Strawberry Heartish Muffins

Hazel and I are enjoying a snowy day today. Winter Storm Nemo has begun to hit New England. So far it is flurries, but they are saying it will be much worse. As a result everything is closed or closing early. All the schools, dance class, etc. They are even closing public transportation at 1 p.m. To entertain ourselves we decided to make some strawberry muffins. I looked on line to find a recipe, however I didn't find one I liked, so I combined a few and added my own twists and came up with this:

	1 1/4 cup(s) whole wheat flour
	1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
	1/2 cup(s) sugar
	2 tsp baking powder
	1/4 tsp table salt    1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
	2 item(s) egg(s)
	1/4 cup(s) canola oil
	1/2 cup(s) fat-free skim milk
	1 tsp vanilla extract
	10 oz unsweetened frozen strawberries, I chopped them in my food processor after they had thawed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

We combined the dry ingredients in a large bowl and Hazel mixed it.

We beat the eggs and added the oil, milk and vanilla and Hazel beat that together. Then we poured it into the dry ingredients and mixed. Then we added the strawberries.

Then we scooped them into papers. A few things learned--if using liners, use foil!! I probably would not use liners with these next time. They stuck to the paper. We used liners because we wanted to try to make them heart shaped. (See below)

Now my goal was to make a pinkish muffin and to try the heart shaped muffin trick I saw on Pinterest using a marble. I figured they would be cute for Valentine's Day morning. However, I am going to stick to using my small heart silicone muffin pan next time. I did not like the marble trick at all.

I baked them for about 25 minutes and then took them out, but they were not quite done. I adjusted the marbles and put them in for another 5 minutes.

They are moist and tasty. However I would probably up the nutmeg in the recipe and might add some cinnamon. Hazel is excited to have them at her dance party that she is throwing for her baby dolls. Oh, it is going to be a fun few days without my dear husband. He is going to sleep at work tonight since the worst travel time would be when he would come home and go back. I hope you will join us for Sharing Saturday later tonight!

Muffins, Muffins--Using up bananas and pumpkin

Today we had some overripe bananas and some canned pumpkin my mother sent home with me. We decided to make two kinds of muffins. This would be perfect for anyone having a party or a bake sale. We also used a large carrot and a large zucchini grated up.

Banana Muffins & Pumpkin Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup almond meal (if making for bake sale may want to use flour instead due to allergies)
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup flax seed meal
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
dashes of ground cloves
2 eggs
1/2 - 1 cup of canned pumpkin
2-3 overripe bananas mashed or pureed
1 large carrot & 1 large zucchini pureed together
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 3/4 cups milk (I use non-fat)
1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1/2 - 1 cup sliced almonds or chopped nuts (optional)

To make both at once, you will need four mixing bowls. In the two largest ones add half of each of the dry ingredients (1 c flour, 1/4 c almond meal, 1/2 c oatmeal, 1/2 c flax seed meal, 2 t baking powder, 1 t cinnamon, 1/2 t nutmeg, dash or two of ground cloves) and mix. Set both bowls aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In next two bowls beat an egg in each. Then add the pumpkin to one and the banana to the other. Add half of the carrot-zucchini mixture to each bowl and 1 Tablespoon of oil and 1/2 cup of applesauce to each. I found the pumpkin was a bit dry and needed 1 cup of milk and the banana only needed 3/4 cup of milk. Mix this all together. Then add each bowl to one of the dry ingredient bowls and mix. You can mix in the almonds or nuts if you are using them.

Spray 24 muffin cups with cooking spray (paper liners often stick since there is not much oil in these recipes, so if you want liners use foil ones). Scoop each batter into 12 of them. We made 12 of each.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes and let cool. Enjoy!!

Blueberries Part 2: Cooking and Baking

So last week I shared that we went blueberry picking and that we made mini blueberry pies. The post got long so I didn't share our adventures in blueberry jam making and blueberry muffin baking. So today I'm going to share those adventures. Our main reason to go blueberry picking was to make blueberry jam. We wanted some for Christmas gifts and just to enjoy ourselves. I had read the recipe in the pectin I bought that we needed five pints of blueberries (which is 2.5 quarts), so I planned on picking three quarts and we picked 3.5 since we were having so much fun.

Well after making the mini pies we started on the jam. We did the pies first so I could run the jars through the dishwasher. We followed the recipe and instructions that came with the Sure Jell. They can be found here. We started by mashing the blueberries by hand.

Hazel did not like doing this and we needed six and a half cups of mashed blueberries, so we took out the food processor. She liked this method much better and was pretty good at making sure they didn't get too pureed.

This of course went much faster as well. Then we measured the sugar. Mixed 1/4 cup with the pectin and followed the directions on the recipe that comes with the pectin. Before we started cooking I made sure my jars were all set to go and put the lids in boiling water.

By this point Hazel had lost interest and since it was all on the stove and involving rather hot temperatures I didn't care. She went off to play while I did the cooking. Needless to say there are no pictures since you need to work fast. I do not have a canner but used a large pan that has a steamer dropped into it and it worked well. The recipe said it would make 9 cups and I got 12 jars (or about 12 cups).

The next morning Hazel wanted to make blueberry muffins. I wanted to change up our normal recipe, so I did some searching. I tweaked the one I found at The Pioneer Woman.

I used three cups minus two tablespoons of whole wheat flour, one teaspoon baking soda, two teaspoons baking powder, one cup oatmeal, pinch of salt, dash of nutmeg, teaspoon of cinnamon and a half cup of sugar. Hazel mixed these for me (and helped with the measurements). Then we beat an egg, added 1/4 cup of olive oil, mashed one ripe banana, and what ended up being 1.5 to 2 cups of nonfat Greek yogurt (the recipe was dry with my additions so we kept adding more yogurt until we got a consistency we liked).  Hazel beat these with a whisk.

Then we added the dry ingredients (and adjusted with the yogurt).

Hazel started mixing it all up but it was had to do, so I took over. Then we added two cups of blueberries.

Then we stuck liners in the muffin pan and scooped it out. Hazel did the scooping and I assisted with another spoon to help get it out of her ladle.

If you plan to eat them warm, use foil liners!! Otherwise it doesn't matter. The paper ones worked fine once they were cool. We baked them according to the recipe at 385 for 20 minutes. Oh, and we got 24 cupcakes with my additions! We brought some to the children's librarian since we had Move and Groove that morning and some to my mother-in-law since Hazel went to spend time with her after Move and Groove and then I think I ended up eating most of them. They were delicious! We finished them this morning.

So that is our new recipe for blueberry cupcakes. What have you been up to with all the great summertime fruit?

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Banana Muffins

We had some ripe bananas so we made some banana muffins. It is a relatively easy recipe. I changed it from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Mix:
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup ground almond meal flour
1 cup oatmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 chopped/ground walnuts

Hazel mixed the dry ingredients while on the phone with my sister! I had to hold the bowl for her.

In a different bowl beat an egg and then mix in:
1 cup nonfat milk
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cups grated/pureed carrots
2 overripe bananas mashed

Hazel stopped helping at this point but came back to help scoop into the pan. Mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. The batter is a bit thick. Then spray a muffin pan and preheat oven to 400. Scoop into muffin pan. Then bake for 20 minutes. Cool for a bit before eating.

Enjoy!!

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