The best and fluffiest sweet potato muffins!

Hello blog friends!
What a better way to start the year in my blog than with a healthy muffin recipe, right?!
I created this recipe last year when we had a bounty of sweet potatoes coming weekly in our csa box and let me tell you, it was one of the best muffins that have come out of my oven to this date. I was totally happy to hear the husband saying every day at breakfast that these muffins were delicious - since he doesn't say much unless I keep asking this meant a lot to me!
These muffins are simple and easy, but full of healthy ingredients. Not loaded with sugar, made with whole grains and healthy fats, so not bad as a component of a healthy and balanced breakfast, especially if paired with a glass of milk or yogurt (protein) and some fruit.
The one thing we were in love with these muffins was the fluffiness, they had such a delicious texture and flavor, it was truly one of the best creations around my kitchen in terms of baked goods.
On the first time I made these muffins I used this coconut yogurt:












It didn't impair a coconut flavor to the muffins, but rather gave them a hint of coconut sweetness on the background that I truly enjoyed!
I have also made these muffins using plain yogurt and with kefir (we were swimming in sweet potatoes around here), and all the trials turned out delicious, so don't fret if you don't have the coconut yogurt available - although I would advice you to try using it if you do :-)
We did a taste comparison of two muffins made with the coconut yogurt and with plain yogurt and I liked the one with the coconut yogurt better, but both Matheus and my husband didn't think it was that much different and happily gobbled them up!
For one of the batches I added dried cherries and chocolate chips, and for the other one I added a pecan half on top. Matheus liked the chocolate chip/cherries combo the best (wonder why?! chooooocolate!), while the husband preferred the pecans. I have to say that I think the cherries were a good combo with the sweet potatoes, and upon tasting that muffin version Matheus suggested using dried cranberries, which I think was a good idea too! Toasted chopped pecans inside are also good, for some reason pecans go well with sweet potatoes, doesn't it?
Here goes the recipe, please let me know if you try. Since this was one of my creations I always like to hear feedback!
Ana

My Sweet Potato Muffins

1 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
3/4 cup plain or coconut yogurt (6 oz container)
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup melted coconut oil (canola, or grapeseed oil also work)
2 tbsp water
1 egg
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Optional add ins: chocolate chips, dried cherries, pecans (I don't usually measure, but I am guessing I use about 1/3 cup of add ins all together, but hey, it is your muffin so you can add as much as you like!)

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl combine sweet potatoes, yogurt, sugar, oil, water, and egg and stir until well mixed. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and chocolate chips and cherries, mix all together until incorporated.
Pour batter into muffin tins oiled or lined with muffin cups.
Bake for about 16 to 18 minutes.
Makes 10 nice sized muffins.

Note: when I made the muffins using the flavored coconut yogurt I only added about 1/3 cup sugar to the batter and the muffins were plenty sweet (I find the coconut yogurt to be on the very sweet side). If you use the plain yogurt then the 1/2 cup + extra 2 tablespoons of sugar are necessary, but adjust the sweetness to your taste. I don't like things too sweet and never add more than 1/2 cup sugar to any muffin recipe that makes 12 muffins, and both Matheus and my husband thought this amount of sugar was great, which says a lot since they both like things sweeter than I do.

More muffins, with some experimentation!

Hey everyone! Man, this going back to school thing has been a lot more work than I thought it would be... I guess I was really out of rhythm with all this, because the school + family thing doesn't scary me much - I have done it already before.

School talk aside, remember the amazingly delicious Almond Butter Banana Muffins? Well, I really loved that recipe and have been having some fun in the kitchen by experimenting with it, so I came to report a couple of variations I tried.

First, I tried the same recipe but using Peanut Butter, and we found out that the peanut butter really competes with the banana flavors. While we could quite not taste the almond butter on the original recipe, the peanut butter flavor really came through in this variation. I still used bananas and everything the same, but one bite and you could easily tell there was PB in there - as opposed to the muffins made with almond butter that left Matheus and the Husband guessing what the "secret ingredient" was. The final verdict was that the we liked much more and preferred the muffins made with almond butter!

Another experiment I made was transforming the flavor and using Pumpkin in place of the bananas to create Almond Butter Pumpkin Muffins! This ones turned out really good and we all liked it. It was moist and with the same deliciously fluffy texture that the original banana recipe had. Only thing I did was use pumpkin instead of bananas and omit nuts, only adding chocolate chips; also added a bit of water as I thought the wet ingredient mixture was a little too thick, feel free to add a little more water if needed.
We liked these muffins, but in terms of Pumpkin Muffins the Vegan Pumpkin Muffins are still our favorite one. Matheus and I even baked a batch of them today as he wanted these particular pumpkin muffins for breakfast, it really is the best!

Now, back to this recipe that I have been tweaking around, even though we liked and ate all of the muffins, the very favorite of these were the original Heather's Almond Butter Banana Muffins, they were the absolute winner and I am sure will be repeated many times in my kitchen as I just can't get over the awesome flavor and texture these muffins have.
Really, if you want to try some great banana muffins then try this recipe, it is really good!
And here is the pumpkin variation I tried. If you guys try any of these variations let me know, I am curious to see if more people will like these so much as I did!
Enjoy!
Ana










Almond Butter Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup almond butter (I would NOT use PB on this one...)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oat flour (simply process oats in your blender or food processor until it becomes flour if you don't have this)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour - I am going to try that next time)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you use salted nut butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line or spray muffin tins.
In a bowl stir together water, pumpkin puree, almond butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix everything together just until combined. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 minutes.

