Banana Muffins with White Chocolate Glaze

These take a bit more time to prepare but they are worth it. Moist, flavorful and topped with an amazing white chocolate vanilla glaze. I added some snowflake sprinkles just to get in the festive mood.

These muffins have a sweet vanilla taste that pairs very well with the sweet and sticky glaze. The batter consists of your typical dry ingredients and a few eggs. But the secret to these little babies is the sweet vanilla cream mixture that is the basis for your wet ingredients. You want to infuse the cream and sugar mixture with the scrapings of one whole vanilla bean. Then you simply let it all simmer away nicely for about 5 minutes. This really brings out the vanilla flavor and turns the entire cream mixture into almost a caramel sauce. Now if you don't have vanilla beans, don't panic. Just use one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract instead and you will be fine.

I followed the recipe from a recent cookbook purchase but immediately noted something was very, very wrong. It said it would make 12 mini muffins. Huh? Waaaay too much batter for 12 mini muffins! So I divided the recipe up so I had 12 mini muffins and 10 large ones but feel free to switch it up if you want. Just remember, the large the muffin, the longer time it takes to bake.

Speaking of baking time, the recipe said to bake for 1/2 hr. Again, huh? They would have been burnt to a crisp. I definitely reduced the recommended baking time. Once golden they were pretty much done and honestly, the entire kitchen smelled like candy. Heaven.

So let's get baking, shall we?

RECIPE:
*adapted (and corrected!) source recipe for White Chocolate Muffins, Something Sweet

WHAT YOU NEED

1 large muffin pan lined with 10 paper liners
1 small 12 cup mini-muffin pan lined with paper liners

1 cup granulated sugar
100 ml whipping cream
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Scraping from 1 vanilla bean
1 3/4 cups cake and pastry flour - self rising variety
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 small ripe banana
pinch of salt
3 eggs

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 350F

IN DOUBLE BOILER, simmer 3/4 cup of the sugar, whipping cream, butter and vanilla bean scrapings over med/low heat for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly
MASH banana to a smooth paste
IN SMALL BOWL, whisk together 3 eggs and add mashed banana
IN LARGE BOWL, whisk together flour, baking powder, cornstarch
ADD eggs and banana mixture to warm cream mixture whisking thoroughly
POUR wet ingredients into dry ingredients folding until just combined
FILL muffin cups 3/4 full with batter

BAKE MINI MUFFINS for 12-14 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
BAKE REGULAR MUFFINS for 17-20 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
REMOVE muffins from pans and let cool completely on racks

IN DOUBLE BOILER, melt chocolate, cream and vanilla together until smooth
SET ASIDE to cool for 20 minutes
WHISK slightly and then spoon glaze over cooled muffins

ENJOY !

Banana Sour Cream Muffins with Pecans

Unfortunately, my banana nut muffin post was lost in the Blogger mishap so I will re-post again with the hopes that you will see this in time to make a fresh batch of these lovely muffins for your weekend treat !

I decided to make these yesterday morning when I was again faced with one overly ripe banana on the counter; the only survivor of a bunch I purchased at the start of the week. Rather than adding to my growing stack in the freezer, I wanted a recipe where only one banana would suffice and muffins came to mind.

These muffins have several key ingredients to ensure optimum moisture: sour cream, milk, oil and of course, banana. The addition of nutmeg and cinnamon are wonderful complimentary flavors to banana in baked treats. These muffins have a soft, cake-like, consistency and are perfect plain, with butter, jam or even a smear of cream cheese.

Throw in some nuts during the final mixing stage to give them great crunch. Top them off with turbinado or demerara sugar right before baking. My girls love theirs with chocolate chips so just swap out the nuts for sweet little morsels of " I can't get enough" chocolate if you prefer.


LET'S GET STARTED!

RECIPE:

WHAT YOU NEED

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup fine sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 large) mashed banana
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/4 cup full fat sour cream
1/3 cup oil (a neutral flavored oil is needed. I use Becel)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped nuts

MAKE IT

PREHEAT OVEN to 375F
LINE 12 MUFFIN CUPS with paper liners

IN LARGE BOWL, whisk together first 6 ingredients
IN MEDIUM BOWL, whisk together remaining wet ingredients except nuts
ADD wet ingredients to dry ingredients folding in nuts at same time. Fold together just until combined
FILL muffin cups to the top (as they do not rise too high and won't overflow the tin).
BAKE 18-20 MINUTES or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

ENJOY !

Chocolate Doughnut Muffins

My entire family adores doughnut (or donut) muffins. They are cake-like and the buttered/sugar topping makes these taste just like a sugared doughnut. In addition to cocoa, these ones have a little bit of nutmeg and cinnamon thrown in too.

