Archive for the ‘Muffin Pans’ Category
The term muffin was first coined in England in the 18th century. The word was then spelled ‘moofin,’ which is possibly derived from the Old French word ‘mouflet,’ which means soft. This is in reference to the muffin’s plush, pillowy goodness. Muffins started as a small cake, but today you can find manifold manifestations of these tasty baked goods popping up in muffin pans around the globe.
Some people think that the muffin a direct adaptation of cornbread, which spawned two types of bread: the muffin and the biscuit. They are essentially different sides of the same coin, if you think about it. The muffin has stuck around as one of the most favored breakfast and snack foods in the world.
My wife loves making great food for me but she also likes my lean muscular physique. I have one request; I’ll keep up my workout regimen and eat her healthy food, IF it doesn’t tastes ‘healthy’. As usual, she has come through with flying colors. These healthy muffins contain whole wheat flour and regular rolled oats, plus ground walnuts, honey, mashed banana, yogurt, spice and egg whites.
Power Muffins (Directions): Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin pans and sprinkle about 1 tsp. oats in each muffin cup. In large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. In medium bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Carefully fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon and a little brown sugar, if desired, and bake about 15 minutes or until done.
Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (plus a little extra for bottom of pan)
* 1 cup ground walnuts
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 2 tsp cinnamon (plus extra for sprinkling)
* 4 egg whites
* 1 cup honey
* 1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
* 2 ripe bananas, mashed
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
I grew up in Honolulu and enjoyed riding the big waves at the “North Shore”…some of the best surfing in the world deserves a delicious treat to replenish after a day in the sun….enter: Mahalo Muffins! “Mahalo” means “thank you” in Hawaii and those are the words you’ll hear when you make these moist orange, pineapple and coconut muffins.
Mahalo Muffins (Directions): Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all ingredients. Mix only until dry ingredients are moistened–do not over mix. Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until done.
Ingredients
* 1 14 ounce package orange muffin mix
* 1/2 cup flaked coconut
* 1 cup crushed canned pineapple, drained
* 1 beaten egg
* 2/3 cup milk
* 1/4 cup crushed macadamia nuts
The holidays are a great time for good food and fellowship but they can also be extremely draining. To keep up with the hectic pace of the holidays I start the day off with a great breakfast - Breakfast Pumpkin Muffins. Not only are these muffins a nutritional “powerhouse”, they taste delicious. As awesome as these muffins are, you can make them even better by adding raisins, carrots or zucchini for an extra dose of veggies.
Breakfast Brunch Pumpkin Muffins (Directions): Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all wet Ingredients in one bowl and mix all dry ingredients in another bowl then combine, mixing thoroughly. Spray or grease muffin pans and fill half way with batter. Cook 12-14 minutes or until toothpick tests clean.
Ingredients
* 3 1/2 cups pumpkin or 1 large can
* 7 eggs
* 3 1/2 tsp vanilla
* 1 1/2 cups powdered nonfat milk
* 1 cup flour
* 6 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
* 3 1/2 tsp cinnamon
* 1 cup sugar
* 3 1/2 tsp baking soda
* Optional:
* 3/4 cup raisins
* 1/2 cup grated carrots
* 1/2 cup grated zucchini
Oh no! The holidays are here…this is normally when I go into “panic mode” and stress out about all the things I have to cook, bake, prepare, etc. This year however, I’m (a little) bit more composed because I have new super delicious and efficient recipes. I feel especially confident about my muffins - complete with crystallized ginger, coconut milk, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie spices, Ginger Sweet Potato Muffins are a holiday treat any host would feel good about.
Ginger Sweet Potato Muffins (Method): Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a (12 tin) muffin pan with nonstick spray. Place butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add eggs and continue to beat until mixture is very fluffy. Add mashed sweet potatoes and grated ginger root and beat at medium until blended. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice together. Fold in half of flour mixture. Stir in coconut milk. Fold in remaining flour mixture and crystallized ginger. The batter should be smooth, but be careful to not over mix. Fill prepared tins halfway with batter. Bake until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes before removing muffins.