Yields 10 muffins

Heather's Almond Butter Banana Muffins

My love for almond butter had me trying new things with it lately - besides having it on top of my oats, graham crackers, or straight from the jar out of a spoon!
The first thing I wanted to use if for was Muffins!! Of course! Those of you who have been following me for a while already know my love for making muffins (just check the side bar for our favorite recipes!). It is one of my favorite things to make and experiment with, and almond butter was on my list to try for these.
Where else could I look for some delish recipes with almond butter than Heather's blog? A blog called "Heather Eats Almond Butter" could only lead me to something good, right? And it sure did!
I tried her Almond Butter Banana Nut Muffins and they were a huuuuuge hit at our house! Simply put, they were perfect! The muffins have 3 mashed bananas in the batter so they were banana-y and delicious, you can't actually taste the almond butter in these but it gives the muffins such an interesting flavor and awesome texture. My muffins came out super fluffy and sort of tender and soft inside. It was really such a different texture, and that is what drew our attention so much to these muffins, they were different and so good!
I already experimented with a variation and will be posting that tomorrow, but right now I will post the original Banana Muffin recipe that I got from Heather, with just a couple of minor changes I made. Her original recipe you can see by clicking here!
Try it, I am positive you are going to like! And if almond butter is not available I believe peanut butter would be really great in this too! (Matheus even asked about that!!)
And of course, check out Heather's blog, she has lots of yummy recipes and ideas there!
Gotta love Almond Butter!!!
Ana

Ps: as you can see, Matheus really enjoyed the muffins for breakfast, that's his picture and the only one I got of the muffins, so I hope you can see the goodness through that!


Almond Butter and Banana Muffins
(adapted from Heather's Blog: HEAB)

3 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup almond butter (or another nut butter of choice)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oat flour (simply process oats in your blender or food processor until it becomes flour if you don't have this)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour - I am going to try that next time)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you use salted nut butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Preheat oven to 350F and line or spray muffin tins.
In a bowl stir together the bananas, almond butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix everything together just until combined. Gently stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes (check at 18, mine were done by then)

I got 11 muffins out of this batter.

Apple Muffins

2010 started and January is gone already, Gee, seems like time is really flying out of my hands lately!
However, we had a good start around here, and after a few weeks getting used to having classes again I am ready to come back and post more on my little space, I so miss this blog, I truly do and don't know why sometimes I can't get myself to post. Life happens and we get mixed up into other things I guess.
Anyways, I am loving my classes!! I am taking a Nutrition and a Food Science class this semester. Still just as a post-grad, but I certainly want to figure out which one I like best and decide what I want to do for the semesters that follow. Haven't made my mind yet. All I can say is that I am loving this idea of going to school to learn and talk about food, it is awesome!
On another subject, I have been cooking a lot lately too, and taking pics whenever I remember. Sometimes I get home from school and am so hungry that I just devour my food without thinking much about blogging it. Then as I eat and find it good the "oh, I should have taken a pic for the blog" thought comes to mind but it is usually a little late. I am working on paying more attention to that though!
Today I am posting an Apple Muffin recipe, one that come from Ellie Krieger and that is very yummy! It is my adaptation to one of her recipes. The original called for pecans but I did not used on mine. We do like pecans but seems like whenever I made these I am out of them so the recipe I am posting doesn't have them. Still, these are good anyway you make it, with or without nuts.
We are snowed in since Saturday... it might sound fun for some but I am tired of being trapped home. Our town is not well prepared for snow storms and with the bunch of inches of snow we got this weekend we ended up not being able to leave the house since then. Only today they started plowing the streets so it is safer to drive, but we still didn't have school or any other activity we might normally have. I am just hoping that tomorrow Cary (the city I live) will go back to normal life.
Ok, too much snow talk. I'll go ahead and present you with some good eats, which is all we have been doing these past days while trapped home!
Enjoy!
Ana










Apple Muffins
(adapted from Ellie Krieger)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar (add more if you like)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup yogurt plus 1/4 cup milk)
1 apple peeled, cored and diced (or grated if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350F and grease, or line with paper cups, 12 muffin cups.
In a bowl add flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, sugar and diced apples, stir and mix all dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk, the eggs, the applesauce, the vanilla and buttermilk, mix all together just until everything is incorporated. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

My notes: my batter was on the liquid-y side, I filled up my muffin cups to the top and got nice rounded muffins!

Garden Muffins
First of all I have to mention that my picture doesn't do justice to the goodness of this recipe. That being said, I will only add that these muffins were very good!
The recipe came from the Cooking Light Bulletin Boards, posted by "Canice", and the cornmeal flavor combined with the veggies and Parmesan cheese created some delicious savory muffins.
We really enjoyed these, I made half recipe and they were gone in a matter of seconds!
The Parmesan cheese was my touch to improve the original recipe, so feel free to omit it if you don't like, but we liked the flavor it added a whole lot, especially to the top, where I sprinkled a tad more Parmesan on each of the muffins. As I ate mine I was even thinking about adding pieces of cheese the next time I would make them, which will probably be soon as it has been requested already!
They are very simple but flavorful as could be. Plus it is easy to make, and you could even change the veggies accordingly to what you have on hand - yellow squash instead of zucchini, adding some corn bits would enhance the cornmeal flavor, even peas would be nice here too. These are a great complement to soup or salad, just what you need to round up a light meal!
Ana










Garden Muffins
(Adapted from "The City Gardener's Cookbook" )

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (can add more if desired!)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup peeled, seeded, and finely diced tomatoes
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 400F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, Parmesan cheese, and salt and mix well. In a small bowl, beat together the egg, milk, oil, and butter. Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, carrot, and green onions, blending thoroughly. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins, filling about three-quarters full. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.

