Lemon Ricotta Muffins

You know, I've always been a little leery of trying new things.  I love eating ricotta cheese (my best friend puts it in her amazing lasagna and it's like, the best thing EVER) but I've never had the nerve to actually trying eating something with ricotta in it.  I was the same way with sour cream until a few years ago.  I mean, you've had sour cream before, haven't you?  It's tangy!  I never understood exactly HOW a sweet dessert recipe could have sour cream and actually turn out okay.  But it works... somehow.  My feelings towards things made with ricotta cheese ran along those same lines.  Until now.  These muffins have converted me.

I'm not the biggest fan of very lemon-y things.  Despite the fact that my mom tells me I used to eat them when I was little - rind and all.  Maybe that's why I'm not crazy about really lemon-y things now.  I had too much of them when I was little.  But these muffins are not overly lemon-y at all!  They have just the right amount of tang that cuts through the sweetness of the muffins.  And the ricotta... oh Lord.  The ricotta cheese just makes these muffins melt in your mouth!  So drop whatever it is you're doing and go make these muffins.  They make a wonderful quick breakfast if you're on the go, like my husband and I are!

As a side note, this recipe calls for grated lemon rind and fresh lemon juice.  You can probably get those off of one large lemon but get two just in case.  If you've never had to use the rind off of a citrus fruit before, you are missing out.  There are such wonderful flavors to be had in those bright and shiny exteriors (keep away from the white part beneath)!  You'll quickly realize that using a Microplane Zester will become your best friend in the kitchen when you need those grated rinds.  If you try to use a fine cheese grater, you'll be there all day.  A zester is really what you need.

One more thing - zest BEFORE you juice!  If you just zest after juicing, it just gets awkward.

Lemon Ricotta Muffins
recipe courtesy of Cooking Light

1 3/4 c. All Purpose Flour
3/4 c. Sugar
2 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
3/4 c. Ricotta Cheese, part-skin
1/2 c. Water
1/4 c. Olive Oil (I use extra virgin)
1 Tbsp. Grated Lemon Rind
2 Tbsp. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 Egg

Preheat your oven to 375.
Spray 12 muffin liners with cooking spray and put in your muffin pan, setting aside.
In a large bowl, mix together your flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Using a different bowl, mix EVERYTHING ELSE together and stir until its all combined.
Now make a little well in the middle of your flour mixture.
Pour the ricotta cheese mixture into that little well.
Stir until moist - try not to overstir!
Now add your batter evenly to the muffin cups.
Bake for 16 minutes or until a cake tester/toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before removing to finish cooling.

These look really pale... cause they are.  Doesn't mean they aren't delicious!

Strawberry Muffins

You may have noticed on here that I love strawberries.  (From this post perhaps?) They are one of my favorite things about summer.  Whenever I get strawberries from the farmer's market, I have to fight from eating them on the way home.  I mean, who can resist that yummy, sweet strawberry-y goodness?  You want to talk about cruel and unusual punishment?  Tie me up and put a strawberry just out of my reach.  I'll crack in a second just to get at it.

Now, these muffins are topped with a special item - Spiced Vanilla Bean Sugar. I'm very lucky to have a phenomenal spice story really close to me called Savory Spice Shop.  They make their own spice blends to sell and always carry fresh spices. You can get as little as half an ounce if you don't need a lot which is wonderful if you just need a spice for one recipe.  Did I mention they'll let you taste their spices in the store?  I tried this spice blend in their store and just KNEW it would be amazing on these muffins!  It is a combination of sugar, vanilla bean, vanilla extract, cinnamon, allspice, mace, and cardamom.  Doesn't that just SOUND delicious??  Even if you don't have a Savory Spice Shop near you, you can order it online!  Isn't the internet great?  (Online ordering)  For this recipe, I've made the topping Sugar in the Raw since that's available at any grocery store.