Ingredients
* 1/2 cup salted butter
* 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup mashed sweet potatoes
* 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root
* 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1/2 cup coconut milk
* 1/2 cup minced crystallized ginger
These muffins really have the total package. First off (and most importantly) they’re delicious and the pumpkin flavor is perfect for the holidays. In addition to taste, they’re low calorie, low fat, and high in fiber. WOW! It’s almost to good to be true, but this time it really is true. What makes this recipe all the more remarkable is that in order to be palatable, the typical bran muffin is loaded with fat. This makes sense when you consider that bran can have the consistency and texture of sawdust - ewwww! 
Bakers overcompensate for this by adding loads and loads of fat. Fortunately this recipe takes advantage of a low fat, low calorie, and delicious fat alternative…Pumpkin! The moist flavorful ingredient helps create something once believed to be impossible - a scrumptious bran muffin!
Pumpkin Bran Muffins: Lightly grease or line the wells of one or more muffin pans with papers and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, bran cereal, butter, and sugars. Stir in the eggs and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, spices, baking soda and baking powder. Stir into the pumpkin mixture, then stir in the raisins. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the batter for 4 hours or overnight. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grab the prepared muffin pans. Scoop the batter into the pan, using a heaping 1/4 cup of batter for each. Sprinkle the tops with sugar if desired, then bake in the preheated oven for 25-28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool in the pan for five minutes before taking them out of the pan to finish cooling on a rack.
Pumpkin Bran Muffins (Ingredients): 1 15 oz. can pumpkin, 1 cup bran cereal, 1/4 cup butter, melted, 1/2 cup (3-1/2 oz.) sugar, 2 Tbsp. (1 oz.) brown sugar, packed, 2 large eggs, 3/4 cup buttermilk, 1-1/4 cups (5 3/8 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice, 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 cup (6 oz.) raisins, Demarara or coarse sugar for sprinkling.
Growing up, mincemeat muffins were a traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas morning breakfast for our family. I used to help mom bake and freeze them several days in advance to Thanksgiving. In the weeks ahead mom would warm them up for a festive morning treat.
Holiday Mincemeat Muffins (Directions): Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line 18 muffin cups (for example: one 12 cup muffin pan + one 6 cup muffin pan) with paper liners, and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and white sugar, mixing until thoroughly blended. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, 1 cup of apple cider, and vegetable oil. Stir in the apple and mincemeat. Pour the mincemeat mixture into the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Fill the lined muffin cups 3/4 full, and bake in the preheated oven until the muffins are risen and browned, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes. Make a glaze by stirring together the confectioners’ sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, and about 1 tablespoon of apple cider, or a little more as needed to make the glaze workable. Spread the glaze on the warm muffins.
Ingredients: 3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4 cup white sugar, 1 egg, 1 cup apple cider, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 apple, (peeled, cored and chopped), 1 (28 ounce) jar prepared mincemeat, 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon apple cider, or as needed.
I’ll admit it, when it comes to sweets; there are three things that cause my will power to crumble: mom’s apple pie, strawberry cheesecake, and piping hot blueberry muffins. Perfect muffins are not as simple to make as one may imagine. Too dry, too dense, to sugary – are typical problems for the novice muffin baker. Mom’s blueberry muffin recipe however, is fool proof; it will make your muffins just right - light, fluffy, and chock full of blueberries!
Mom’s Blueberry Muffin Recipe:
1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil or grape seed oil using a pastry brush, or with a little butter. Or use one of those convenient vegetable oil sprays.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel.
4. Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.
5. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the prepared muffin pan cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.
My mother knew the secret to entertaining guests when pressed for time. Muffins! I still remember the wonderful aroma of fresh muffins as my mother prepared for holiday parties and family reunions. No matter how many people needed to be fed, mom always delivered in impressive fashion. My mother would smile as friends and family ate delicious muffins and praised her excellence as a hostess.
Like mom, I’ve learned muffin pans can be a lifesaver when you have guests but don’t have all day to cook. Freshly baked muffins are perfect for parties, potlucks and bake sales. Great food in less time; what more could you ask for? Muffin pans are not only convenient, they’re extremely versatile. Whether it’s muffins, brownies, meatloaf, cheesecake, or cupcakes, muffin pans offer the solution you need. The only limit is your imagination!