Muffins, Recipes

Banana Nut Crunch Muffins

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Banana Nut Crunch Muffin and Butter

 

I know there are many holidays right around the corner that I should be blogging about…St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day….on and on and on.  But yesterday I had an INSANE craving for banana muffins so I went with it!  And I’m SO glad I did.  These banana muffins are to. die. for.   Seriously some of the most moist, flavorful, yummy banana muffins I have ever had.  The original recipe is by Ina Garten so you know you’re off to a good start when you begin with one of her fabulous recipes.  I made some minor changes and was so pleased with the results!  Treat yourself to these for breakfast tomorrow morning…but make them tonight!  They are even better the next day!

Banana Nut Crunch Muffin

Banana Nut Crunch Muffins

Enjoy!

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Banana Nut Crunch Muffins
 
Ingredients
  • 3 c. All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 c. Sugar
  • 1 c. Light Brown Sugar, packed
  • 2 t. Baking Powder
  • 1 t. Baking Soda
  • ½ t. Salt
  • 2 sticks Unsalted Butter, melted
  • 3 Large Eggs, room temperature
  • 1 c. Whole Milk
  • 2 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
  • 1 c. Mashed Ripe Bananas (I used 5 medium bananas)
  • 1 c. Toasted, Chopped Pecans
  • 1½ c. Granola
  • 1 stick Unsalted Butter, melted
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffins cups with liners.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together flour, both sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low, beat in the melted butter. Whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla and bananas and add to the flour-butter mixture. Mix until everything is just combined--do NOT overmix.
  3. Scoop ⅓ cup batter into each muffin cup.
  4. In a small bowl, mix together pecans, granola and melted butter. Spoon a couple of tablespoons over each filled muffin cup. Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine were done at 23) until the tops are brown and a tester inserted comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes and then remove from the pan and cool completely.
Notes
Makes 24 muffins.
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Breakfast, Desserts, Muffins, Recipes

Chocolate S’mores Muffins

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I am so, so, SO excited to introduce the very first fall recipe for 2012 on Desserted Planet–Chocolate S’mores Muffins!!  Yes, I know it’s still August but here in Missouri the temperatures have drastically plunged and we’ve been seeing highs in the 70’s and low 80’s and people are more than ready to break out their scarves and throw some chili on the stove.  Bring on fall!  If only winter didn’t come after it…oh well.

Anyways, back to these amazing muffins.  A couple of weeks ago Jeremy and I went camping with some other couples and all their cute kiddos.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a fan of camping.  I didn’t grow  up camping so I think that is part of the problem.  I just don’t see how people enjoy being dirty and sweaty and sleeping on the ground and doing their business behind a tree…I honestly just don’t get it!  However, this camping trip was a little different so I wasn’t quite a reluctant to go…but reluctant nonetheless.  Everyone had a camper, including Jeremy’s brother and his wife so we had somewhere to sleep that was not that ground and it was even air-conditioned!  It also meant we had a bathroom.  Ok, I could do that.

So after agreeing to go, I began to think about what we should bring to eat.  Since we’d only be there overnight and the next morning, I wanted something sweet and appropriate for breakfast.  Of course!  S’mores!  In muffins!  Brilliant.  And yes, the recipes were already out there.  Like this one from Elle’s New England Kitchen.  It was pretty much a perfect recipe as is, but not very sweet so I added a bit of extra sugar and doubled the recipe, as the original stated that it only made twelve.  They were a BIG hit and pretty much like eating a chocolatey, marshmallow studded cupcake for breakfast.  Yes, cupcake.  But we didn’t call them that…they are MUFFINS.  And that makes them totally appropriate for breakfast.  But if you want to eat one for dessert, that’d be ok too…

Enjoy!

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Chocolate S'mores Muffins
 
Ingredients
  • 3 c. All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 c. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • 2 T. Baking Powder
  • ½ t. Salt
  • 1 c. Brown Sugar
  • ½ c. Granulated Sugar
  • 4 Large Eggs
  • 2 c. Whole Milk
  • 1 c. Vegetable Oil
  • 2 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
  • 2 c. Dark Chocolate Chips, divided
  • 3-4 c. Mini Marshmallows
  • 12 Whole Graham Cracker Sheets, broken into chunks but not too small (for a total of 3 cups graham cracker pieces, with one cup reserved for topping muffins)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 32 muffin cups in a muffin pan.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt and both sugars. In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir the wet mixture into the dry and gently fold until everything is incorporated. Fold in 1 cup chocolate chips, 2 cups mini marshmallows and 2 cups graham cracker pieces.
  3. Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin cups. Top each muffin with the remaining chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers. Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
  4. After baking, cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes and then run a knife around the edges, remove the muffins from the pan and continue cooling completely on the rack. Or eat warm!
Notes
VERY IMPORTANT: You MUST remove the muffins from the pan after 5 minutes or they will NOT come out. Also, muffin liners will NOT work with these muffins--they will stick to the liners and be a mess.
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Breakfast, Desserts, Muffins, Recipes