Let me tell you a story.  Many of you know that I have a dog.  She's a beautiful eleven year old black Lab mix named Liz.  I tell everyone that my husband fell in love with her long before he fell in love with me.  And she owned my heart when she was only two weeks old.  So, one morning after I had made these muffins, Ryan had gotten two to have as his breakfast.  He got the muffins, set them on our coffee table, and stepped out of the room for a few minutes.  When he returned, the muffins were gone.  There wasn't even a crumb left on the table.  Liz was laying quietly on the couch, acting like nothing was amiss.  Ryan looked around for the muffins, thinking he'd left them in the kitchen or put them in another room.  No.  Liz ate them.  Both of them.  Muffin wrapper and all.  I wasn't sure who to be mad at - him for leaving them within her reach or her for eating them in the first place!  I will say that my years of training her to "clean up her mess" paid off.  She certainly left no trace of them!

Strawberry Muffins
modified from Best Recipes from American Country Inns and Bed and Breakfasts

2 c. All Purpose Flour
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 Egg
1 c. Milk
1/3 c. Canola Oil
1 c. Fresh Strawberries, chopped
3 Packets of Sugar in the Raw

Preheat oven to 375.
Line a muffin tin with liners; spray with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, beat together the egg, milk, and oil.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until moistened, making sure not to overmix!
Fold in your strawberries.
Pour the batter in your muffin tin, dividing the batter equally amongst the muffin cups.
Sprinkle the muffins with the Sugar in the Raw.
Bake for 28 minutes or until the tops become slightly golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
Allow to cool for a few minutes on a rack before removing them from the pan to finish cooling.  (You can also tilt the muffins to let them finish cooling.  See this post.)

NOTE:  Muffins made with fresh fruit like this only last for two or three days.  Please don't feed the leftover to the dog, either.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins/Bread

Apple and cinnamon?  Yum.  "Yes, please" and, "Please, sir, may I have another?"

I'm sure you recall the Blueberry Muffin Bread recipe where I had too much batter and ended up having to use the remaining batter to make bread.  Well, I did the same thing here only I really don't know how it happened.  Unlike with the Blueberry Bread, I followed the directions, using white whole wheat flour and all-purpose instead of substituting white whole wheat for regular all-purpose.  This recipe is SUPPOSED to yield 12 happy muffins.... yeah, not for me.  I don't understand why or how it happened but I'm just glad it did!  To think that I now have the knowledge to turn muffins into bread.... OH THE POWER!!!!!  Oh, did I say that out loud?  Do forgive me.  I'm not that power-hungry... usually.

When baking with apples, you have to be careful about which type of apple you choose.  A Red Delicious, for instance, is great for eating but terrible for baking.  They disintegrate.   So much you won't even be able to tell there's apple in it.  My favorites?  Granny Smith and Braeburn, all of which are readily available in your local grocery store.  When I bake pies, I enjoy using a mixture of both those apples.  The Granny Smith is very tart and the Braeburn helps to cut through that tartness.  Honeycrisps are my favorite for eating around the holidays (because that's usually the only time you can find them) and are the apples most commonly used in apple cider.  See, you can learn new things on baking blogs!  For a quick overview of apples for baking, here's a quick link from allrecipes.com for you.  Due to the sweetness from the sugars and cinnamon chips, I chose to use a Granny Smith apple here to help even out the flavors but you can choose whatever variety you like.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins/Bread 
courtesy of the KAF Cinnamon Flav-R-Bits package

1 c. White Whole Wheat Flour
1 c. All-Purpose Flour (or 2 c. All-Purpose)
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 c. Butter, at room temperature (salted - if using unsalted, add 1/4 tsp. salt)
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 c. Buttermilk
1 large apple, peeled, cored, and chopped (I used Granny Smith)
1/2 c. Cinnamon Chips

Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Line a muffin tin with paper cups.
Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, if using.
In a separate bowl, beat the butter with the sugars until fluffy.
Add your egg and mix well.
Mix in the buttermilk to the egg and sugar-butter mixture.
Fold in your dry ingredients, apple, and cinnamon chips.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups.  Should you find yourself with extra batter (which somehow, I did), spray 2 3x5 pans with cooking spray and divide the batter into the pans.
Bake for 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 400°F, and bake for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
If you're baking breads, tent some foil over the pans and bake for an additional 10 minutes (30 minutes total).
Don't fret if your muffins come out dark - they're supposed to thanks to the brown sugar.
Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely.

Tips-n-Tricks Tuesday - Cooling Muffins

(Yes, yes, I know it's Wednesday.  This was supposed to be posted yesterday but I forgot.  Better late than never!)

