Sweet Corn Muffins

Let's just cut to the quick:
1) these are basically cupcakes masquerading as muffins and
2)they blow cornbread out of the water (in my humble opinion).

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Albers® White or Yellow Corn Meal
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Grease or paper-line 18 to 20 muffin cups.
COMBINE flour, sugar, corn meal, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine milk, eggs, vegetable oil and butter in small bowl; mix well. Add to flour mixture; stir just until blended. Pour into prepared muffin cups, filling 2/3 full.
BAKE for 18 to 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool slightly. Serve warm.

Peanut Butter-Banana Muffins

These muffins are delicious, and as long as I thoroughly mash the bananas even Kian enjoys them! I keep a bag of muffins in the freezer most the time so Ryan can take one on his way to work. A tasty, on-the-go breakfast!

Yield: about 18 muffins

1½ cups flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. applesauce
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
6 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
1 cup low-fat buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with a fork to blend. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, brown sugar, eggs, banana, peanut butter and buttermilk until smooth. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated and fully blended. Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Annies-eats.com

Doughnut Muffins

I have seen variations of these in some of my cookbooks and some of the food blogs I follow. Must be a popular treat! They are called by many different names; but if you call something a doughnut, who wouldn't eat it?

As you can see on the right-hand side of the picture I did frost some of them and added sprinkles for the kids (Mickey Mouse of course) and coconut for Ryan and I. The frosting was just a cup of powdered sugar with a few teaspoons of heavy cream. The cinnamon-sugar is perfect though, I was just getting fancy....

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 cup milk

For the topping:
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons Cinnamon-Sugar Plus or cinnamon sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin. Or line with 12 paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray; this will ensure that they peel off the muffins nicely.

2) In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.

3) Add the eggs, beating to combine.

4) Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.

5) Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

6) Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.

7) Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they're a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.

8) Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes, or until you can handle them. While they're cooling, melt the butter for the topping (this is easily done in the microwave).

9) Use a pastry brush to paint the top of each muffin with the butter, then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar. Or simply dip the tops of muffins into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar.

10) Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Store for a day or so at room temperature.

Yield: 12 muffins.

Banana-chocolate chip muffins

Recipe from Tasty Kitchen

I am always searching for healthy recipes that I can trick the kids into eating. This is one of those deceptive recipes. They are so tasty and I feel good about giving them to the kids for breakfast or a snack. Ryan is actually the one who sneaks a frozen one out for breakfast everyday. But that's okay, I want him to eat healthy too...

Yield 12 muffins

•½ cup Unsalted Butter, At Room Temperature
•½ cup Granulated Sugar
•¼ cup Brown Sugar, Packed
•2 whole Eggs
•1 teaspoon Vanilla
•1 cup Whole Wheat Flour (I LOVE King Arthur's white whole wheat flour)
•1 cup All-purpose Flour
•1 teaspoon Baking Soda
•1 teaspoon Salt
•3 Tablespoons Ground Flax Seed (optional)
•4 whole Ripe Bananas, Mashed
•½ cups Mini Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Cream butter with sugars until light and fluffy. Then add eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated – mixture will look a little lumpy. Stir in vanilla.

In another bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt, and flaxseed.

Add dry ingredients along with mashed bananas to butter/sugar/egg mixture. Stir until JUST combined, then fold in chocolate chips.

Using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, divide evenly into a 12-count muffin tin lined with paper liners.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Awesome Blueberry Muffins

I borrow this recipe from 'The Pioneer Woman Cooks', whose blog puts mine to shame but oh well! I will keep posting anyway!!

The Awesome-est Blueberry Muffins

3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
heavy pinch of salt
dash of nutmeg (I prefer to freshly grate my own, the taste is much better)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable/canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 generous cup of plain yogurt
2 cups fresh blueberries (fresh tastes better but I did use frozen last time and I am still living...)
turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and powder, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir to a count of 10.

Add blueberries, reserving 1/2 cup, to mixture and stir 3 times.
Add mixture to well buttered muffin pans (or use paper cups). Sprinkle remaining berries on top and lightly press them down. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top (use brown sugar if you have none).
Bake 20-25 minutes and allow to cool.
I can't figure out how much this is supposed to make, first I doubled it and had a ton, but last time I think I got about 18 muffins with a single batch.