Blueberry Bran Muffins and my apologies...

I have been absent from my blog lately and I do owe an apology to the friends that visit me here. Believe me, I do miss posting and even more so the comments you all leave (they reeeally cheer me up!), but sometimes I get these days when I don't feel all that inspired to write, or make many different things.
Well, I am glad to say that the latest phase is over and I intend to be back for real now! :o)
Summer is finally here and I am truly happy with the warm days, it is soooo nice outside!
With such sunny days we have been grilling a lot (yum!) and already using the ice cream machine, so I better get my camera ready and take some time to come here to share the recipes with you all.
And what a better way to start my June posts than with a new muffin recipe?? You all know by now that we love muffins here at our house. I make them weekly and freeze for breakfasts and snacks, so I am always looking for different healthy muffin recipes to try.
Well, the summer fruits are here and one of my favorite started to show up at the farmers market this past week: blueberries!!
Yay, I love blueberries, the plump purple spheres are so sweet that you don't need anything else to go with it. I am a happy camper to sit down with a bowl of fresh blueberries, to me it is the perfect snack. Heck, I will even have a bowl of blueberries for dinner if you let me!
So, with some of those beauties around I decided to look for a muffin recipe and as I typed "blueberry bran muffins" on the google website I was sent to a recipe at the allrecipes website. It was the first one I took a look and it won me over immediately. I knew it could only be good, and I wasn't wrong... it was great!!
I loved the muffins, it is certainly one of the best bran muffins I have made. Easy, simple, and better yet, low fat, healthy and good for you. I used blueberries but can see these being made with apples and cinnamon, raisins, or even chocolate chips. I really enjoy bran muffins and these were delicious!
If you like bran muffins to then make sure you try this recipe, believe me, it is that good!
Enjoy!
Ana









Low-Fat Blueberry Bran Muffins
(adapted from www.allrecipes.com. Original recipe can be seen here)

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 cup nonfat milk (I used soy milk)

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 egg

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or line muffin tins with paper cups.
Mix together wheat bran, milk, and applesauce and let rest for about 10 minutes. To this mixture add egg, vanilla, and sugar and mix well.
In another bowl mix together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Fold in blueberries.
Portion batter into the prepared muffin cups and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hey everyone, I am back! Yay!!
While it took me a bit to recover from the tonsillectomy (oh my, does that hurt... ouch!), right after I got better I managed to cut my right-hand index finger and now got a couple stitches to take care of. Thankfully it is nothing big or serious, so I am still around the kitchen, of course!
St. Patrick's is not something we celebrate, no Irish backgrounds in our families and we actually only got to learn about this here in the US.
However, Matheus learns about everything at school and come home with his little head full of ideas. One of those being that today he wanted a lunch box full of green food, and who am I to argue with that, right?!!
So, we went for green grapes, broccoli, and these yummy Spinach Muffins, which actually comes from my friend Akemi's kitchen!!
Her recipe is in reality for a Spinach Pie, but I thought that muffins would be more "lunch-box-friendly" and gave it a try, and it worked perfect!
I actually made the full recipe, scooped part of it into 4 muffin cups, and the rest I put on a pyrex dish and baked as a pie. Both came out great. We had the pie yesterday for dinner and the muffins were taken today to school.
And since it was my day to volunteer at the classroom I ended up going to have lunch with Matheus at the school too and have to say that the muffins were a success! The kids loved his "green bread" and he was so happy with his green food that he devoured all the veggies, muffins and fruit! Tell me about a "eco-friendly-green-boy"!!!
This is soooo easy to make, and I love the addition of onions and garlic to the batter, it gave it so much flavor, really cool!
I mixed my filling (chopped ham and grated mozzarela) into the batter so it would be easier to pour into the muffin tins and it all came out perfect, we all liked and I hope you will also enjoy, pretty healthy and cool colors too!
Thanks Akemi!!
Ana

To see the recipe in Portugues click here: Torta de Espinafre!

Akemi's Spinach Pie
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon salt (add more to taste)
Leaves from 1 bunch of spinach (I used about 2/3 of a bag of spinach - added until it was green as I wanted it to be!)
1 garlic clove
3 tablespoons chopped onions (about 1/4 onion)
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup white flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a blender process the eggs, milk, oil, salt, spinach, garlic, and onions until all mixed up and no pieces remain. Pour batter into a large bowl and add to that the flour and baking powder. Mix until incorporated.

At this point you can add your filling right to the batter or pour half the batter into a baking dish, fill it with desired filling, and then pour rest of batter on top, smoothing it up with the back of a spoon.
To make it easier I mixed up chopped ham, grated mozzarela, and a couple tablespoons grated parmesan right into the batter.
You can also use diced tomatoes if you want here, I just didn't use it because I didn't have it on hand... Another good option would be a chicken filling, yummm!

Bake your pie for 35 to 40 minutes at 350F. In case you are making muffins check on them after 18-20 minutes, they should be done by then!

