Sweet Potato Pie Muffins

One of the ladies at work and I like to talk about food.  Recently, she had me look at two different muffin recipes to get my opinion on them (her daughter eats very, very healthily and the recipes were for an attempt to make her muffins) .  We started talking about various things and the lady told me about sweet potato pancakes they make.  After a day or so, I just couldn't stop thinking about sweet potatoes and muffins.  I've been wanting to bake some sweet potato muffins for the past week, but never got around to it (i.e., I've been rather lazy).  Finally, I couldn't resist my urge to bake.  More than just bake though, I wanted to create something.  I am so hesitant to just dive head first into making something, in trusting myself to have the skill and knowledge.  I am so terrified of failure in the kitchen... and this is preposterous!  So even when I do venture out on my own, I usually scan some recipes to get general ratios (flour to sugar, wet to dry) before embarking.  But not this time, buddy!  I marched into the kitchen with just my brain to guide me.  It was a little scary but also exhilarating.  I feel I'm finally becoming an actual, honest-to-goodness baker, and damn, does it feel good.

 Was that enough exposition?  I'm not usually so verbose -- at least not lately -- but I am really proud of these muffins.  And myself.  For risking failure in an attempt to  create and succeeding.

Sweet Potato Pie Muffins
(Yields 1 1/2 dozen muffins)

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 15 oz. can sweet potato puree (feel free to make your own puree)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup finely to mediumly chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 350F.  Generously oil a muffin pan.  

In a large bow, beat eggs and both sugars until light and creamy.  Mix in sweet potato puree and vanilla until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine  flour, oats, baking powder, and salt.  Add into sweet potato mixture and mix well.  Stir in pecans and cinnamon chips.  

Spoon into prepared muffin pan, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way full.  The muffins will rise a bit.  

Bake 10-15 minutes or until the tops look firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool further. 

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins

First, an apology. I suck for not updating Wednesday. I've made many excuses before, and I'm about to make another one. You see, I had a pretty down week. I moved to Louisiana three months ago and applied to many jobs since I came back. I received only 3 calls regarding resumes, and one was from a temp agency wanting me to become a part  of their temp pool while the other two were from interviews I didn't feel went well. Last week, it really hit me how horrible this recession is and how much the world mislead my peers and me as we grew up. A college degree was supposed to guarantee a good job.  But it doesn't, especially not now, when everyone is scrambling for something and a college degree can work against you. It sounds bitter, and I was. I had no motivation to do anything. 

Friday evening found me lying in bed in the dark questioning my self-worth. Pathetic, I know, but three months and scores of unanswered resumes and job applications can do that to you.  So there I was, in bed in the dark, and my phone rang. Turns out I'm not so horribly unmarketable, and someone is willing to hire me. That's right, Mama Sarah is employed. I start work tomorrow morning. I'm thankful, excited, and ready to get some work done.  The hours shouldn't interfere with my cooking/baking nor my Wednesday/Sunday update schedule. Woohoo!! Now on to the food..

My sister's company participates in the Acadiana Heart Walk to raise money for the American Heart Association.  This week, she participated in a bake sale to raise money.  Now my sister is a full-time worker and mother of a 6 month old baby, so needless to say, she doesn't have oodles of spare time. So she asked me if I'd be willing to bake something for her to bring. Heck yes I am! Most of the other people were bringing very desserty things, so my sister thought a breakfasty item would be nice. I decided on lemon poppyseed (which I made a few months ago) and cinnamon sugar muffins. Mmmmm.

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
(original recipe found at EatingFiend)

Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 4-8 tbsp vegetable oil [I used 6 tbsp and found the  muffins to be a bit dry]
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.


In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract.  Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Do not overmix.


Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 12-15 minutes. As soon as the muffins are done, remove from the pan and place on a wire rack with a paper towel underneath.


Mix together the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon.  Spoon a small amount over each muffin, then spread it evenly across the top.  If desired, sprinkle additional sugar and cinnamon on the muffins.

 

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Before the floods of June '08 devastated downtown and forced my company to move, I worked next to an awesome little coffee shop that had divine lemon poppyseed muffins. Hell, all their muffins were fabulous. But theirs was the first lemon poppyseed muffin I ever truly loved. I think of it often, with it's light, sweet lemon tang, crunchy poppyseeds, and light, fluffy texture. I aspire to muffins of their quality..
I've been craving a lemon poppyseed concoction lately. I had a loaf recipe, but with my Sunday muffin extravaganza I decided to make delight little muffins. Luckily, I stumbled across this recipe and went with it.


Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp poppyseeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• zest of 1 lemon or 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup plain yogurt (not nonfat)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin tin with nonstick spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, poppyseeds, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at time. Add lemon (zest or juice), yogurt, and vanilla and beat until well combined.

Stir in the dry ingredients until moist and just combined.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin. Bake 18-20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

While the muffins cool, mix together the sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. The icing should be runny (so you can drizzle it). I needed to add a bit more lemon juice.

After 5 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan. Drizzle the glaze over the muffins and let cool completely.



I feel the muffins were a bit unbalanced when it came to the lemon flavor. The lemon was VERY subtle within the muffins and overwhelming in the glaze. As I used zest in the muffins, perhaps next time I'll opt for the lemon juice. And perhaps I'll do half lemon juice, half water in the glaze. But all in all, these were nice little muffins

Applesauce Oat Bran Muffins

I like muffins. Unfortunately, muffins aren't always the healthiest things ever. But I figure bran muffins are at least a step up, right? So when I found this recipe, I thought it'd be great to try out. And I did. And they were.


Applesauce Oat Bran Muffins

• 2 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup (2 oz) dates, pitted and chopped*
• 1 cup wheat bran
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp honey
• 3/4 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseeds **
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp old-fashioned oats

In a medium saucepan, cook applesauce and dates over medium heat, stirring frequently. Cook mixture down to 1 1/4 cups, about 15-20 minutes. (I needed 25 minutes.) Remove from heat and let cool completely. (To speed up this process, I transferred the mixture to a large bowl and spread the applesauce up the sides of the bowl to thin it out so it can cool more quickly.)

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.

Once the applesauce has cooled, transfer it to large bowl if you haven't already. Stir in bran, buttermilk, egg, honey, ginger, and vanilla. Let sit for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, flaxseed, baking soda, salt, allspice, and 1/4 cup oats. Stir into bran mixture.

Spoon the batter into prepared tins, filling them to the brim. Sprinkle oats over muffins.

Bake approximately 20 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool completely in pan on wire racks.

* Next time, I want to try another fruit instead of dates. I spied some dried strawberries at the grocery store, so I might try those. Or perhaps dried cherries, cranberries, or currants.

** I didn't have flaxseed (ground or otherwise) and without a future need for it, it was just too expensive to buy. Instead, I just substituted flour for the flaxseed to keep the consistency the same.

Blueberry Muffins

Lately there seems to be a good deal of blueberry goodness on TasteSpotting, so when I spied some affordable blueberries at the grocery store, I decided to pick some up. Given a few options, hubby decided on muffins. My prior muffin experience consisted of opening a pouch, mixing in some milk, and baking. Homemade muffin? Heck yeah, I thought. So off I went to find a muffin recipe, having no idea as to what would make a good blueberry muffin. Now, I should let you know that a week or so ago, I had an AMAZING blueberry muffin from the coffee shop next door to my office. It was so light and fluffy and simple that I've craved one ever since. (Have yet to snag another one, though I did get a poppyseed muffin that had the same batter, just different mix-in. poppyseed was also amazing). I ended up using a Martha Stewart recipe from Confessions of the Cookie Jar. Now, I usually scorn Martha Stewart; she irks me in so many ways. But, I discovered the Asparagus Gruyere Tart was a recipe of hers, and so I thought I'd give Martha the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she is as great as people believe. Maybe she can win me over with her blueberry muffins. The tart was a good start. And so I made the Martha Stewart muffins.


Martha has not won me over. I'm writing the tart off as a freak incident, a rare moment when Martha and I align. These muffins were ... okay. Honestly, I prefer the ones from the pouch. My blueberries were a bit tart, but the muffin batter itself just wasn't enough of anything to be remarkable. It was like a muffin you might get in a big muffin pack from a mediocre store's bakery. It really doesn't help things that I still have a strong memory of that delicious, divine muffin of the blueberry gods. Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Are my muffin standards too high? Obviously not if I enjoy the ones from the pouch.

Here's the recipe anyway; maybe it'll rock your socks off.

Blueberry Muffins:

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Now, the website didn't have any instructions, so I just did the usual baking thing:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour muffin tin.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in milk.
In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture; stir until JUST combined.
Lightly coat the blueberries in flour (supposedly this helps them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin. I don't know.) Mix in blueberries. Be careful not to overmix!!
Spoon mixture into muffin tin; don't worry it won't rise too much.
Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. I watched these babies quite closely. After about 20 minutes, I checked them every few minutes with a toothpick to see if it came out clean. I'd say mine took 25 minutes.