When you bake muffins, don't you just hate how sometimes you'll take them out of the oven and let them cool only to find that the bottom of your muffins have steamed?  They turn all mushy and icky.  It can ruin a perfectly good muffin, let me tell you!  But I have a way to fix that!  It's quite simple really...

Once the muffins have cooled for a few minutes, take the muffins and gently turn them sideways so the cool air can get around them.  You can use a fork or your fingers, if they're cool enough to handle that way.

(Have no fear - the recipe for these muffins are forthcoming!)

Blueberry Muffin Bread

In an effort to reduce the number of muffin recipes (especially blueberry muffin recipes), I've decided to try my hand at baking muffin breads (albeit not intentionally... ).

You see, my dad is diabetic (which was completely tragic, let me tell you) and he can no longer have regular white flour (oh the humanity!).  I had a conversation with him not too long about about if he can have white whole wheat flour.  Which turned into a debate over whether or not WWW was the same nutritionally as regular WW.  I was steadfast in my stance that *King Arthur Flour* White Whole Wheat was the exact same as regular Whole Wheat.  I said, "I went to a KAF seminar on whole grains, thank you very much.  So I know what I'm talking about.  I cannot, however, vouch for any other companies's white whole wheat."  (Although in my house, you don't bring in other flour.  It's pretty much sacrilegious.)  Anyhoo, the wheat berries used by KAF are the exact same as the wheat berries used in their whole wheat flower except the berries are really light in color versus the red berry color used in whole wheat flour (hence the color difference).  He agreed to try something baked with KAF's WWW and this is what I whipped up.  Of course, my husband happened to mention that he wanted me to bake some muffins for him for breakfast this week so it killed two birds with one stone.  (I've still yet to figure out why my husband asks me such things.  He thinks I like to cook!)

This recipe originally made 12 muffins using all purpose flour.  By all means, substitute all purpose flour and you'll end up with 12 happy muffins.  However, if you're me and remember that whole wheat flours require additional liquid AFTER you've already divided your extremely thick dough into muffins and STILL have batter left over.  Which I promptly poured into aluminum 3x5 pans thus making Muffin Bread!  Yay for thinking on the fly! And even more Yay! for the fact that it all worked out extremely well.

Blueberry Muffin Bread (or just muffins)
adapted from Down Home with the Neelys

8 Tbsp. (1 stick) Salted Butter, melted (if using unsalted, add 1/4 tsp. salt)
2/3 c. Sugar + 1/3 c. Splenda (or just 1 c. Sugar)
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 c. Sour Cream (Daisy Light)
1/2 c. Milk (2%)
2 1/4 c. White Whole Wheat Flour (or All-Purpose)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
Small Carton of Fresh Blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350.
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners and spray two mini loaf pan with cooking spray (if going the WWW route).
In a large bowl, cream together your butter and sugar.
Add eggs, one at a time, and mix together.
Now you'll add your vanilla, sour cream, and milk until combined.
Slowly mix in your flour, baking powder and soda, and salt (if using).  (If you're using AP flour, your mixture should be pretty smooth.  If you're using WWW flour, your mixture is going to be crazy thick.)
Fold in your blueberries with a spatula.
Evenly divide your batter into your muffin tin with a measuring cup (I use a 1/4 c. measure).  If you're using WWW flour, you should have a large amount of batter left over which you will divide into two 3x5 pans.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove muffins and set aside to cool on a wire rack.
Tent aluminum foil over your mini bread pans and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack.

Blueberry Whole Wheat Muffins

I know what you're thinking... another blueberry muffin recipe?!  Well, I have a difficult secret to let you all in on.  I have waaaaaaay too many cookbooks.  *sighs*  There, I said it.  Do you feel that?  It's a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders.  Doesn't it feel nice? :)  I really do have a lot of cookbooks though - much to Ryan's amazement.  I believe when we counted, we got around 75 (although I have sold some that I didn't use but it has yet to really make a dent in my cookbook collection).  I can never get enough (especially baking cookbooks - no clue as to why.  It isn't like I like to bake or anything.).  So I continue to buy them!  It's a compulsion... I just can't stop.  Even now, I have around four or five cookbooks on my Amazon wish list.  So this is the reason why you will sometimes see the "same" recipe but it's different because it's from a different cookbook.  I shall do my best to ensure no one gets confused but let's be honest with each other, shall we?  I won't post a bad recipe so even if you do get confused, it's all good (literally).