And here is Matheus' lunchbox for the day! Yummy!

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

At this time of the year we just cannot resist the many pumpkins we see around us. They are everywhere, decorating houses, in front of yards, grocery stores, and its many varieties just make the farmers market shine in an various tones of orange glow.
Every place you look a pumpkin pops out, and luckily we love this fruit a lot, so enjoying its flavors is definitely a pleasure for us!
We already made pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, and even a chicken in creamy sauce that I served inside a whole roasted pumpkin (very popular in Brazil, this dish is usually made with shrimp, but when you have chicken, it is chicken that you use!). But this year the star of the season for us were the Vegan Pumpkin Muffins, they were simply THE BEST! And yes, they do deserve the capital letters!
We liked it so much that I have made this recipe 4 times already, in little more than a month, and keep getting requests for it again.
The Husband declared it to be one of the best muffins yet, and Matheus just loved the pumpkin and chocolate in it. I loved the yummy pumpkin flavor, the texture, and the fact that it is completely whole grain.
Really, what is not to like about this one?! Plus it is vegan, which means there are no raw eggs and we can lick the bowl as much as we please - which Matheus and I love to do together! And this batter is goooood! :o)
I got this amazing recipe from the book "Vegan Lunch Box", which has been a wonderful source for me and Matheus to make creative and delicious lunches for him to take to school. The author also has a super nice website with the same name, vegan lunch box, that is absolutely worth checking out. (By the way, it is from her website that I got the idea for the cool "mummy calzone" I showed in the Halloween post bellow).
Bellow I am posting my adaptation for the recipe in the book. I reduced the sugar a bit (plenty sweet this way, 1 1/3 cups sugar was waaaay too much for us) and didn't add pecans as the recipe asked for.
Also, based on an idea I saw in the blog baking bites, we used chocolate covered raisins in place of the chocolate chips, it added a surprisingly "tchans" to the muffins and Matheus (raisin lover) enjoyed it a lot. I still do prefer chocolate chips, but made it with the raisins twice as the boys seemed to really like that.
If you find pumpkin + chocolate a weird combination (and some do) give it a try, you may be surprised by how yummy it is. Believe me, it is really good!
These muffins are truly worthy trying, they ARE delicious! It is amazing how moist and flavorful they are, and with all the nutrition in them... yummm, I might make them again this week!!
Ana










Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
(adapted from the book Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer Mccann)

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or home cooked)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
2 TB ground flax seed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup vegan chocolate (or carob) chips

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a nonstick muffin tin well with nonstick spray, set aside.
Put pumpkin, water, canola oil, ground flax seed, and vanilla in a blender and process on high for at least one minute, until light in color and well-blended. Reserve.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and cinnamon. Add the pumpkin mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or large spatula until well-blended. Fold in the chocolate (or carob) chips.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tested inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then lift each muffin from the tin and let cool on a wire rack.

Pistachios!

My husband really likes pistachio nuts, especially mixed in one of his favorite treats: pistachio ice cream. So when I saw this recipe in the April's issue of Cooking Light I immediately thought of him. Recipe was marked to try last month, but I only got to it this week. Oh boy, I keep joking, but my "to try" recipe list really seems endless!! :o)
It was a good thing I tried the recipe as the Husband seems to enjoy them a lot, plus these portable breakfast treats pack a good deal of nutrition with nuts, whole grains and flaxseeds added to it.
The muffins have a nice crumb and were very moist. I really liked how they tasted too; It is quite a simple flavor, but with a great nuttiness from the whole wheat flour and flax, both which I enjoy.
I added a few chopped pistachios to the batter, opposing what the recipe stated to just put them on top. Hey, it is a pistachio muffin, so I thought I might have some nuts inside too, right?!
We drizzled the ones we had for breakfast with yummy honey and both my husband and Matheus liked the muffins with the sticky top! I do prefer my muffins without the honey, but when they are warm the honey certainly add something more to them.
I froze the leftovers without honey so we could enjoy them for breakfast throughout the week (no way I would freeze sticky mess!). A little change of pace on the strawberry muffins we were having lately and it seems it was well accepted by all.
As I said, I really liked the batter and plan on trying it with other nuts and flavors added to it. Will sure report back when I do!
Enjoy!
Ana

Honey and Toasted Pistachio Muffins
(Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine, April 2007)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup golden raisins (I omitted them, didn't have the golden ones at home...)
3 tablespoons finely chopped pistachios
2 tablespoons honey (I didn't measure it, just drizzled on top of the ones we were eating!!!)

Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine flours, flaxmeal, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Make a well in center of mixture. Mix together buttermilk, sugar, canola oil, and eggs; add to flour mixture and stir just until moist. Stir in golden raisins. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with pistachios and bake for 15 minutes. Remove muffins from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Drizzle honey over tops of the muffins.