Some like to bake them without muffin liners and coat the entire muffin in butter before dipping in sugar but this doesn't make them exactly portable. The kids like to take these to school so baking them in muffin liners just works better for us.

I have made these Donut Muffins with Vanilla Cinnamon Glaze before and they alone are superb. I figured why not try chocolate too? Cannot go wrong with chocolate.

LET'S GO!

Here they are fresh out of the oven

Recipe adapted from Grace's Sweet Life

RECIPE:

WHAT YOU NEED

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
1 large egg
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk (2% works fine, or whole)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream (35%)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, for brushing onto baked tops
1/2 cup fine granulated sugar for dipping muffin tops

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
LINE muffin tins with paper liners Lightly grease a standard muffin tin with cooking spray, or using a pastry brush, coat muffin cups with vegetable oil.
IN MEDIUM BOWL, sift together first 4 ingredients. Whisk in nutmeg and cinnamon.
IN LARGE BOWL, beat eggs and sugar MED speed 2-3 minutes.
ADD 1/3 dry ingredients to egg/sugar mixture. Mix just until combined. REPEAT pattern ending with flour.
ADD oil, milk, cream and vanilla extract beating until combined. There may be tiny lumps in the batter but this is fine.
FILL muffin cups 3/4 full.
BAKE 15-20 minutes - toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.
LET COOL 2-3 MIN in pan then move to cooling rack
MELT butter
POUR sugar into a low level bowl which makes it easier to dip the tops into the sugar
WITH PASTRY BRUSH, brush butter over tops
DIP muffin tops into sugar
LET COOL completely on cooling rack

Pumpkin Muffins with Pecans

I have had a craving for pumpkin for days now so I decided to give in to it. I had a can of pure pumpkin in the cupboard and all the extra ingredients handy to whip up a dozen glorious little pumpkin muffins. These are topped with pecans and turbinado sugar for crunch but be forewarned, the pecans will weigh down the very light batter so they will not rise as much as you would expect. If you want a rounder top, just leave them plain before baking.

I found this source recipe on Healthy Food For Living and adjusted it slightly. I decided to leave out the cream cheese filling and just go with a straight-forward fluffy muffin. They are not too sweet and have so much depth of flavor given the cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg added to the batter. Superb with a cup of tea.

LET'S BEGIN

First off, have that key ingredient handy: Pumpkin - pure pumpkin, NOT pie filling

RECIPE:

WHAT YOU NEED

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup Sucanat or packed dark brown sugar (I split the difference and used 1/4 cup of each)
2 Tbsp unsulfured molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs, lightly whisked
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped pecans
turbinado or demerara sugar

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper cups.
IN A MEDIUM BOWL, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg).
IN A LARGE BOWL, whisk together the sugar, molasses, oil, and eggs until combined. Whisk in the pumpkin, vanilla, and buttermilk.
ADD dry ingredients into wet and stir just until fully moistened.
SPOON batter into prepared muffin tin, filling to the top of the liner
SPRINKLE each filled muffin cup with a few pecans and sugar
BAKE muffins for 23-26 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean
LET MUFFINS COOL in the muffin tin for 5 minutes.
TRANSFER muffins to a wire rack and let cool completely.

This recipe also seen here:

Raspberry Lemon Muffins

Looking for a fresh-tasting, "hints of spring", muffin? Give these a try.

This story began on a rainy Sunday morning. Perfect for a ray of baking sunshine! I had fresh raspberries and a few lemons in the fridge and was contemplating my next move. I love the combined taste these 2 ingredients lend to any baked goods. It being early in the morning with no idea what to make for breakfast, muffins just made sense.

This recipe comes from Leila Lindholm’s cookbook A Piece Of Cake.


It calls for frozen raspberries but I used 2-3 fresh ones per muffin instead. I also like muffins with crunchy tops so I sprinkled each muffin with turbinado sugar before they were baked.
Turned out perfectly ! Lastly, if you don't have vanilla sugar, simply add
1 teaspoon granulated sugar and either 1 teaspoon pure vanilla or
the scraping of 1 vanilla bean to the batter. I prefer the latter.

NOTE: most of the recipe ingredients are measured in grams
so haul out your kitchen scale and get baking!

LET'S GET STARTED!

RECIPE:

This recipe made exactly 12 glorious, golden muffins.

WHAT YOU NEED

100g unsalted butter, melted
200ml milk ( I used 2%)
zest of 1 lemon
2 organic eggs at room temperature
150g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla sugar
240g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
36 fresh, cleaned raspberries

MAKE IT

LINE muffin tin with 12 liners
PRHEAT to 350F
IN MEDIUM BOWL, combine melted butter, milk and lemon zest.
IN SEPARATE LARGE BOWL, with electric mixer, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla 2-3 minutes MED speed
BLEND butter mixture into egg mixture.
SIFT together remaining dry ingredients and fold into batter with a spatula. DO NOT OVER-MIX
STIR the butter mixture into the egg mix. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and carefully fold into the mixture.
ADD 1/2 batter to each muffin cup.
TOP with 3 raspberries
COVER with batter so muffins nearly reach the top of the liner.
BAKE 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
COOL on wire rack for 20 minutes.