Blackberry, Almond and White Chocolate Muffins

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Every time I walk into the grocery store lately, all the beautiful berries are calling my name. Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries are just begging to be bought right now and I just had to find a recipe that I could use some of them in.  I was struggling to find something that wasn’t a pie or layered cake when all the sudden I remembered a recipe I had made years ago for Strawberry Almond Muffins.  I also remembered it was very good so I thought maybe I’d give it a shot…but with a few changes, of course. 😉

Instead of strawberries I decided to use blackberries and also wanted to add some white chocolate.  The original recipe called for all-purpose and whole wheat flour but I wanted a slightly lighter muffin so I went with cake flour in place of the whole wheat.  What resulted was one of the most delicious, tender and tastiest muffins ever!  Now you could say this muffin was verging on cupcake status but hey, I see nothing wrong with that!  All I know is I loved these and if you need a recipe to use up some berries, I encourage you to try this one!  Feel free to substitute raspberries or sliced strawberries, if you’d prefer.  You really can’t go wrong with whatever you choose.

Enjoy!

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Blackberry, Almond and White Chocolate Muffins
 
Ingredients
  • 1 c. (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
  • 1½ c. Granulated Sugar
  • 4 Large Eggs
  • 1 T. Almond Extract
  • 1 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
  • 1 c. Whole Milk, room temperature
  • 2½ c. All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 c. Cake Flour
  • 1½ T. Baking Powder
  • ½ t. Salt
  • 1 c. Sliced, Toasted Almonds
  • 1 c. White Chocolate Chips
  • 2 c. Blackberries (or more if you'd like)
Instructions
  1. Line 2, 12-cup regular muffin tins with cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in almond and vanilla extracts.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt. Beat ⅓ of the flour mixture until the butter/sugar mixture, then beat in half the milk. Beat in another ⅓ of the flour. Beat in the final half of the milk and then the last ⅓ of the flour. Fold in white chocolate chips and almonds. Very gently fold in the blackberries and divide the batter evenly between the muffin tins (some of mine were quite full so you could probably get more like 25-28 muffins out of this recipe).
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack or eat while they are still a bit warm...they are VERY good like that. (I topped mine with a little white chocolate and single blackberry for the photos..up to you if you want to do that but be sure they have cooled completely if you do.)
Notes
Makes 24, regular size muffins.
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Breakfast, Recipes

Mini Doughnut Muffins

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Another recipe to add to your mini dessert collection!  Well, I suppose these are actually classified as breakfast but seriously, let’s be honest…this is DESSERT.  A really, really, delicious, cinnamony, sugary, cakey, yummy dessert!  These taste just like a cake doughnut, minus the frying part so I suppose you can feel not *quite* as guilty eating one or two or four.  They are mini after all.

I chose to do half with cinnamon sugar and half with strawberry jam and powdered sugar and they were both delicious.  The batter was VERY thick which worried me a bit as I was spooning it into the mini muffin tins but much to my pleasant surprise these turned out super tender and like I said before, just like a cake doughnut!  I’m thinking this recipe would be perfect for my doughnut pan.

Add this recipe to your New Year’s Eve desserts menu!  Think about serving them with small mugs or shot glasses of milk at the end of the night.  Perfect end to a night of partying.

(Recipe adapted from Blue Ribbon Cookbook)

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Mini Doughnut Muffins
 
Ingredients
Doughnut Muffins
  • 3 c. All-Purpose Flour
  • 2½ t. Baking Powder
  • ¼ t. Baking Soda
  • ¾ t. Salt
  • ½ t. Ground Nutmeg
  • 10 T. Unsalted Butter, softened
  • ¾ c. plus 2 T. Granulated Sugar
  • 2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 t. Pure Vanilla
  • ¾ c. Whole Milk, at room temperature
  • 2 T. Buttermilk, at room temperature
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
  • 8 T. (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, melted
  • 1 c. Granulated Sugar
  • 1 T. Ground Cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2, 24-cup mini muffin tins with cooking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
  3. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the milk and buttermilk.
  4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time until just combined. Beat in vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, beat in ⅓ of the flour mixture until combined and then half of the milk mixture. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the flour mixture. Beat on low speed just until incorporated. Do not over mix.
  5. Fill the prepared muffin cups just to the rim with batter, about a spoonful. Bake, one pan at a time, until lightly golden and firm to touch, 15 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
  6. While the muffins cool, combine the sugar and cinnamon in a large, resealable plastic bag. Brush each muffin generously with melted butter. Place a few muffins in the bag with the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Shake well to coat the muffins. Repeat with remaining muffins.
Notes
-For Jelly Doughnut Muffins, I omitted the nutmeg and filled middle of the doughnut muffin with strawberry jam before baking and shook in a bag with powdered sugar after they had cooled. You could also fill them with jam after baking, with a pastry bag and small tip. -Makes about 40 doughnut muffins.
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Bakery Reviews