After reading such good reviews and seeing the goodies that Joe from "Culinary in the Dessert" made, I just had to check out the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book from the local library. And I am so glad I did!
The book is awesome, full of baked goods, from muffins to tarts, pies, and all sorts of yeast breads. It even has an assortment of cracker recipes, including my favorite: graham crackers!
And the best thing about this is that all, and I mean ALL the recipes are made with whole grains, yay! I am the BIGGEST whole grain fan!
I loved the book, need to return it this week, and am already talking the husband into getting a copy for me so that I can try all the recipes I marked on the library book. Even if I had renewed it 3 times, it would not be enough time, there are tons of my very favorite: oat recipes! (I have even gotten oat and barley flour in order to try some of the recipes in the book!)
The first recipe I tried was an absolute hit at our home. First imagine me, opening and checking out recipes from a baking book, what could I possibly go look at first?? Muffins, of course!!!
I am not sure how this would be called a real muffin, as to me its mixing method is not as a muffin making should be. However, these Sour Cream Muffins were sooooo delicious that after the first bite the way it was made didn't even matter anymore to me.
They were stated as being very versatile in terms of flavoring and additions you could incorporate to the batter, and at my first trial I already put its adaptability to the test.
These were made by creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs and incorporating the rest of ingredients rather than how a "usual" muffin would be done (separately mixing dry and wet ingredients, adding wet to dry and mixing just until everything is wet enough, never minding a few lumps here and there). This different process resulted in a sort of coffee cake batter, more dense and compact, the opposite of how a muffin batter would look like (more loose and "lumpy")
But even though it was different at first, the end result was a super nice and tender muffin, the flavor was delicious, even with the simplest ingredients it called for.
We just loved the muffins! They had the greatest texture and tenderness to it, plus the right amount of sweetness.
I divided my batter in two and added chopped frozen cherries to half of it and toffee bits to the other half. Both came up delicious and tasty; the husband liked the cherry muffins, and me and Matheus were all about the toffee bits ones. Oh my, I can't say how good they were!
I found a bag of toffee bits in my pantry that I have bought a while ago in order to try in baked goods and decided to use for this muffins. It was the happiest idea ever, the muffins were incredibly tasty and delicious, plus I think that the toffee flavor totally complemented the flavors in the batter.
As we were eating the last two toffee bits muffins for breakfast the other day, Matheus asked if I could make more of them as those were the best toffee bits muffins he ever had!(it was his first time eating the toffee bits!). Then I said, of course, and that I could try adding the bits to our favorite oatmeal muffin recipe since I didn't have any sour cream on hand that particular day, I barely finished saying that and he stated "Oh no mommy, you have to make this recipe, these are the best"!!! Is he cute or what?!!! I mean, the muffins were good, really good!
I bought sour cream today to make this again, and just had to come here and share the recipe with you. Really delicious, it seems these are jumping to the top of our list!
The recipe says that letting the batter rest for one hour may provide even better results, I didn't have the time and ended up just letting it rest for about 20 minutes.Truly, I can't imagine these being better than they came out, so I might even try the 1 hour in the fridge thing next time to see if it makes such a difference. Oh, and my change for this one was to use 3/4 cup sugar.... and they were plenty sweet for us!
Enjoy!!
Ana

Sour Cream Muffins
(Adapted from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking)

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups any fruits you might like, fresh, frozen or dried.
Sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Grease muffin tins, reserve.
Mix together the flours, baking powder, salt and baking soda, set aside.
With a mixer cream butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time while beating. Add vanilla and sour cream, beat until all incorporated. Add dry ingredients mixing just until the batter is smooth. Fold in fruits and refrigerate batter for one hour.
Preheat oven to 375 F. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, sprinkle tops with coarse sugar if desired and bake for about 22 to 26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Guess what?!
A couple weeks outside my sweet home and guess what was the first thing I whipped up in my beloved kitchen??? Muffins, of course!
I have said it before, and don't get tired of repeating, I love muffins!! It is so easy and quick to make it, and you can fill them up with all sorts of yummy and healthy things, what is not to like!?!?!
Two days after we got home I just had to make something and whipped up a batch of Apricot Muffins for breakfast! They turned out really good, not very sweet just as we like, and the apricots were just right on, smooth texture and the right amount of fruity sweetness to the little cakes. I got a little inspired when making them and decided to throw in some white chocolate chips I had in the pantry and let me tell you, the white chocolate complemented the apricot flavor really well, I would certainly add the chips when making these muffins again.
They were delicious warm right out of the oven, however they got a little on the dry side after sitting for a day. We had them the next day with a warm glass of milk and it was no problem at all, just as good, but warming the muffins before eating is actually a good idea... I just didn't do it because we are still microwaveless.
Oh, and besides providing us with a nice whole wheat breakfast treat, the muffins also gave me a chance to try my little silicone muffin cups, which by the way worked perfectly well!!
Ana











Whole Wheat Apricot Muffins
(Adapted from Cooking Light)

1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons grated orange rind ( I omitted, didn't have at home)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup finely chopped dried apricots
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugar, orange rind, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, butter, vanilla, and egg; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in apricots.
Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pan, and place on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Oat Bran Muffins

Just a quick post… since we are still on the pumpkin subject, I decided to come here and report that I have tried the previously posted “Apple Oat Bran Muffins” with Pumpkin, and it is absolutely delicious too!!
I tried a couple of pumpkin recipes already and I think this might be my favorite so far! (besides the pumpkin muffin I posted last year) Matheus and my husband liked it too! Here is the Pumpkin version. Enjoy!!
Ana

Pumpkin-Oat Bran Muffins
1 1/2 cups oat bran
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch of ground cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed pumpkin, cooked
1/2 cup milk (I used buttermilk)
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (oat bran through salt) and stir well. In another bowl, mix together pumpkin and next three ingredients; stir well. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Spoon into greased muffin pans. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Note: I got 9 muffins out of this batter.

One sweet one savory!