So with this recipe, I wanted to make it slightly better for everyone so instead of making this recipe with regular all purpose flour, I used white whole wheat flour.  It has a more subtle wheat flavor than all out whole wheat flour but with all the whole wheat benefits.  But here's the trick with whole wheat/white whole wheat... sometimes that whole wheat-y flavor can overpower your baked goods.  So how do we overcome that wheat-y flavor??  Orange Juice.  Yep, the same stuff you'll probably drink with these muffins in the morning. Don't ask me why but you don't really taste the orange juice but it does cut through that wheat-y flavor so it makes everyone happy.  You can thank the people at King Arthur Flour later.

This recipe hails from a little bakery down in Savannah, Georgia, which, unfortunately, I have yet to visit but do not fear, Gaited Baker readers, for it is on my to-do list!  The bakery is called Back in the Day Bakery (which is a great name, by the way) and they recently released their cookbook which I drooled over for months before finally purchasing it.  I went back and forth and back and forth, asking myself, "Do I really need another baking cookbook?"  Of course, the answer was, "Yes!!!"

Blueberry Whole Wheat Muffins
courtesy of Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

2 c. White Whole Wheat Flour (feel free to substitute all purpose if that's what you have on hand)
1 c. Sugar
1 T. Baking Powder
1/4 c. Canola Oil
4 T. Butter, Melted
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs
2 T. Orange Juice + enough Milk to equal 3/4 c. (omit orange juice if using AP flour)
1 c. Fresh or Frozen Blueberries

Preheat oven to 350.
Spray your 12 muffin cup papers and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, butter, vanilla, eggs, orange juice (if using), and milk.
Mix your wet ingredients into your dry until just combined.
Gently fold in your blueberries (you can toss them with a bit of flour if you're worried about them sinking - I didn't both with that and you'll see I didn't have that problem*.)
Scoop the batter into your muffin cups until about 2/3 full.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and muffins cooked through.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 very long minutes while you drool and wait for them to cool.
Store in an airtight container.

* - the few muffins that don't have berries on top are merely an accident.  The berries didn't sink!  Honest!

PDQ Blueberry Muffins

I know, I know.  I've already done a blueberry muffin recipe.  But sometimes, you want something that you can just (literally) throw into a bowl and put into the oven.  This is a perfect recipe for that.  I just happened to have some fresh blueberries that needed to be used up before they went bad and I knew that my last recipe called for fresh and although it was very good, I wanted a recipe that could use either frozen or fresh.  Enter this recipe!  The nice thing about this recipe is that it's so basic that you can add any sort of berry you want - blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, or even a mixture of both (if you like that sort of thing).  The key to remember is that you need to add your berries BEFORE you add your wet ingredients.  Why?  Keeps them from sinking when you bake them.  If you forget, toss the berries in just a tiny bit of flour and add them in.  Its the same concept, just at different times.  Oh, what does "PDQ" stand for?  "Pretty Darn Quick" :)

PDQ Blueberry Muffins
courtesy of King Arthur Flour's 200th Anniversary Cookbook

2 c. All Purpose Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 c. Berries (fresh or frozen)
1 c. Milk (I use skim because I always have that on hand)
1/4 c. Butter (I use salted.  If you have unsalted, add 1/2 tsp. salt)
2 Eggs

Preheat oven to 500 (yeah, that's hot but bear with me).
In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients together with a whisk.
Add in your berries.
In another bowl, combine your milk, butter, and eggs and mix until well combined.
Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredient and stir for 20 seconds.  Is this important?  Yes!  You want some lumps in your batter because it makes a light and tender muffins.
Pour into a light greased muffin tin/muffin cups.
As soon as you put the muffins in the oven, DROP THE TEMP to 400.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Blueberry Muffins

