Fancy Berry Muffins

What should one do on Valentine's Eve when there is a bag of 'Fancy Grade A Berry Medley' ossifying in the freezer because nobody's been in the mood for a smoothie? 

 

Make some fancy muffins, of course!





You could, of course, chop large unfrozen berries by hand.
This was my quick alternative- just a few pulses did the trick.
I got them a little smaller than I'd intended,
but it worked well for the mini muffins.

Fancy Berry Muffins

3 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 egg
1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1 c. berries (fresh or frozen, any variety, chop anything larger than an average blueberry)





1. Combine the butter, sugar and egg in a large bowl. This is the bowl all of the batter will end up in.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
3. Add flour mixture alternately with milk to the butter/sugar/egg bowl, mixing after each addition.
4. Beat well, then stir in berries.






Your batter will be colorful!

5. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Use paper liners or grease pan well.
6. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes (mini muffins) or 30 minutes (lg. muffins).

I ended up with 32 mini muffins with approximately 8 total carbs each.



Next time? Some cinnamon sugar on top for color and crunch.

Maybe these would make a nice treat for your Valentine in addition to that rose I'm hoping you've already spared?

Muffin Chronicles Part 4: Applesauce Theme Week Edition

 



Applesauce Mini Muffins

Since too much applesauce is never enough, here's the latest batch of muffins for the lunchbox:

1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. white flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
(you could also add 1/4 tsp. clove if you like it but we don't)

1/2 c. shortening or softened butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg

1 c. applesauce

Mix flour, soda, salt and spices in a small bowl or in a glass measuring cup with spout. If you use a spouted measuring cup (which makes a later step easier) it's still best to measure your flour first with a standard measure for dry ingredients (you know- a metal or plastic one that'll let you level the flour off across the top). Set this mixture aside.

In a large bowl, cream the shortening and then add the sugar gradually until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then add the egg.



The shortening/sugar/egg mixture will look like this.
Also of note, these single-serve applesauce packs are
1/2 cup each which is convenient.

Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the applesauce, to the bowl containing the shortening mixture. Stir between each addition. I usually add about a quarter of each at a time. This is the part my daughter has always loved to help with!




 

How much dough? I just used a teaspoon from my silverware drawer-
one heaping spoonful per muffin cup.

Spoon into mini-muffin tins and bake at 350° for about 18 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I made 33 mini muffins for about 8.5 g. each.


The recipe is adapted from my husband's Nana's applesauce cake recipe. To adapt it back for a great dessert, use all white flour and a full cup of sugar. Bake it in a standard sized loaf pan for an hour (which sounds like it would be too long but trust me, it isn't).

We love this recipe because - yum - but also because we almost always have the ingredients we need for them in the pantry.
 
Hope you'll enjoy it too.




The Muffin Chronicles Part 3: Apple (& Pear?) Muffins

We started out making these with no fruit at all, as a fall spice muffin.  Then my daughter had her baking-loving friend sleep over one night.  She's is my favorite sleepover guest since the evening always involves making something great either for dessert or for breakfast the next morning.  This friend suggested the addition of diced apples, and we've never gone back.

Start by preheating the oven to 350°.

Then mince up some apple, and maybe pear if it happens to be around. I had parts of two apples left from chopping the rest into salads during the week, and a sad pear.  I was only able to salvage a small chunk of the pear, but I wouldn't want to use too much anyway since they're so much moister and mushier than apples.  In total I used somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 cup of finely chopped fruit. 

Next, combine in a large bowl (to which you'll eventually add the dry ingredients):
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. vegetable oil and
1 egg

 

 

Then add:
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. white flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg and
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
.

Stir just enough to combine. 

Then fold in the fruit.

The first few times we made these, we went back and double checked that we'd measured correctly.  The batter is extremely dense- more like bread, or even cookie dough.  The thickness does make it easier to get it into the muffin cups, which should be about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon sugar. 

 

Bake for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

The whole recipe has approximately 285 g. carbs if you use the equivalent of one average apple and depending on how heavy-handed you are with the cinnamon sugar.   I ended up with 35 mini muffins which mathed out to approximately 8 carbs each. 

 

They're even more fun if you're fortunate, as I was, to find holiday themed baking wrappers in your pantry!

 



The Muffin Chronicles: Episode 1

My daughter has taken the same basic lunch to school since first grade:

A sandwich (usually sunflower seed butter and jelly)

Fruit (grapes, berries, a clementine, apple slices)

A salty snack (pretzels, goldfish crackers, sunchips)

This year, she needed a lunchbox addition.  With a 7 a.m. start to her school day because of a period 0 choir class, breakfast and lunch are a long time apart.  The previous lunch wasn't filling her up anymore, even with a larger serving of fruit and a heartier sandwich.

She needed something else nutritious which could be eaten quickly, wouldn't spike her blood sugar, and wouldn't rip out her braces.  The braces part eliminated the obvious granola bar choice, especially when paired with eating quickly.  We tried a couple of brands of soft cereal bars, but there was a definite blood sugar spike just in time for important classes like biology and geometry.  Her lactose issue eliminated cheese or yogurt options.  So we went with:

Corn muffins are her favorite but they're even better with blueberries.

Homemade mini muffins.  It sounds ambitious but hear me out.  If once every couple of weeks I make a batch of mini muffins and freeze them, I can take two out every morning, put them in a little container in her lunch box and she has a decent 20-ish gram snack.  Some recipes are good 'as is,' and for others I substitute whole wheat flour or decrease the sugar to make them a little easier on the blood sugar. 

Corn muffin recipes are plentiful so I won't bore you with that one, but I do plan to share a couple of (hopefully successful) muffin experiments in future editions of 'The Muffin Chronicles' this fall!