I made two great muffin recipes this week, one of them sweet and the other savory, yes, a savory muffin indeed!
The first one, Apple Oat Bran Muffins was actually an adaptation I made on a pumpkin recipe, and it came out perfect!! I am definitely going to try it with the pumpkin next, but for now I will post my apple version, which we liked a lot. The muffins came out super moist and with a wonderful apple flavor and smell, even though it had applesauce in it. Next time I may add grated apples to the batter, even raisins might be good (I am not fan of raisins, but the boys like it and Matheus said he missed the raisins on his muffins… oh well!)
The second recipe came on the recent issue of my favorite magazine (Cooking Light). Cheddar Green Onion Muffins was a very nice surprise. I made the recipe one weeknight when I wanted something quick and savory for us to have as a snack. They came out quickly and delicious, very moist and cheesy. I believe a little more green onion would not hurt, as its flavor was not very pronounced, but we liked it as is!
I made mine in a bowl (no food processor here), and used white cheddar.
Two simple and tasty recipes today! How can one not love muffins?!?!
Ana

Apple Oat Bran Muffins
1 ½ cups unprocessed oat bran
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup applesauce
1/2 cup skim milk (I used buttermilk)
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine first six ingredients in a large bowl; stir well. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine applesauce, milk, egg, and oil; stir well. Add apple mixture to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Spoon into greased/sprayed muffin pans, bake at 400 degrees, for 18 to 20 minutes. (I got 8 muffins out of this recipe)

Cheddar Green Onion Muffins (Cooking Light/Sept 06)
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (about 7 3/4 ounces)
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
3 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into pieces
11/4 cups fat-free buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 5 ingredients (through pepper) in a food processor; pulse 3 times to combine. Add 5 tablespoons cheese and butter; pulse 5 times or until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Spoon mixture into a medium bowl. Combine buttermilk, onions, garlic, and egg; stir with a whisk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 3 tablespoons cheese. Bake at 375° for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Yield: 12 muffins

Millet Muffins

If there is a kind of baked good you will get tired of seeing here, its muffins! I never get tired of them, and fortunately, nor does my boys. I make muffins every week, sometimes even twice a week, keep them frozen and there is always someone having muffins for breakfast or snack everyday at our home. And I love baking muffins!!
The recipe I am posting today comes from the allrecipes website, but I first saw it at my friend’s Karen blog.
Millet muffins turned out a very simple, basic recipe that you can easily be creative with by adding your favorite ingredients, such as dried fruits and/or nuts. I liked the texture that the millet added a lot, a little crunch here and there, simple yet delicious, plus these are not too sweet. The honey added just enough sweetness to the batter, and its flavor was my son’s favorite point of the muffin; he likes to sweeten his fruits and even milk with honey!
I thought they were good but could be improved, so next time I make I will definitely add some dried fruits to them, but to my surprise even my husband liked them as is, so I guess either we are getting “healthier” around here or these are really good muffins!
So, I leave here the recipe and will let you play with them, any further ideas to make them even better will be very welcome! Oh, and I loved their color too, they came out so pretty with nice golden domes adorned by the millet’s little freckles, kind of cute!
This was my first time using millet, and I liked it a lot, so you guys can expect some more experimentation with it, recipes to come!
Ana

Millet Muffins
2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup millet
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup honey

Preheat oven 400F.
In a large bowl mix flour, millet, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl mix the buttermilk, egg, oil, and honey. Pour buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients, stirring just until moist. Transfer batter to greased muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Note: the recipe states it makes 16, but I got 12 out of it. I like my muffins not too small and with round tops!

Brownie Bites

Today’s recipe is basically an idea to be made with your favorite brownie recipe, nothing really special here, but let me tell you, this was a huge success with the kids the other day!
Matheus is having some fun these past couple of weeks at the YMCA Summer Camp program, he made a lot of new friends and the environment there is so healthy and friendly, he loves playing and going to the pool at the camp. They have got all this “counselors” that take care of the kids, and the best thing is that they are kids themselves! The counselors’ age range around 17 years old, so they have extra energy to deal with the kids, it is fun to see them play. But enough with that, lets get to the cooking part of the post.
Last week they had a cookout at summer camp, and Matheus’ huddle was supposed to contribute with desserts. I wanted a treat that would be easy to eat, that the kids could grab and go, and preferably something not very messy. Since I believed that there would be a good amount of cookies showing up (and I was certainly not wrong!), I discarded that possibility and went looking for something else instead.
The thought of mini muffins came to my mind, and suddenly brownies popped up. That’s it, Mini Brownies, perfect!
Great idea, they came out very good looking and cute too. The kids loved them, it was super simple and easy to make, plus with all the chocolate goodness and the yummy chocolate chips inside there was no need for messy frostings or the like. Matheus loved taking this to the camp, so I will probably be making more of them during the next preschool year to share with the friends.
As I said before, you can make this with your favorite recipe (make sure to not over bake them so they came out nice and fudgy inside), but I am posting here the recipe I used just in case, and you know what, if you like brownies this is worth trying, it was very good! (Especially warm out of the oven… oh the goodness of melted chocolate, yum!!)
Ana

Brownie Bites
½ cup cocoa powder
1/3-cup oil (I used canola oil)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F and either line with paper or grease 24 mini muffin tins.
In a large bowl mix all ingredients together, adding the chocolate chips at the end. Pour batter into prepared mini muffin cups (don’t fill them too much!). Bake for about 16 minutes. Makes 24.
(Recipe adapted from the Hershey’s website)

