Sweet Potato Muffins

    Finding a way to eat healthy food inexpensively is challenging.  I face this obstacle weekly as a plan our menu and make out the grocery list.  Honestly, it can be very frustrating.  Sometimes I have to take a break from menu planning because I can’t get the numbers and the food to line up.  There are so many things I want to make but eggs, butter, and fresh vegetables add up quickly.  Our newest challenge of eating local has stretched the budget even thinner.  Why yes, we would love to have fresh broccoli for supper, but not at $4.00 a pound.  One week I did cave and buy half a pound.  I then proceeded to burn it while it roasted in the oven.  Whoops.  We have been purchasing the majority of our produce from Snow’s Bend, a local farm in Coker that uses organic farming practices.  Although the broccoli I just mentioned sounds expensive, you would pay much more for the same amount of organic broccoli at Publix.  This week we ate swiss chard, bok choy, turnip greens, butter lettuce, romaine lettuce, and onions.  All of which were so fresh and full of flavor - flavor that could never be imitated in grocery store produce.  This sounds silly, but I told J.T. that I feel like Julia Child shopping at the market.  I am currently reading her memoir, My Life in France, (which I picked up on our recent trip to see her kitchen!) and she shopped the markets on the streets of Paris for the freshest fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood.  I am fascinated by that woman.  

    Onward to the point of this entire blog post: sweet potato muffins.  I will confess that these sweet potatoes were purchased at Publix.  Sweet potatoes are out of season and there were none to be found at the market.  One of the many things I love about sweet potatoes is that they are inexpensive.  Even at full price they are a mere $0.99 a pound and they are classified as one of the clean 15 vegetables.  I made a dozen of these as a gift to my Mama on Mother’s Day.  My mother graciously shared them, so we all had one topped with ice cream for dessert.  Everyone thought they were delicious and I agree.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups whole grain gluten-free flour blend
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ cup pure clover honey
• ½ cup virgin coconut oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups mashed, roasted sweet potatoes, about 1 pound

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  
3. In a large glass liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla.  Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed until just combined.  Fold in the sweet potatoes.
4. Divide the batter equally among the prepared muffin tin.  The cups will be fairly full.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Yields 12 muffins. Cool completely.  Refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.  

* I made my own gluten-free whole grain flour, but you can also substitute whole wheat flour.   The recipe behind my whole grain flour blend came from here.  I used the following ratios:

·         350 grams buckwheat flour

·         350 grams oat flour

·         300 grams arrowroot flour

This flour recipe makes more than what is required for this recipe.  Store any extra in the refrigerator.  

Banana Muffins

     I love bananas.  In fact, I eat one every day for a snack.  Being the frugal cook that I am, I also love the fact that bananas are a cheap fruit.  Once a week, I pick up a bunch of organic bananas at Publix for $0.99 a pound.  This entire bunch costs me around $2.50 but normally a little less.  I always buy seven bananas because this gives me one for everyday of the week and this makes for a cheap snack at $0.37 per banana.  On occasion bananas brown and become very ripe before I have a chance to eat them.  When this happens, I peel the banana and freeze it.  Once I have two overripe bananas in my freezer, I make these banana muffins.  I mainly make these muffins for myself.  J.T. absolutely loves Pumpkin muffins and Sweet Potato muffins so I keep our freezer stocked with those for him to eat.  In my opinion, mini muffins are easier to eat while working at a desk, so that’s why I like the smaller size.  These banana muffins are fairly low in sugar, because I do not care for overly sweet muffins which taste more like a cupcake than a muffin.  Since bananas are naturally sweet, it doesn’t take much honey to sweeten the batter.  I store these in the freezer and every morning I put two in a container to take to work.  By mid morning the muffin has defrosted but you can microwave it for 20 seconds to rewarm it instantly.   

Ingredients

·         1 ½ cups gluten-free whole grain flour blend*

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

·         1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         ¼ teaspoon baking powder

·         ½ teaspoon salt

·         ½ cup coconut oil

·         ¼  cup honey

·         ¼ cup almond milk

·         ½ teaspoon vanilla

·         2 eggs

·         1 cup over ripened mashed bananas (about 2)

Directions

1.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease (or use cupcake liners) a 24-cup mini muffin tin or a 12-cup muffin tin. 

2.      In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a small glass measuring cup, whisk together the coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and eggs.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Fold in the mashed bananas.  Divide the batter equally among the muffin tin.  Bake mini muffins for 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and leave in muffin tin for 2 minutes (you may skip this step if using cupcake liners).  Move the muffins to a wire rack to cool.  Yields 24 to 28 muffins. 

You can also make these muffins using a regular size muffin tin.  Divide the batter equally among a 12-cup muffin tin and bake for 16 minutes.  Yields 12 large muffins.   

* I made my own gluten-free whole grain flour, but you can also substitute whole wheat flour.   The recipe behind my whole grain flour blend came from here.  I used the following ratios:

·         350 grams buckwheat flour

·         350 grams oat flour

·         300 grams arrowroot flour

This flour recipe makes more than what is required for this recipe.  Store any extra in the refrigerator.  