ENJOY !

Donut Muffins with Vanilla Cinnamon Glaze

These lovely little muffins are a wonderful way to start off the morning. With the taste of an old-fashioned glazed doughnut without the deep frying.

This recipe caught my eye on the King Arthur Flour site. It isn't a new idea and has been "revamped" by many. The traditional way to top these is by dipping them in melted butter then in a cinnamon/sugar mix.

The original recipe can be found here at the King Arthur site. For a bit of a change and added moisture, try adding 1/4 cup of full-fat sour cream to the wet ingredients.

I thought a glaze would work better than the recommended butter and cinnamon sugar topping, at least where my kids are concerned. Besides, I prefer the floor as clean as I can keep it. A glaze just makes sense!

For the glaze, simply combine the following ingredients in a medium sized bowl:

• 1 cup of icing sugar sifted together with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons cream (you may need 3 if you feel it is too thick)
• 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter.

Blend together with a fork. Spread onto muffin tops while still warm. I just put a dollop in the center of each muffin and let it ooze down the sides. The glaze will dry and form a smooth topping as it cools.

ENJOY !

Featured Here: Sweet Tooth Friday

Featured Here: FOODIE FRIDAY !

Featured at Ekat's Kitchen's Friday Potluck

Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Muffins

My daughter tried the Tim Horton's chocolate chip caramel muffin last week and announced it was not a hit. So I decided to make my own and see if I could beat the "not a hit" Tim's muffin.

It was an easy peasy challenge to be honest. These were so simple to make and the caramel filling: melted butterscotch chips and 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream.

LET'S GET STARTED

The muffin recipe is by Williams-Sonoma. The only thing I altered was adding
butterscotch cream to the centers and drizzled over top.

RECIPE as posted by Williams-Sonoma

See bottom of recipe for my adapted version !

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Before you start
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

Mix the batter
In a bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and the 1 cup sugar on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add 1 egg and beat until blended. Add the other egg and the vanilla and beat until well blended. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl with the rubber spatula.

Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Pour in the milk and beat just until blended. Add the rest of the flour and the chocolate chips and beat until blended.

Fill the muffin cups
Using 2 large spoons, one to scoop and one to push, fill each lined muffin cup with batter. Sprinkle the 1 tablespoon sugar evenly over the tops.

Bake the muffins
Put the pan in the oven and bake until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 21 to 23 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven, set it on a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes.

Tip the muffins out of the pan onto the rack and serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 muffins.


For My Version: MELT 1 cup of butterscotch chips with 4 tablespoons heavy cream. Fill muffin tins 1/2 way with batter. Add 1 teaspoon of butterscotch cream mixture. Cover with batter to top of muffin liner. When cooled, drizzle each muffin with leftover butterscotch cream.

Banana Sour Cream Muffins with Brown Sugar Streusal Topping

How often do you enter your kitchen to be greeted by the smell of overripe bananas? And then spy them, sitting there growing darker by the moment. I experience this weekly. My kids have great aspirations to "eat their fruit" yet the bananas always seem to fall by the wayside....or perhaps this is all a plan of theirs. Overripe bananas = muffins, cakes, quick breads. No wonder they let them be !!

I usually use 3 medium sized bananas and whip up a banana bread but recently I decide to try muffins instead. I was glad I did (and so were the kids!).

It all began here:

And in a flash they were ready for the oven !

They rose up perfectly during baking time. The aroma was divine !!!!

To be truthful, these barely had a chance to cool before we started digging in! They were fantastic - light and fluffy with a crunchy brown sugar topping. A wonderful way to start the day.

RECIPE:

WHAT YOU NEED

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine sugar
1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup sour cream (full fat only!)
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
2 - 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed

BROWN SUGAR STREUSAL TOPPING:
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter (cold and unsalted)

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F

GREASE 12 muffin cups

In a large bowl, SIFT together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In a small bowl, gently beat eggs, sour cream, butter and bananas until combined.

STIR wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened.

FILL greased muffin cups three-fourths full.

STREUSAL: with fingers, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter until mixture is coarse crumbs (pea sized is fine)

SPRINKLE Streusal over muffins.

BAKE 20-25 minutes.

Note: These muffins are best eaten the same day and left uncovered. Covering them will cause the streusal topping to soften and lose that CRUNCH !

* Top photo of Ripe Bananas by Kenn Stilger