Fig Muffins

We have our list of favorite muffin recipes here at home, but since I like muffins quite a lot I am always experimenting with new recipes. Fig is a delicious fruit, which I always had fresh when growing up, and just recently I came across and actually tried the dried ones. Don’t have to say that I like it, as I do love most fruits! And basically the same is true with their dried counterparts, I like most of them, figs included.
This recipe, Oat-Topped Fig Muffins, was a very nice surprise; the muffins came out delicious in all kind of senses. They are hearty and sort of dense, but not too much that they still have some lightness to it, and the figs blended into the mixture gives enough of its flavor without making the muffins overly sweet.
Be sure not to over process the liquid mixture though, just so that you get little pieces of the figs in the batter, they were the best part!
My only complain is that I found the topping to be a little on the sweet side (even my son commented on that, and he like his sweets), so if I make them again I will definitely decrease the sugar, if not omit the topping completely. Some people might think it is the best part, but to be quite true I am not very fond of streusels on my muffins, they are usually super sweet and sometimes messy - falling off the muffins all over the place. In my humble opinion, good muffins don’t need topping/streusel at all; they should be perfect just by themselves, but that is just me.
“Streuseled” or not, these fig muffins have a nice balance of flavors, it was a nice change for our usual morning muffins, we all liked it here and it will probably be made many other times!
Enjoy!
Ana

Oat-Topped Fig Muffins
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/4 cups chopped dried figs
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
Cooking spray
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400°.
Lightly spoon flours into measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.
Place buttermilk, figs, oil, vanilla, and egg in a food processor; process until well blended. Add fig mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.
Combine brown sugar, oats, and butter in a small bowl; toss with a fork until combined. Sprinkle oat mixture evenly over muffins. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes; remove muffins from pans, and cool completely on rack.
Yield: 12 muffins (serving size: 1 muffin)
Cooking Light, March 2006

Blueberry Muffins

We are back home, a short visit to the family, and as always it was very nice! Matheus had lots of fun with the grandparents and even more because I enrolled him in swimming lessons, so he also had an activity to do every morning that he loved: going to the pool!
We got here yesterday morning and, although a little tired from the flights, went blueberry picking in the afternoon. It is blueberry season and since I love the fruit I like to make sure I enjoy every bit of it this time of the year. There is nothing like fresh blueberries and since all the muffins I left in the freezer for the husband were gone I went ahead and whipped up this super quick recipe for our breakfast today. Easy and very good! Not the most nutritious of the muffins, but more of a treat for a welcome home breakfast with the three of us together!
You can certainly use whole-wheat flour for part of the flour in this recipe, and I would definitely do that if I had some in the house today. Also, fresh or frozen blueberries could easily be used with nice results here, just make sure to not thaw them if using frozen, that way you avoid getting unappetizing greenish-colored muffins.
I made a few recipes during my trip and will be posting them soon!
Enjoy!
Ana

Blueberry Muffins
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
½ cup milk
½ cup yogurt
¼ cup oil
½ cup sugar
1 cup blueberries

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl mix together wet ingredients. Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Fold in blueberries. Pour batter into greased muffin tins, sprinkle sugar on tops if desired, and bake at 400F for about 18 minutes, or until golden.
Yields 10 muffins.

Strawberry Muffins!

As you already know, I love baking muffins, so in order to use up some of the strawberries we picked last weekend I decided to make one of the boys favorite baked treats: Strawberry Muffins!
Although definitely not my favorite, the boys really like these muffins and always wait for me to make them during the strawberry season. A couple years ago I adapted a recipe from a cookbook I had (after making it as the original and not liking it much) and came up with this one.
These muffins are very moist and have a nice pink hue to them. They are very easy to make and also simple in its complexity. To improve the flavor you can add grated orange rind, as the strawberry-orange combo is a pretty nice one. However, I was out of oranges yesterday and ended up leaving it out, but the muffins came out ok!
The original recipe called for all-purpose flour; I normally use whole-wheat flour in my baked goods, but opted for a combination of the two here, as these muffins are quite delicate. I also added about ½ cup oats to the batter, as it always seems too liquid to me, and it worked well, it was just enough to get the batter together without adding heaviness to it (with a bonus of some added nutrients too!)
I find this a little on the sweet side, but the boys (Matheus and the Husband) enjoy it just like it is! I decreased the sugar amount from the original recipe, and you can add or take out based on your own taste.
Hope you enjoy this one, and it seems we will have some more strawberry goodies, as there are still some strawberries around (and we are already planning to go pick some more!).
Ana

 

Strawberry Muffins 

1 2/3 cup fresh strawberries, halved 
2 eggs
1/3 cup grape seed oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat, ½ cup all-purpose)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350

Line muffin tin with baking cups or grease with coconut oil, reserve.

In a large bowl mash strawberries with a fork, add sugar, oil, egg and vanilla and mix well.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and mix well just until all incorporated.

Pour batter into muffin cups and bake at pre-heated oven for about 18 minutes.

Makes 11 to 12 muffins depending on the size of your muffin tins.

