Zucchini Muffins with Chocolate Streusel Topping

As I have mentioned in previous posts, at the beginning of each month, the G's receive a box or two of my baked treats(see original post, here).  With another school auction this past spring, I was asked to donate yet another "sweet of the month" and me being who I am,  I couldn't say NO.  So now,  both the G's and the M's get something sweet, on their doorstep each month ( sometimes even twice a month).

I needed to use up, yet, more zucchini.  I have been making a lot of tarts and baked savory dishes and was ready for something sweet.  I found this recipe for a cake (here), but changed it up a bit.  Instead of the cake, I choose to make muffins.  I was able to pack up a half a dozen muffins for each the G's and the M's and they had a nice little treat for a weekday morning breakfast.

All three of my kids ate these without one mention that there was something "green" in their muffin. I made a few extra and froze them after they were baked.  With school looming right around the corner, these are going to be a feather in my cap on those oh so very rushed mornings.   These are a win, win sweet + savory treat!

Zucchini Muffins with Chocolate Streusel Topping
yield: 22 muffins

ingredients:
muffins
1/2 cup softened butter, organic
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups all- purpose flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat organic flour
2 1/4 cups, peeled, grated zucchini

streusel topping
1/2 cup sucanat
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
3/4 cup mini, bittersweet chocolate chips

instructions:
• preheat oven to 350*.  Line 2 - 12 cup capacity muffin tins with paper liners.
for the cake:
• in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together.  add the eggs, vanilla, water, and buttermilk, mix to combine.
• in another bowl, combine both flours, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  whisk to combine.
• add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and combine.  fold in the zucchini.
• using a 1/4 cup ice cream scooper, scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.  fill them up about 3/4 of the way to the top.
for the streusel topping
• combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly
• sprinkle mixture (about 1 tablespoon) over each muffin.
• bake in the middle of the oven for 30-35 minutes.

enjoy with a big glass of cold milk!

French Toast Muffins

I like to wake up early, while the house is really, really quiet and have a little "me" time.  Generally, I make myself a cup of tea, read the NY Times and the LA Times food and life style section ( on line ), read my emails and check out my favorite blogs.  I love that 1 hour in the a.m. right before all the turmoil and chatter begins.

Yesterday, I was reading Sprinkle Bites and she had posted a recipe for French Toast Muffins.  Before I had finished reading the post, I was on my way into the kitchen to make these for the family for breakfast.  I love, love, love one bowl recipes.  To not have to drag out my mixer and all its parts is truly a wonderful thing.  This is one of those recipes.  Easy, quick, pantry ingredients and scrumptious.

Eli, as usual, gave it two thumbs up, Levi ate every bite, and Isaac - my savory, loving, Doritos eating chow hound ate every last morsel and asked for seconds.  The reviews are in - 3 thumbs up!

French Toast Muffins
adapted from Sprinkle Bites ( a seriously wonderful blog)
yield: 12 muffins

ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup melted butter
maple syrup
powdered sugar, for dusting

instructions:
• preheat oven to 400*.  line cupcake pan with 12 liners.
• whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
• in another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter.
• make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk mixture.  stir until just incorporated, don't over mix.
• fill cupcake liners half full.  bake 10-15 minutes.  muffins are done when toothpick comes out clean
• poke holes in the muffin tops and gently spoon over 1-2 tablespoons of good maple syrup.  dust with powdered sugar.

Blueberry Mini Muffins

Isaac loves mini blueberry muffins.  He requests them when I am "snack mom" and always asks for them at the local supermarket.  Of course, I don't buy them and always tell him that I will make them for him.  Since blueberries are abundant, fresh, and delicious, it seems like the perfect time to whip up a batch of Isaac's favorites.

I have been purging my magazines; going through them, dividing my tear sheets into piles of various categories; design, photography inspiration, recipes to try, and graphics ideas.  I came upon this recipe in a Bon Appetit from July 2006.  I prepped the ingredients before going to bed and upon waking up this morning, I made about 38 mini muffins.  These were so light, moist, not too sweet and a bit tart.  Delicious!

Blueberry-Topped Lemon Muffins
adapted from Bon Appetit 2006

ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
4 tsp. grated lemon peel
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 pints fresh blueberries
1/4 cup heavy cream

instructions:
• preheat oven to 375*.  line 38 mini muffin cups with paper liners
• mash 1/4 cup sugar and lemon peel in a small bowl.
• whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and blend.
• beat butter and 1 cup of sugar until smooth.  beat in egg.  beat in buttermilk, vanilla and half the lemon sugar.  add the flour.
• using a small ice cream scooper, scoop into muffin cups.  top each muffin with 3 blueberries.  bake until lightly brown on top about 22 minutes. when out of the oven, brush tops with cream and sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Strawberry Muffins

These are more like a cake than a muffin.  Light, not at all dense and the perfect balance of sweet and savory ( I added a touch of balsamic).  These would be a delicious addition to any brunch menu or they could really just stand on their own.

