Carrots Poppy Seeds Flax Bran Muffins

These quick and easy Carrots and Poppy seed muffins make a wonderful breakfast or even an afternoon snack for kids. Especially when baked in a square muffin pan or mini loaf pans.

I vary the ingredients a bit every once in a while - like, add grated zucchini from the garden instead of or in addition to carrots; add some finely chopped rhubarb with the carrots; toss in some chopped dried prunes and some walnuts... the basic muffin recipe remains pretty much the same. (Depending on how many over-ripe bananas I add, I lessen the amount of canola oil.)

Ingredients
¾ cup finely grated carrots, squeezed dry
1 over-ripe banana
¼ cup flax meal
¼ cup wheat bran
1½ cups unbleached white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp poppy seeds
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp pumpkin spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice)
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
¾ cup canola oil

Preparation

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350° F
2. Combine the ingredients to make a thick batter
3. Grease muffin pan and bake in 350°F oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, checking often after 15 minutes

Kale and Rhubarb Savory Muffin

Kale is another of those super-foods that has been finding its way into our regular meals over the last few years.

Be it Kale Slaw with Red Cabbage, or Kale Dal, or Kale and Chickpea Soup, or, Kale Quiche, or Oven-roasted Crispy Kale, or Kale Mushroom Bell Pepper Stir Fry, or Kale Sambar, or Steamed Kale with Onion and Garlic... Kale recipes are here to stay with us.

Fresh Rhubarb from the garden is hard to resist, I do find excuses to chop up a stalk or two and incorporate it into my usual recipes. That's how this Kale and Rhubarb Savory Muffins came about.

Serve these savory muffins instead of regular dinner rolls, or as snack or breakfast dish, fresh from the oven. I've also refrigerated these for up to 2 days and served after warming them up in the microwave.

Ingredients
veggies:
1/3 cup chopped fresh rhubarb
¼ cup finely minced onion
½ packed cup finely chopped kale
1 Tbsp finely grated ginger

dry:
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/3 cup oat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt (a pinch more if preferred)
½ teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon ground paprika

wet:
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/3 cup fat free milk


Preparation

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Add in the chopped veggies
3. Stir in the wet ingredients, adding the oil and milk a little at a time to form a thick batter
4. Coat a muffin pan with cooking spray, pre-heat the oven to 350°F
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan and bake in 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes, checking often after 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
6. Allow to sit in the pan for a 3 to 5 minutes before removing to cool on a wire rack
7. Serve warm, fresh from the oven

Simple Blueberry Muffins

Muffins are so commonplace these days that I don't think about them much. Some days, depending on my mood and ingredients, I whip up a quick batch for breakfast or for an afternoon snack. Each time, I vary the proportions and ingredients a bit, just to see how it turns out. Sometimes they turn out surprisingly yummy and at other times they get eaten anyway...

These simple blueberry muffins are a favorite with the kids. It is light, not too sugary, and quite tasty, especially when fresh from the oven. The quantity here makes about 12 standard size muffins.

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
½ to 3/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp each of cinnamon and vanilla (or more if preferred)
2 eggs
½ cup canola oil
½ cup thick plain non-fat yogurt (I like Nancy's™ for this)
½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F
2. Combine the dry ingredients: sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ½ cup brown sugar together in a bowl and make a well (reserve the rest of the brown sugar for topping)
3. Stir in the wet ingredients: add in the eggs, oil, vanilla, and yogurt and stir with a wire whisk till just mixed, do not over-mix; fold in the blueberries
4. Grease a muffin pan or use paper baking cases, drop the batter in - to about 2/3rds full - in each baking case/mold; sprinkle remaining brown sugar on top for a crispy sweet skin
5. Bake in a 400°F oven for about 15-20 minutes, till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
6. Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes and enjoy warm

Bran Mini Muffins

Once a month or so, when I am all fired up, I manage to whip up a batch of bran muffins to be consumed as a healthy morning breakfast.

I started making mini bran muffins, about two dozen at a time, as one mini muffin seems the right portion for my toddler Ana's breakfast, along with a glass of milk.

And, of course, D and I end up gobbling two each for breakfast so that the whopping two dozen mini muffins are gone by the end of the week :)

The recipe is fairly standard, nothing spectacular. It can be varied to incorporate fresh seasonal berries or even other dry fruits like prunes and cranberries (which are my favorites).

Optionally, I like to add a tablespoon of flaxseed meal to the batter, if handy - and it is usually handy in my kitchen as I try to sprinkle it on our meals about once or twice a week, especially for Ana :)

Ingredients

dry ingredients 1½ cup all purpose flour 1 cup bran 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon powder ½ tsp baking soda 1 Tbsp baking powder ½ tsp salt

wet ingredients ½ cup milk 1 cup unsweetened applesauce 1 ripe banana, mashed 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 egg ½ cup raisins ½ cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

1. combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the center
2. mix the wet ingredients together and gradually pour into the well made in the dry ingredients, gently folding them all together with a spatula till well incorporated; do not overmix
3. pour into mini muffin pans - the ingredients here makes 24 mini muffins
4. bake in a 375°F oven for about 20 minutes or till done - a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

strawberry banana yogurt nut muffins

Strawberry season is not far away now. We still have a small stash of yummy frozen strawberries picked last year from local farms. And a large stash of blueberries. I am trying to use them up so we can pick some fresh ones again this year.

I am not particularly fond of muffins, but, thought it would be a nice breakfast treat for my wee tot.

Muffins are not as easy to make as they seem. At least not to me, as I love to just throw things together and see what comes up. Baking is more precise and demanding than the usual cooking I do. Not much room to play around and experiment. And, my oven seems to have a mind of its own. I have mucked around with baking recipes to end up with batches of paper-weights :-)

Thanks to ATK (America's Test Kitchen), at least I now know that sugar is considered a wet ingredient in baking and the amount of sugar matters a lot to get the end product just right. And, mixing techniques do affect the outcome. A hand-held power-whisk with speed control is better than my arm-power?!

Wanting to make low fat, low sugar goodies, I used to cut back on sugar and butter from standard recipes, but, now I know better ;-)

I wanted to use yogurt, nuts and fruits in the muffin recipe. Milk:Yogurt ratio can be adjusted to your liking, to make up 1½ cups total. I was quite skeptical about how it would turn out as I was meddling with the recipe a bit, but, it turned out all right :-)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup 2% milk
½ cup plain non-fat yogurt
4 Tbsp melted butter or ghee
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts)
¼ cup dried cherries & cranberries
1 cup banana and some strawberries - mashed together to make 1 cup

Preparation

combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, dried fruits and nuts in a large bowl

beat the eggs, milk and yogurt in a bowl

whisk in the egg+milk+yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients; add the strawberry+banana mash; fold them in gently; this muffin batter has the consistency of a thick pancake batter

pre-heat the oven to 400°F, grease a muffin pan, and maybe a small 4" cake tin, or bundt cake pan

pour the batter into muffin pan, about half full (or more, if you like it to swell up and form a mushroom-like 'top'); and if any batter is still left, pour into the greased tin; i had enough for 12 muffins, plus a small 4" bundt cake mould

bake in 400°F oven for about 20-25 mins; check part way and turn the pan around if needed; insert a toothpick - if it comes out clean, muffin is done