Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

By: Julie

Serves: 12 extra large muffins

Time:  30 min.  10 min prep, 20 baking

June is my favourite month.  It’s warm enough to make you forget the rip-your-face-off Canadian winter wind, yet it’s not scorching.  Also there is rhubarb, the lemons of the Canadian shield.  It has delicious tartness and amazing smell and flavour. If you’re thinking of planting your own patch, it’s easy to grow here.  It does best where there are cold winters and cool wet springs.  You can use Rhubarb to flavor just about anything, but I love it best in baking and combined with strawberries it’s amazing.  After making a yummy Rhubarb Custard Pie, I had about a cup and a half left over and the obvious answer to that is magic muffins.  This recipe is inspired by the pie flavors, including the nutmeg.  Mmmmm.  Nutmeg.

Strawberries are not quite ready here yet.  It will be another week or so before I can stuff my face with their sweet goodness.  I thawed some frozen whole strawberries and used those.  If you use frozen fruit for your muffins, include the juice.  That’s where the flavor is.

You Will Need

• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt

• 1 1/2 cup rhubarb, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 1/2 cup strawberries, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

Preheat your oven to 350F and grease a muffin pan. Mix the wet ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Fold dry ingredients into wet until just combined.  Gently fold in the rhubarb and strawberries and spoon into muffin pan.  Bake for 20 – 25 min until a skewer inserted into the center of your muffins comes out clean.  Enjoy.

Magic Muffins – Double Chocolate Zucchini

By Julie

Serves:  Makes 12 extra large muffins

Time:  35 min

I thought I posted these on Monday.  Did you know it’s Wednesday?  I didn’t.

So these are healthy… mostly.  A tiny bit of refined sugar here, a little chocolate chip there… there IS whole wheat flour.  And some of the sugar is subbed out for maple syrup.  Oh, and there’s lots of zucchini!

 

 

You Will Need:

• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 cups of zucchini
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Prep

Preheat oven to 350F and grease your muffin pans.  You can use paper liners if you wish, but I prefer the slight crisp on the outside of the muffin when they are baked naked.  This recipe removes easily from the baking pan with just a slight coating of cooking spray.

Mix The Wet Ingredients

Whisk the sugar, eggs, honey, vanilla, and applesauce together in a large bowl until smooth.

Mix The Dry Ingredients

Stir flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

Combine and Bake

Mix the dry into the wet ingredients until just combined.  Fold in the zucchini, and chocolate chips. Bake for 20-25 min for extra large muffins (full muffin cups, see picture).  Mine baked for exactly 23 minutes and they were perfect.

Magic Muffins – Maple Blueberry

By:  Julie

Time:  35 min

Serves:  12-15 large muffins

It’s time for another edition of Magic Muffins!  Last week I was on a blueberry yogurt parfait kick for breakfast.  This week it’s mini-wheats.  I don’t like blueberries on my mini-wheats, so I had some blueberries to use up.  Combine that with a trip to the sugar bush last week and BOOM BABY! Maple Blueberry Muffins.

You Will Need:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp of baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup applesauce (or oil if you prefer)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup golden raisins
• 2 cups of blueberry
•  1 cup of shredded apple

Prep

Preheat oven to 350F and grease your muffin pans.  You can use paper liners if you wish, but I prefer the slight crisp on the outside of the muffin when they are baked naked.  This recipe removes easily from the baking pan with just a slight coating of cooking spray.

Mix The Wet Ingredients

Whisk the sugar, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, and applesauce together in a large bowl until smooth.

Mix The Dry Ingredients

Stir flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

Combine and Bake

Mix the dry into the wet ingredients until just combined.  Fold in the blueberries, apple, and raisins.  Bake for 20-25 min for extra large muffins (full muffin cups, see picture).  Mine baked for exactly 23 minutes and they were perfect.

Magic Muffins – Carrot and Golden Raisin

Carrots for breakfast.  My nutritionist would be proud.  This edition of Magic Muffins is very breakfasty, with a ton of fiber and flavor.  It’s all about the nutmeg.  Oh, and the raisins!

