. I have made this recipe a couple of times now and I am pretty satisfied with it.

I found this recipe over at all recipes but it looks very similar to some other posts that I found online so I'm not really sure who is the originator of this recipe. I'll just link to the AllRecipes site though just because it is pretty easy to read plus you can see what other people are saying about it and how they tweaked it to fit to their own tastes. The version I am going to post is based off of the original recipe plus some of the suggestions of reviewers as well as my own additions. Feel free to go back and look at the first recipe and perhaps make your own adaptations.

Strawberry Muffins
Original Recipe by Katie Mae, Adaptations made by other reviewers and myself

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 2 Tablespoons strawberry jam
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
  
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped strawberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Sprinkle strawberries with a portion of the sugar and let sit. In a small bowl, combine oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Beat lightly.
   
3. In a large bowl, mix salt, cinnamon, baking powder, sugars, and flour.
   
4. Gradually add milk mixture into dry ingredients. Once combined, add strawberry jam and chopped strawberries.
5. Fill muffin cups with batter. Sprinkle muffin tops with sugar. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops bounce back from the touch. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Have I told you lately that I love blueberries? ^_^ They are by far the best fruit that God created.

Brad and I went blueberry picking again for my birthday this year and unfortunately, I wasn't able to control myself as well this year and ate a good majority of them before we ended up freezing them. Whoops! ::looks innocently:: By the way, what is the best way to freeze blueberries? Well let me tell you. Place your fresh blueberries on a cookie sheet or shallow pan in a single layer. Set berries in the freezer until frozen (this will take an hour or so). Once frozen, pour into a freezer bag and viola! Individually frozen blueberries that are much easier to remove and use in a recipe. Love it!

Anyway, I had wanted to make some fresh blueberry muffins and I didn't want my precious fruit to go to waste on some bland recipe so I went straight to Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen. I have never been disappointed with any of the recipes that I have gotten from them and I had remembered seeing blueberry muffins being featured on the cover. However, of course I couldn't find my CI magazine. I did find a recipe on their website though but it called for jam, which I didn't want to do. So I did some more searching and what I found was a recipe from Cook's Country, another branch of America's Test Kitchen. I liked what I saw so I decided to give it a go.

Guess what? Another winner! I have to admit there were some muffins that had more berries than others, as well as some where the blueberries were more towards the bottom but I honestly think that was my mistake. Either way, I'm keeping this recipe around.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins
from Cook's Country

Makes 12

To prevent a streaky batter, leave the blueberries in the freezer until the last possible moment. Wyman's brand frozen wild blueberries are our first choice, but an equal amount of fresh blueberries may be substituted.

Streusel
1 1/4	cups all-purpose flour
1/3	cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3	cup granulated sugar
1/2	teaspoon ground cinnamon
	Pinch salt
7	tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
Muffins
4	tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly, plus extra for preparing muffin tin
2	cups all-purpose flour , plus extra for preparing muffin tin
1	large egg
1	teaspoon vanilla extract
1	cup granulated sugar
1	teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2	cup buttermilk
1	tablespoon baking powder
1/2	teaspoon salt
1 1/2	cups frozen blueberries

1. For the streusel: Combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt in bowl. Drizzle with melted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms large chunks with some pea-sized pieces throughout.

2. For the muffins: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin. Whisk egg in medium bowl until pale and evenly combined, about 30 seconds. Add vanilla, sugar, and zest and whisk vigorously until thick, about 30 seconds. Slowly whisk in melted butter; add buttermilk and whisk until combined.

3. Reserve 1 tablespoon flour. Whisk remaining flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Fold in egg mixture until nearly combined. Toss blueberries with reserved flour and fold into batter until just combined.

4. Divide batter in muffin tin and top with streusel. Bake until light golden brown and toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out with few dry crumbs attached, 23 to 27 minutes. Cool muffins in tin for 20 minutes, then carefully transfer muffins to rack to cool completely. (Muffins can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.)