BitterSweet Bakery – St. Louis Bakeries, Pt. 1

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Last weekend, Jeremy and I headed to St. Louis to see Jimmy Eat World Saturday night.  The concert didn’t start until 8 p.m. so we had plenty of time to go at a somewhat leisurely pace and make some stops along the way.  We managed to hit up three vintage stores that we came across while driving and then proceeded into St. Louis to check out a couple of bakeries that had pretty decent reviews online.

I’ll start with the second bakery we visited that day, Bittersweet Bakery.  First, the space itself was really cool, one of those refurbished old brick warehouse buildings.  Inside were hardwood floors, exposed ductwork and modern chandeliers.   The bakery case was full of cakes and the countertops displayed quite the assortment of jumbo muffins, breakfast breads, biscotti and jumbo cookies.  I was a little surprised at the lack of selection just judging by what I’d seen on their website.  They did have a small display with a couple of whoopie pies that looked awesome, an amaretti cookie and a couple macaroons.

My first two selections they were out of, a whoopie pie and a mini peanut butter pie.  Apparently they were out of a lot.  So I finally settled on a Chocolate Chunk Cookie and Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cake.  Jeremy chose Chocolate Buttermilk Cake.  The cakes themselves were very good, dense and probably some of the most moist cake I’ve ever had.  Inside they had chocolate mousse/vanilla pastry cream fillings and they were topped with a huge swirl of what I thought was Swiss buttercream but apparently it was Italian.  Not sure what the difference is but either way, I loved the frosting.  Jeremy, not so much.  He’s used to the American style of buttercream.  I also loved the fact that you could really see and taste the vanilla bean in mine.  At $5 each they were enough for two to share so we could only eat about half.

The cookie was allright, nothing special.  The texture was pretty good, very chewy but the flavor was somewhat lacking and a teensy bit on the salty side.  I kind of liked it but Jeremy didn’t like it at all.  It was somewhere around $3 and most of it went into the trash, unfortunately.

So, our overall experience here was ok.  We got there around 4 p.m. so I guess it was a little late in the day for them to have much left.  That was really disappointing to me because I would have really liked to have tried some other things.  But I will say their cake was absolutely delicious!  So if you are in the area, get there early for the best selection and definitely split one of the cakes with someone–you won’t be disappointed!

I will have Part 2 of our St. Louis bakery adventures next week–I’ve saved the best for last!  Oh and in case you were wondering, the concert was AWESOME.

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Breakfast, Desserts, Muffins, Recipes, Snack

Triple Chocolate Muffins

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Today is National Chocolate Chip Day and to celebrate I came up with these super easy Triple Chocolate Muffins.  If you need something in a hurry, these are perfect and quite frankly they could pass as cake.  I’m really not sure who eats this kind of stuff for breakfast, but I will admit they would go perfect with a cup of coffee.

I adapted this recipe (as you can see I use Allrecipes.com quite a bit) and didn’t have the full cup of sour cream so I did part Miracle Whip which I’ve used in baking before with great results.  I made a few other changes and ended up with an awesome super soft, super chocolatey muffin.  Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Muffins

2 2/3 c. AP Flour

1 1/2 t. Baking Soda

1/2 t. Salt

1/2 c. Cocoa

3/4 c. White Sugar

3/4 c. Light Brown Sugar

1/2 c. (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, softened

3 Large Eggs

1 T. Vanilla

3/4 c. Sour Cream

1/4 c. Miracle Whip

1 c. Whole Milk

3/4 c. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

3/4 c. White Chocolate Chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line or grease 24 regular size muffin cups.

Beat together butter and white and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa.  Add eggs, one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture and beat in vanilla.  Beat in the sour cream and Miracle Whip.  Add one-third of the flour mixture and mix thoroughly.  Add half the milk and beat until thoroughly incorporated.  Add half the remaining flour, beating until incorporated.  Add the rest of the milk and beat thoroughly and the rest of the flour.  Stir in both kinds of chocolate chips.

Fill cupcake tins 2/3 with the batter and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

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