I felt the urge for carrot muffins, I looked through a few cookbooks but found nothing I really cared for, the trusty internet came through once again, I found this great recipe for Carrot Muffins on Joy of Baking - I've used this site before, the recipes are very straight forward and there are also videos to guide you along, if you prefer that kind of thing. I'm going to include the recipe here for your convenience or you can check out the original.
1/4 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped - I used pecans and did not toast them.
1 1/3 cups grated raw carrot
1 small apple, peeled and grated
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut
2 large eggs
1/2 cup safflower, corn, vegetable or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat over to 350, place paper liners in 12 muffin cups.
Toast the pecans or walnuts for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely.
Peel and finely grate the carrots and apple. Set aside.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in nuts and coconut.
In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, oil and vanilla. Fold the wet ingredients, along with the grated carrot and apple, into the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
They're delicious - give them a try!!!
Last week I stopped in at a Mennonite farm to check out their produce - they had a lot of squash as you can see by this picture - for the first time, I made a squash soup that I first saw on Instagram, if you are looking for a great squash soup recipe, check out Rosinda's recipe on her blog, With Love From the Kitchen - it's delicious!!!
I bought a huge zucchini when I was there - I made Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins - what a perfect fall muffin - delicious! The original recipe is from All Recipes, I have very seldom tried one of the top rated recipes on that site that hasn't been good. This one doesn't disappoint!!
Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 white sugar
1 tsp. b. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. shredded zucchini - I squeezed the liquid from the shredded zucchini.
1/2 c. miniature chocolate chips
1/2 c. walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 12 muffin cups or one with paper muffin liner cups. I always use the Reynolds type, the muffin or cupcake slides out perfectly.
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Mix egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla extract in a bowl; stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full.
Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.
I made no changes to this recipe!!
My intention this morning was to make a zucchini loaf, I already made one and it was delicious, I had the zucchini to make another one but no can of crushed pineapple. I didn't want to run out to the store, when you're in the mood for baking, you just want to get started, so I made muffins instead - those three speckled bananas were begging to be used!!
My husband picked up this cookbook for me a few years ago, it has the best "Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins" - it's the one I always make!
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
3 large bananas, mashed
1/4 cup butter/margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips
Combine sugar and margarine, blend well. Add egg, mashed bananas and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
Hot out of the oven...
Eat them with a speck of butter or plain - either way, they're delicious!!!
When I was out this morning, I thought I'd take a drive down the road to check out the blueberry situation, blueberries grow everywhere around here and the people that sell them out of their vehicles in parking lots are already set up. I didn't go out with the intention to be picking berries, I had sandals on and no basket - once I see those blueberries, I can't help myself, I have to pick some!!! I saw plenty and I had to pick!! All I had was the car garbage can so that is what I used - I just wanted to pick enough today for a batch of muffins, turns out I have enough for two batches. I told you I can't stop - and if it hadn't started to rain, I would have been out there longer.
I really thought I had blogged about this recipe before for these muffins but I can't seem to find it - it is just the best!! The original recipe came from All Recipes but I'll write it down for you right here so you don't have to waste time doing any more clicking, you can get right down to baking these delicious morsels! These are fresh out of the oven!!
To Die for Blueberry Muffins
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 c. vegetable oil\
1 egg
1/3 c. milk
1 c. fresh blueberries
TOPPING
1/2 c. white sugar
1/3 c. flour
1/4 c. butter, cubed
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400 - grease tins or use muffin liners.
Combine 1 1/2 c. flour, 3/4 c. sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture, fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
Crumb Topping - Mix together 1/2 c. sugar, 1/3 c. flour, 1/4 c. butter and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
I ended up with 9 muffins and lots of crumb topping left over, so I'm keeping the leftover topping and will make another batch.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. SO GOOD!!