Gluten-Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

     Last Friday, I was at the doctor for this horrible sickness that still lingers around in my body.  While I am doing better, my head is still stuffy and my nose is still runny.  My cough has become less frequent and food is starting to become a tad more appetizing.  This past Wednesday, I started to feel better for the first time.  This led me to believe I was ready to get back to normal.  Wrong.  By the end of the day Thursday I felt awful, so my husband (and mother) confined me back to the couch.  I have spent most of today resting…again.  I am more up to date on facebook, day time television, and the news media than any one individual should be.  I did manage to make these muffins on Wednesday, when I felt so great.  There were two apples in fridge that were supposed to be used for an apple crostata.  Instead, I used the apples in these muffins.  They turned out absolutely delicious and I was pleased to get the perfect batch on my first attempt! 

Recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking

Ingredients

·         2 granny smith apples, unpeeled, very finely grated with accumulated juices

·         4 tablespoons pure maple syrup

·         4 tablespoons honey

·         2 eggs

·         1 ½ cups whole grain gluten-free flour blend (see note below)

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

·         ½ teaspoon kosher salt

·         1/3 cup coconut oil

Directions

1.      Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease or line a12-cup muffin tin. 

2.      In a small bowl, stir together the grated apples, maple syrup, honey, and eggs.  Let this mixture sit for 10 minutes.  Slowly stream in the coconut oil, stirring constantly. 

3.      Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl, whisk together the whole grain gluten-free flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and kosher salt. 

4.      Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until the batter is thoroughly combined.  Use an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the batter into the muffin tin.  Bake for 16 minutes.  Cool in the muffin tin for 3 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Yields 12 muffins. 

Note:  The 1 ½ cups of whole grain gluten-free flour blend used in this recipe came from this batch of flours:

·         350 grams oat flour

·         350 grams buckwheat flour

·         300 grams arrowroot powder

Gluten-Free Whole Grain Pumpkin Muffins

      On Monday I felt as though the heavens opened up.  I am probably being a bit dramatic, but I ate a pumpkin muffin for the first time since 2009.  It may have been longer than that, but I do not keep records of stuff like "ate last pumpkin muffin June 12, 2008."  I was so excited about these muffins - singing and dancing with Otis (the dog) and downright giddy the rest of the afternoon.   Why am I so excited about muffins?  Well, I refuse to buy packaged gluten-free foods such as muffins, crackers, etc. because they do not taste very good.  I also do not want to pay for expensive gluten-free flour blends.  While I do purchase brown rice flour, I make my own oat flour.  My inspiration to find a whole-wheat flour substitution came from 100 Days of Real Food.  Many different recipes on this website call for whole-wheat flour, which is not an option for me.  After doing some research, I came across a blog post from Gluten-Free Girl.  She had formulated a gluten-free whole grain flour blend that I had all the ingredients to make!  Finding a gluten-free whole grain flour blend, opens up so many more recipe options to me and I could not be happier!

Recipe adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

 

 

(I am not sure how my kosher salt made it into this picture.  This recipe uses table salt only.)

 

  

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups gluten-free whole grain flour blend*
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup coconut oil
• ½ cup honey
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a small glass measuring cup, whisk together the coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and eggs.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Fold in the canned pumpkin puree.  Use a ¼ cup measuring cup to ladle the batter into the muffin tin.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and leave the muffins in the tin for 2 minutes.   Move the muffins to a wire rack to cool.  Yields 12 muffins.

* I made my own gluten-free whole grain flour, but you can also substitute whole wheat flour.  The recipe behind my whole grain flour blend came from here.  I used the following ratios:

• 150 grams brown rice flour
• 200 grams oat flour
• 150 grams cornstarch

This flour recipe makes more than what is required for the muffin recipe above.  Store any extra in the refrigerator.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins with Cranberries & Walnuts

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup honey
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup walnuts, chopped
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• Cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling

  Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and oil a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. In a medium bowl whisk together pumpkin puree, canola oil, eggs, honey, maple syrup, buttermilk, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Stir until just combined. Mix in walnuts and cranberries. Fill muffin tins completely with batter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool in muffin tins for 3 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Yields 12 muffins.

Recipe adapted from Pinch My Salt

Olive Oil Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• ¾ cup whole-wheat flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 2 teaspoons orange zest
  
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  
• 2 tablespoons milk
  
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted (or whatever you have on hand)
  
• Powdered sugar, for sifting
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin.
   
2. Blend together the flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer beat the sugar, eggs, and zests in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vinegar and milk. Gradually beat in the oil. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in the toasted pecans until just mixed. Fill the muffin tins almost to the top of the paper liners. Bake until golden on top and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove the muffins onto a platter and let cool for 5 more minutes. Sift powdered sugar over the muffins and serve.
   

 

Recipe adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

 

 Perfect Blueberry Muffins

recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. 
2. Beat oil and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then yogurt and zest. 
3. Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift half of dry ingredients over batter. Mix until combined. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears. Gently fold in your blueberries. The dough will be quite thick (and even thicker, if you used a full-fat Greek-style yogurt), closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups. You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more, so you might only need 9 instead of 10 cups. 
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean (you know, except for blueberry goo). Let cool on rack (ha), or you know, serve with a generous pat of butter.