Cupcake

I began planning Matheus’ birthday party (turning 4 on March 25!!) this past week, and since we started talking about cakes and other yummy goodies Matheus has been asking me to make cupcakes. Maybe it is because they are small and cute; but there is something about cupcakes that makes children (of all ages!) like them a lot! Matheus is not different and loves cupcakes, especially the ones frosted and with colored sprinkles on top.
The other day he did not want to eat much due to his cold, and the only thing he wanted was cupcake, so cupcake it was! (Yes, he did have a cupcake and some milk for diner… not healthy I know, but I was glad at least he ate something!)
I decided to try a new recipe, and it ended up being a great one. The recipe came from one of the first cookbooks I bought, which is (believe it or not) a low fat cookbook.
Ok, I know, cupcakes are not actually meant to be low fat, but these ones were, and they were delicious! Nice and soft cupcakes, not too sweet (I cut back a little on the sugar), and firm enough to be frosted. We loved them at home and they will definitely be my standard cupcake recipe from now on!
As for the frosting on our cupcakes, I actually used drained vanilla yogurt. I always do this and for me it is way better than any frosting (not a fan of frostings and icings here). The yogurt was firm and creamy, it iced the cupcake nicely and even hold up nicely the “kissables” (Hershey’s version of m&m) we used to decorate.
I really liked this recipe, Matheus was happy with his cupcake, and even ended up eating some healthy yogurt with it! Not bad, huh?!!

Ana

Cupcakes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar (I used ¾ cup)
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 ¾ cups all-purposed flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper cups.
Beat butter and sugar. Add oil, flour, salt, egg, egg white, and vanilla, and mix well
Stir baking powder, baking soda, and yogurt into the batter.
Pour batter into muffin cup, filling half-way. Bake 20 minutes, or until tops are golden.
Yield: 12 muffins
Recipe Adapted from “1000 Low fat Recipes” by Terry Blonder Golson

My new favorite Muffin

There she comes, with another muffin recipe… I know, I have posted quite a few muffin recipes, but I had to share this recipe here. And it is another recipe that comes from Nic’s blog, theBaking Sheet, called Whole Wheat, Oatmeal and Raisin Muffins. Healthy and yummy whole-wheat muffins made with one of my favorite ingredients of all: oatmeal! The muffins were surprisingly moist inside; the batter needs to sit for a while, so the oatmeal gets a chance to soak up some liquid, becoming pleasantly plump and chewy. Another addition I like is the wheat bran, which gives some sort of nutty flavor to the muffins. (I have a muffin recipe that I love which uses only wheat bran, the taste is amazing, and it is super healthy and full of fiber… but I will post some other time!)
We liked these muffins so much here that I have made it three times already in these past two weeks. I can’t get enough of them; I have been eating them for breakfast and sometimes for a late night snack, sooo good!
I make the batter the night before and let it sit on the fridge overnight, so we can have nice warm muffins out of the oven for breakfast. (It is so nice to smell muffins baking up in the morning!) All three times I made the muffins I used ½ cup of milk instead of the water, and omitted the dried fruits, as I am not a big fan of them (although Matheus loves raisins and asked me to put some in the muffins next time). Also, I used old-fashion rolled oats and did not chop them (I love the pieces of oatmeal in my muffins!), and I got 9 nice sized muffins out of the recipe. Give them a try; they are truly delicious!!
Keeping with the oatmeal theme, I am going to post a recipe I developed for Oatmeal Cake. When I was not feeling good with the nerve pain and all, and able to move a little more, I wanted to bake a cake, but also wanted something a little more nutritious since I was actually going to have cake for diner (you know, not feeling well… cake… comfort food… and to me oatmeal is the perfect comfort food!). I looked over some recipes and based on a CL light recipe for a crumb cake with apples I came out with my own version.
It makes such a small cake that I actually baked it in a 9-inch pie plate (as you can see in the picture above), and let me tell you, I made it for dinner and the cake did not last until next morning’s breakfast. We liked it a lot; it is a very light cake, perfect for an afternoon snack.
Maybe you will like one of these recipes too! And did I already tell you that I love oatmeal?
Enjoy!

Ana

Oatmeal Crumb Cake
1 cup flour
1/3 cup oatmeal
½ cup brown sugar
dash of salt (optional)
¼ cup butter, cut into small pieces
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup milk
1 egg yolk
2 egg whites, beaten into stiff peaks

Pre-heat oven to 350F.
In a bowl combine flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and butter. Mix with the tips of your fingers until it resembles coarse meal. Reserve ½ cup of this mixture to be used later.
To the remaining mixture add the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, milk, and egg yolk. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the egg whites.
Pour batter into a greased pie plate (or a 8-inch cake pan). Sprinkle the reserved mixture on top. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.
Note: I sprinkled some chopped walnuts before baking and that added a nice crunch to the cake.

Whole Wheat, Oatmeal and Raisin Muffins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins (or other dried fruits)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats, slightly chopped (or quick cooking oats)
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a muffin tin, or line with baking cups.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, wheat bran, sugars, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in dried fruit and oats. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla and water.
Add buttermilk mixture to oat mixture and stir until just combined. Let stand for 15-20 minutes. You may refrigerate the batter, covered, for about a week at this point.
Spoon batter into prepared tins by heaping 1/4 cups (about 1/3 cup).
Bake for 20 minutes, until muffins are golden brown and spring back when gently pressed. Add 5 minutes baking time if batter is cold.
Makes 12 large muffins
(Original Recipe from “Baking in America”)
Note: My muffins were ready after 20 minutes in the oven, and I used the batter straight from the refrigerator.