I like making muffins for breakfast.  The ingredients can be measured out the night before, they take 5 minutes to mix up and only about 25 minutes to bake.  Muffins are best eaten the day they are made.  I usually send the uneaten muffins to their teachers and the school's office staff. If I didn't, I would eat them, all of them,  and that just wouldn't be such a good thing!

Strawberry Muffins
yield: 16 muffins

ingredients:
2 cups organic unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup sucanat
1/2 cup butter, cold, cut into cubes
1 egg
1 cup organic heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cup strawberries, diced
1 1/2 Tbls. balsamic vinegar
powdered sugar

instructions:
• preheat oven to 350*.  line 16 muffin cups with paper liners
• in a small bowl combine the strawberries and the balsamic. set aside
• in the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, baking powder, and sugar.  add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
• combine the egg, cream and vanilla, whisk and add to the flour mixture.  pulse a few times until the mixture JUST comes together.  don't over mix.
• drain the berries of most of it's liquid and add to the batter.  mix by hand until the strawberries are embedded into the dough.
• scoop into the prepared muffin tins ( I use a 1/2 cup ice cream scooper ).
• bake for 25-30 minutes.  they are ready when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean with a little bit of crumbs on them.
• let cool completely and then dust with powdered sugar.

ENJOY!

Dories Great Grain Muffins

Big field trip today.  My favorite field trip. The whole 3rd grade class( 110 kids) goes downtown for a walking tour of famous landmarks and special spots.

It's a long day. There will be lots of walking, lots of talking and lots of 8-9 year olds.  I decided to get up early and bake some muffins for the adults. They need to start their day off right and I can think of nothing better than a homemade muffin to do the trick.  Dorie Greenspan has a super simple muffin recipe in Baking, from my home to yours.  A Great Grain Muffin with lots of good stuff in them.  I hope these little treats will be a good start to a long, long day.

Here's the days agenda:
9:15 a.m. start at the Mission Church on Main street
9:45 a.m. cross the street to Union Station, talk about the architecture, California tile, etc.
10:15 a.m. observe the artifacts at the Vignes Ave. end of the station
10:30 a.m. board the train for a ride on the Red Line, exiting at Pershing Square.  We will observe Bunker Hill and then head over to  ( my personal favorite ), Grand Central Market. Have a snack, buy some treats and then head over to the Bradbury Building.  After a brief history lesson, walk past City Hall and then end up back at El Pueblo Historic Park.
12:00 p.m. meet at the Plaza for a tour of all the special spots
12:30 p.m. lunch time
1:00 p.m. tour of Olvera Street
2:15 p.m. head back to school

Great Grain Muffins
adapted from Dorie Greenspan
yield 12 muffins

ingredients:
2/3 cup all purpose flour ( the original recipe called for 1 cup)
2/3 cup whole wheat flour ( the original recipe called for 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 stick ( 4 oz. ) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup plump fruit or nuts ( I used dried figs and next time I would add more fruit )

instructions:
• preheat oven to 400*.  spray muffin trays and place the pan on a baking sheet
• in a large bowl, combine and whisk flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, + salt.  In another bowl whisk together the buttermilk, maple syrup, eggs, + melted butter.  pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and whisk quickly to blend.  stir in the fruit or nuts
• bake 18-20 minutes our until the tops are golden.  cool for 5 minutes, then take out of pan and cool completely.
• serve with butter, cream cheese, jam or a slice of cheese!

Isaac's favorite part of the day; shopping!

a few of the landmarks

kids aren't tired, but the parents are!

Cocoa Banana Muffins

I had the ugliest, yuckiest bananas one has ever seen. I left them in the fridge all week and they really couldn't sit another day. They were going to start growing stuff. After making the babka recipe, I wanted to make more from The Modern Baker. Nick (Malgieri) had a recipe for Cocoa Banana Muffins and they were the perfect solution for my ugly, mushy bananas.

These were delicious. They were light (sour cream in the base of the batter), not too sweet and perfectly chocolaty. The only change I made to the recipe was I added about a handful, handful and a half - of good chocolate chips.

Everyone should run out and buy this book. It is a keeper!

Yucky Bananas!!!!

The bananas in our house were really being neglected. I honestly don't know how as both Mitch and I make protein shakes almost every morning. I guess, this particular week, we didn't have as much time as we normally do and the shake ritual was put on the back burner.

So, with that said, I had yucky, brown bananas, perfect for some sort of sweet and just enough buttermilk to make these muffins. The recipe comes from, The Weekend Baker by Abigail Johnson Dodge. I received this book as a gift over a year ago and I am embarrassed to say that I haven't made much from it. What I liked about the book (aside from the extra large type face-perfect for my aging eyes) was at the end of each recipe she gave options as to how to bake off the recipe. Although this was a "cake" recipe, I opted to make these into mini-muffins. I added mini chocolate chips (cuz everything is better with chocolate) and I baked them a little longer than what she suggested.

According to Eli, they were delicious (I am not a fan of bananas, so I hadn't tasted them). Dropped boxes of the muffins off at neighbors and they all agreed with Eli.