Tag Archives: muffins

Herbed Corn Muffins

December 2, 2014
Shannon
1 comment
bread, cornmeal, muffins, parsley, scallions, thyme, vegetarian

So what do you do when your Thanksgiving leftovers are all gone but yet you still have leftover ingredients in your fridge? Leftovers from leftovers? Ugh! This happens to me all the time when I’m cooking. Really, unless you are making a parsley pesto, who ever needs more than a few tablespoons of parsley? Yet you can only get a big bushel in the grocery store. I hate throwing out herbs but it happens all the time. I’m sorry. I hate to say it, but it’s true. I refused to do it this time and sat down specifically looking for a recipe that I could use these herbs in. Thank goodness for these Herbed Corn Muffins.

Cornmeal batter made with buttermilk (also a leftover in my fridge that I never use up) gets a fresh kicky spirit from three leftovers in my produce drawer: thyme, parsley, and scallions. Oh, and some pecorino cheese! Talk about a perfect use for those random Thanksgiving hangers-on. Considering I always have baking items on hand (for when that cookie dough breakdown occurs), muffins are an easy way to use up leftover herbs because not only are they really easy and quick to make, they freeze so well. You can bake them and put them away for when you want them the next time you make soup or chili. And these muffins have such an amazing flavor from the cheese and herbs, you’ll be so happy that you made them now and have them later. It’s thyme to bake those herbs away, friends. Sorry…I had to. 🙂

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine buttermilk, olive oil, and egg; stir well with a whisk. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, and pecorino Romano cheese in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add milk mixture, and stir just until moist.

Gently stir in green onions, parsley, and thyme.

Spoon into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 400°F for 13 minutes.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions: None

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Cooking Light magazine

Double Chocolate-Mocha Muffins

I haven’t really been cooking as much as I want to, let alone doing much baking. There are so many things to do, so many things I’m interested in, so many ideas, and so many plans on my mind. It can sometimes seem a little overwhelming. But then I remember than cooking calms my head and sometimes I forget just how easy baking can be. I love the fact that most of the time, you can whip everything up in one bowl and once it’s in the oven, you get to leave it alone. You can write, clean, do laundry, read a book, watch TV, anything you want. Try doing that with a skillet of chicken and you’ll have your smoke alarm going off. These Double Chocolate-Mocha Muffins are another one of those really easy recipes to whip together when you just have too many other things to do or think about.

Chocolate chips and cocoa are both added to this batter to make some really chocolate-y muffins and espresso powder or instant espresso is added to give it yet another layer of flavor making these perfect for breakfast, as a sweet addition to brunch, or even as a late night chocolate snack. The recipe calls for chocolate chunks but I used mini-chips because I had them on hand so use any kind of chocolate you want. I also substituted applesauce to lighten their calorie load and the end result was still a light, fluffy muffin. Also consider replacing up to half of the flour with whole wheat flour. These muffins puff up nicely, just the way you want a good muffin to and also freeze well. Craving a little chocolate with your coffee? Or a little coffee with your chocolate? Just mix them together and make these muffins.

The ingredients:

Whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips in a large bowl.

Whisk together eggs and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl; stir egg mixture into flour mixture just until blended, being careful to not overmix.

Pour batter evenly into muffin pans lined with paper liners.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes in a preheated 350°F oven.

Serve warm, or cool on a wire rack.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

Mini-chocolate chips
Applesauce

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Coastal Living magazine

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

As I’m sure you’ve heard, the northeast is getting pummeled by Hurricane Sandy right now. This is the second hurricane that has hit the Philadelphia area in a little more than a year and for those of us not used to it, it is two too many. As I write this, I still have power but considering I lost power for days last year with Hurricane Irene, I’m fully expecting to lose power again. I’m a little more prepared this year though: I’ve loaded my kitchen table with my emergency necessities (which you can see here – and yes, that includes bourbon) and I have a flashlight this time which will prevent me from using my iPhone to see in the dark (and hopefully reduce my risk of dropping said iPhone into the toilet à la last year). Because losing power is inevitable, I had to make food this past weekend that wouldn’t require refrigeration. Which means I’ll be eating these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins for days.

Canned pumpkin and mini chocolate chips are mixed into a simple muffin batter to create a moist, light, flavorful treat. These muffins have a lot of butter and sugar so they are not low-fat but given my circumstances of enduring the hurricane, I’ve got more to worry about right now than calories. The recipe calls for 3 to 4 cups of flour but I only used 3 cups and it was plenty. This batter is thick and makes puffy muffins like the kind you see in bakeries – yum. I used mini chocolate chips which I’ve come to love more than regular chocolate chips. These muffins are really, really good. I just hope I’m not sick of them by Wednesday.

The ingredients:

Blend the pumpkin, brown sugar, butter, and eggs in a large bowl mix until creamy.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined when batter is moist and thick.