Blueberry yogurt muffins (whole wheat)

I made these using white whole wheat flour and a smidge more than 1/2 cup white (refined) flour. Pans greased with real butter because I still need to buy baking spray for my new house. I don't think the oven was at the full 375 when I put them in, and it may have gone up to 400 mid-baking, because my oven has been a bit weird lately.

And, we shall see...

cherry cornmeal muffins

I made this recipe:
http://abbyashton.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/cherry-cornmeal-muffins/
but with all sugar instead of honey and an additional TBS of milk to make up for the lack of moisture provided by the honey. They were decent and more or less worked even though there's a strangely small amount of flour and my butter-sugar-milk mixture seemed a little clumpy (my melted brown butter re-solidified when it hit cold milk.) I also ended up using almond extract instead of vanilla. I'm not sure that was a good choice--not bad, but vanilla might have been better.

banana bread muffins

I just made this recipe with changes.

Basically:

• 1 cup white sugar (I did 1/2 white and almost 1/2 dark brown because brown sugar is tasty)
  
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (I did 1 scant cup white flour and 1 cup white whole wheat because whatever)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (closer to 1/2 cup)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• added 1/4ish tsp cinnamon and a dash of vanilla because cinnamon and vanilla are nice. (NB last year I made banana bread and had no cinnamon and I used some combo of nutmeg and cardamom instead and it was great.)
  

I blended the bananas in the food processor first, then added the egg, oil, sugar...basically everything except the flour and nuts, and processed a few more times. Then I dumped it into a bowl to stir in the flour and nuts because my food processor is tiiiiny.

Spooned it into unlined muffin tins greased with flour+oil Pam, and now baking. I predict that the recipe's 30-40 minute bake time will be too long. We shall see. Verdict: at least 30 minutes is necessary.

poppyseed muffins

1.75 ? cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2.5 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1+ cups milk
1/2 cup poppyseeds
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
good bit of vanilla


Soak poppyseeds in milk. Combine ingredients like you would for other muffin recipes...

These were very poppyseed-y, but tastey. A little bitter in spurts, which might have been bites of poppyseeds that didn't get submerged fully while being soaked -- not sure.

whole wheat muffins

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 tsp (1 TBS) baking powder
a few dashes of salt
a few dashes of cinnamon
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed (because my house has an insane glut of brown sugar right now)

1/4 cup melted butter
a little bit of oil (to make fat = 1/3 cup approx.)
2/3 c milk
1 egg
2/3 ? cup chocolate chips

(Standard mix dry + wet, put in chips, greased pan at 400 degrees, yada yada yada.)

These came out pretty well...

cranberry muffins

Modified from http://www.meatlessmonday.com/fresh-cranberry-muffins/

• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (dark)
• a bit less than 1/3 cup white sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• cinnamon to taste
  
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup (unsalted) butter or stick margarine, melted
• 1 teaspoon orange rind, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400. Mix flours, sugars, salt, and cinnamon. Mix milk, melted butter, orange rind, vanilla, and egg. Add chopped cranberries to dry ingredients, stir. Grease muffin tin (12-cup). Stir wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Spoon into muffin tins, bake for 18 minutes or until muffins spring back lightly when touched in the center. Remove immediately and cool on wire racks.

VERDICT: The texture was OK, but too tart. They also have a strange almost fake-sugar taste (not that I've really consumed enough fake sugar to know.) Maybe I needed to cut the cranberries into smaller pieces, or use the full 1/3 cup of sugar. Or stir some sugar into the cranberry mixture first. Dunno. Also, let the melted butter cool before stirring it into the milk mixture. I was impatient and mine re-solidified when it hit cold milk.

100% whole wheat muffins

from allrecipes, with modifications.

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin pan (for 12 medium size muffins.)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in one bowl.  Combine milk, oil, and egg (beaten) in another.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir to combine - don't overmix. 

Spoon/ladle into prepared pan, bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick is clean. 

*I added 1/3 c. chocolate chips and a few dashes of cinnamon.  I also used stone ground whole wheat flour because that's what I had around.  Worked fine. Tasted good.  Texture was good, though not overly moist.