I have a husband who loves blueberries.  Especially blueberry muffins.  When we went to the farmer's market in Raleigh last weekend and found $2 pints of fresh NC blueberries, I couldn't resist getting some.  So what does he ask for?  Blueberry muffins.  Off I go in search of a great blueberry muffin recipe.  Now I'm going to let you in on a secret - I've made muffins before and the last two times I tried to make them with a different recipe, it was a disaster.  Complete and utter disaster.  The outside was cooked perfectly but the insides weren't even cooked!  One batch I made basically looked like a bubble had formed between the inside and outside of the muffins.  I can't explain it.  That recipe promptly got thrown out.  So knowing my previous experience with blueberry muffins, I had to go back to my tried and true source - King Arthur Flour.  Now I know you're all thinking, "Here she goes again with the KAF!"  But let me assure you, I go back to this company's recipes for a reason.  Their recipes work.  Time and time again.  So I knew if I could find a blueberry muffin recipe that would work, it would be from them.  I looked in their All Purpose Baking cookbook and found a recipe that sounded just yummy!  I made it and I have gotten rave reviews from my husband and mom, both who have said they are some of the best muffins they have ever tasted!  Want rave reviews for your blueberry muffins?  Give these a shot!!

Classic Blueberry Muffins
(courtesy of The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion - The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook)

8 Tbsp/1 stick Butter, melted
1 c. Sugar
2 Eggs (or 1/2 cup EggBeaters)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 c. All-Purpose Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Milk (I used skim)
1 tsp. Vanilla (Nielson-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste)
2 c. Blueberries, Fresh (can you use frozen?  I don't think so - the original recipe specifies fresh)

Preheat oven to 375.
Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.
Mix in the baking powder.
Now you need to add the flour and milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour and mixing well.
Add in the vanilla.
Fold in the fresh blueberries.
Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin.  (Note:  The amount of batter will come pretty close to filling up the muffin cups but don't worry, the batter won't spill over.  They dome up so pretty!)
Bake the muffins for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  (The tops may look a little underdone.  If they aren't dark enough for you, feel free to leave them in for another minute or two.)
When the muffins are finished, let them cool for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, take the muffins out of the muffin pan and let them finish cooling on a wire rack (or you can flip the muffins out of the pan slightly so they bottom doesn't steam.)

Calories:  230 per muffin

Easy Banana Nut Muffins

Sometimes a recipe comes along that is so good, people ask for it as a gift.  This is the story of these muffins.  I was looking for a banana nut muffin recipe because I had some bananas that were turning black and were begging to be used.  Now, I'm not the biggest fan of banana nut bread or muffins.  I prefer straight bananas but my best friend Erin is the exact opposite and I knew my parents loved banana nut things (what about Ryan?  He hates bananas).  So I knew if I made them, they would be eaten.  I made the muffins and my dad fell in love with them.  He loved them so much that when I asked him what he wanted for father's day, he said, "I want those banana muffins you made a couple of weeks ago."  So that's what I did!


Banana Nut Muffins
(recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook)

1/2 c. Butter, melted
1/2 c. Brown Sugar (I use light but you can use dark if that's all you have)
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
3/4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (no PPS?  Use 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon)
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract (Neilson-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste)
3 Ripened Bananas
1/4 c. Honey
2 Eggs (or 1/2 c. Egg Beaters)
2 c. Whole Wheat Flour (or White Whole Wheat or All-Purpose) (KAF)
1/2 c. Chopped Walnuts or Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
Beat together the butter, brown sugar, baking soda, spices, and vanilla in a bowl until smooth.
Add the honey and eggs, beating until smooth.
Peel the bananas and place into the bowl.  Using a potato masher, mash the bananas into the mixture (you can make it as lumpy or smooth as you like).
Add in the flour, stir to combine.
Lastly, add the walnuts/pecans and mix.
Pour the batter evenly into your muffin tin (I like using a 1/4 c. measuring cup so I know how much is going into each tin).
Bake the muffins for 23 to 28 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for a couple of minutes and then move the muffins to a rack to cool.

Notes:
Want to make Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins?  Add 1/2 c. chocolate chips instead of the 1/2 c. nuts.
Want bread instead of muffins?  Follow the directions only instead of adding to greased muffin tin, you'll add the batter to a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.  After 50 minutes, cover the bread lightly with foil and cook an additional 10 minutes.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the bread from the pan and allowing it to finish cooling on a wire rack.