Allspice Crumb Muffins

Happy Fall! It seems like the weather in my area has changed from summer to fall since my last post! Can you believe it's already October???

I've been MIA lately but for good reason - we closed on our new house and moved in! We are still working on getting settled, but my first priority was establishing a functional kitchen. I'm really looking forward to getting back into a routine that involves more cooking, baking, and blogging!

I've had my eye on these Allspice Crumb Muffins for quite some time, and I decided that they would be the perfect breakfast for my wonderful family members who graciously gave up their Saturday morning to help us on moving day. These muffins were great - incorporating the delicious spices of fall.

Stay tuned for some great fall recipes coming soon! :)

Allspice Crumb Muffins

Ingredients:

For the streusel:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice*

5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice*

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

3/4 cup whole milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon, optional

*When I'm out of allspice and can't get to the store, I make a similar-tasting substitute by mixing 2 parts ground cinnamon, 1 part ground nutmeg, and 1 part ground cloves.

Directions:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 375F.

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray with cooking spray. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

2. For the streusel, put the flour, brown sugar, and allspice in a small bowl and sift ingredients through your fingers to blend. Add the cold pieces of butter and toss to get irregularly shaped crumbs. Set aside in refrigerator.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, allspice, and salt. Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps.

4. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the melted butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract together until well combined.

5. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with a whisk or rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. The batter should be lumpy. Stir in lemon zest if using.

6. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Sprinkle some streusel over each muffin, then use your fingertips to gently press the crumbs into the batter.

7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin to the cooling rack.

Source: Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, as featured on Meet Me in the Kitchen

Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins

A quick note: I haven't been blogging as much lately because I've been so busy with school. Earlier this week, I got permission to begin writing my PhD dissertation, so I think things will get even more hectic. I'm trying to post things I've made in the past few months since I'm not doing as much cooking lately, at least not new recipes. Hopefully I'll get back to my regular posting soon!!!

This Chocolate Banana Bread recipe looked so chocolately and delicious that I wanted to make it for our weekly lab meeting. It's a semi-healthy recipe from Rancho La Puerta fitness spa. I decided to make this into muffins since they are easier to pass out than cutting a loaf of bread - big mistake. While the bread takes 40-50 minutes to bake, the muffins cooked in only 15!!! This meant that the banana chips didn't have time to rehydrate, so they were still a little hard. Other than that, the muffins were really good, so I would love to try this recipe as a loaf. If you'd like to try the muffins, I'd just suggest skipping the banana chips! By the way, I didn't make a mistake typing the ingredients - there's no actual sugar in this recipe other than the 'natural' sweetness from the prunes, bananas, and banana chips (and chocolate chips, haha)!

Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins

Ingredients:
9- or 10-ounce package pitted dried prunes*
3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour**
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup banana chips, chopped coarsely
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Note: you may substitute 10 ounces (1 1/4 cups) unsweetened prune baby food for the pitted prunes, and omit the water and cooking in Step 1 below.
**I used 1 cup of regular pastry flour: 1 cup = 130 grams pastry flour, which can be made by mixing 87 grams all-purpose flour + 43 grams cake flour (it's a 2/3 to 1/3 ratio by weight).

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, bring prunes and 2 cups of water to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until prunes are very soft, about 20 minutes. Drain.

2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350F. Lightly butter a 5x9-inch loaf pan and line bottom with a piece of parchment paper, cut to fit. Alternatively, place paper liners in a muffin pan.

3. In a food processor, whirl prunes and bananas until very smooth. Add eggs and whirl to combine.

4. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, and baking soda. Stir in banana mixture until evenly moistened. Stir in banana chips and chocolate chips. Scrape the thick batter into pan and spread level.

5. Bake bread until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out a little chocolately but not gooey, 40 to 50 minutes. Loosen bread from pan with knife and invert onto a rack. Remove parchment. Turn bread right-side-up and let cool at least 1 hour before slicing. The muffins baked for 15 minutes and were completely done!

Servings: 16 slices or muffins

Source: Adapted from Recipe Girl

Blueberry Muffins

Two Saturdays ago, half of my lab had to go into work for a big radioactivity experiment. I had seen this Blueberry Muffin recipe in Cook's Illustrated and thought this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. Maybe because it was early on a Saturday, but I totally messed up making this recipe. In my defense, I think the directions could have been a tad more clear (I've amended the recipe below). Despite my errors, they turned out delicious! I'm sure they'd be even better made the right way :)

The idea behind this recipe, according to the author, is to have a blueberry muffin recipe that works with any kind of blueberry - even the 'watery supermarket kind.' To do this, she came up with a simple jam that you swirl into the batter before baking. She also provided a few options for topping the muffins. I went with the lemon-sugar as listed in the original recipe, but I'd love to try the streusel topping next!
Best Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
For the Lemon-Sugar Topping:
1/2 cup (2 1/3 ounces) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest from 1 lemon


For the Muffins:
2 cups (about 10 ounces) fresh blueberries, picked over*
1 1/8 cups (8 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk**
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Notes:
*To use frozen blueberries, substitute 2 cups frozen blueberries for fresh. Cook 1 cup berries as directed in step 3. Rinse remaining cup berries under cold water and dry well. In step 4, toss dried berries in flour mixture before adding egg mixture.

**If buttermilk is unavailable, substitute 3/4 cup plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt thinned with 1/4 cup milk. I made my own buttermilk by adding 1 Tablespoon white vinegar to 1 cup of skim milk.

Directions:
Make the topping:
1. Stir together sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl until combined; set aside.
Make the muffins:
2. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat to 425F. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. I used a silicon muffin pan with muffin liners.

3. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

4. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.

5. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together until thick and homogenous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.

6. Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. Batter will be very lumpy with a few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.

7. Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups. Batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly.

8. Spoon a teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into the center of each mound of batter. Using a chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle lemon-sugar evenly over muffins. Try not to sprinkle evenly over pan like I did - I was in a hurry :)
9. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer too wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

Streusel Topping

Follow Best Bleuberry Muffin recipe, omitting Lemon-Sugar Topping. Prepare streusel by combining 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar, 3 Tablespoons dark brown sugar, a pinch of table salt, and 1/2 cup plus 3 Tablespoons (3 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour in a small bowl. Drizzle with 5 Tablespoons warm, melted unsalted butter and toss with a fork until evenly moistened and misture forms large chunks and some pea-sized pieces throughout. Proceed with recipe as directed, sprinkle streusel topping over muffins before baking.

Source: Adapted from Cook's Illustrated