You Will Need:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp of baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup applesauce (or oil if you prefer)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup golden raisins
• 3 cups of shredded carrots

Prep

Preheat oven to 350F and grease your muffin pans.  You can use paper liners if you wish, but I prefer the slight crisp on the outside of the muffin when they are baked naked.  This recipe removes easily from the baking pan with just a slight coating of cooking spray.

Mix The Wet Ingredients

Whisk the sugar, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, and applesauce together in a large bowl until smooth.

Mix The Dry Ingredients

Stir flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

Combine and Bake

Mix the dry into the wet ingredients until just combined.  Fold in the carrots, and raisins.  Bake for 20-25 min for extra large muffins (full muffin cups).  Mine baked for exactly 25 minutes and they were perfect.

Magic Muffins – Pinapple Marmalade

By: Julie

Serves:  Makes 12 extra large muffins

Time: 35min.  10 min prep, 20 min bake

Oh yes I did.  I put marmalade in the magic muffin mix.  And do you know what happened?  Magic.

This is my new ultimate brunch muffin.  It screams of orange juice and eggs and bacon and some delicious quiche.  If the queen was coming for tea I would feed her these muffins and little cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

I can now whip these muffins up in less than 10 min.  You can do it too!

You Will Need:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup of your favourite marmalade
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 2/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 tsp orange extract
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups of diced fresh pineapple
• 1 cup shredded apple

Mix the Muffins

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick olive oil spray.  Whisk eggs, marmalade, honey, vanilla, applesauce, extracts and zest together in a large bowl.  In a separate medium bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.  Mix into wet ingredients until dry ingredients are wet.  Do not over-mix.  Fold in pineapple and apple. Using an ice-cream scoop, completely fill muffin cups with batter.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Prepare for the Queens visit.

Magic Muffins – Zucchini!

By: Julie

Time:  30min:  10min prep, 20 min cook

Serves:  16 – 20 large muffins

Introducing Muffin Mondays!  Every Monday for the next several weeks we will bring you a new muffin post.

I like my muffins to taste like muffins.  I like them to be moist and slightly sweet, but not cakey or deserty.  I think the muffins that come from Tim Hortons these days don’t resemble anything we should be eating for breakfast, so I make my own.

I call these magic because they seem to work out no matter what I do to them.  They are my choose your own adventure muffins.  I use applesauce instead of oil and the stayed moist for five days.  FIVE DAYS.  That’s what makes them magic. I keep the basic ingredients the same and swap out the flavors regularly. You will see several variations of these over the next several weeks to get a sense of what you can do with them. I frequently use this recipe to get rid of leftover fruits, jams, nuts and flours. Have fun with it.

Today’s adventure is with zucchini!

A neighbor friend of mine, the lovely Lynsey, was kind enough to drop off some giant zucchini last summer.  These are not much good for grilling, but shred them and they are terrific for baking.  Sadly, this is the last batch.  Zucchini will keep shredded for up to 6 months.  Longer if you’ve packaged it well.  And the raisins… a number of you will say you don’t like raisins in your muffins but I say you can’t have a muffin without a raisin.  Bring on the raisins.  You can omit them.  If you must.  But you shouldn’t.

You Will Need:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp of baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup applesauce (or oil if you prefer)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2/3 cup golden raisins
• 3 cups of shreded zucchini

Prep

Preheat oven to 350F and grease you muffin pans.  You can use paper liners if you wish, but I prefer the slight crisp on the outside of the muffin when they are baked naked.  This recipe removes easily from the baking pan with just a slight coating of cooking spray.

Mix The Wet Ingredients

Whisk the sugar, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, and applesauce together in a large bowl until smooth.

Mix The Dry Ingredients

Stir flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

Combine and Bake

Fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined.  You know the muffin rule, NEVER OVER MIX.  There should still be bits of white flour.  The rest will work itself in when you fold in the zucchini and the raisins.  On that note… fold in the zucchini and the raisins.  I used a large cookie scoop and used heaping portions, filling the muffin cups nearly to the top.  If you use a bit less you can make up to 24 smaller muffins.  Place the muffins in the oven for 20min.  If you’ve made them smaller check them after 15.  Poke with a wooden skewer in the center to make sure they’re done.  The skewer should be clean or with a few crumbs.  Remove from oven an let cool for 10 min before removing from pan to cooling rack.  Enjoy warm or cold.  Even butter isn’t needed, but it is delicious.