Perfect Whole-Wheat Blueberry Muffins

  » By Keith Prickett

June 10th, 2008 - Posted in Breakfast, Snacks | Leave a comment (0)

Who would have known, a 100% whole-wheat muffin recipe can actually be moist and delicious!  Rachel and I typically have a big breakfast/brunch on the weekends and make a huge mess in the kitchen doing so.  I woke up a bit earlier than Rachel and decided to make her muffins the other morning as part of our regimen.  Now Rachel doesn’t usually like the whole-wheat goodness like I do so I wanted to do it right.  Well, taking some hints from my chocolate chip-cookie recipe (they were also so moist and delicious!), I whipped some muffins up that topped them all!  To help support local and more humane food practices you can try using milk from a local dairy, eggs from your local farmer’s market (or neighbor/co-worker as we do), and other locally produced goods as they are available near you.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups 100% whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups 1% milk (or buttermilk)
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup cold butter cut up into small bits
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (this helps with the moistness)
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1.5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat that ol’ oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Fill your muffin tin with unbleached paper cups
3. Beat the butter, egg whites and brown sugar until they become fluffy
4. Mix in the milk and honey
5. Next mix in the whole wheat flour and baking soda just until it is combined
6. Add the blueberries carefully and fold them in so they don’t get too crushed
7. Fill up your muffin cups 2/3 — you should get anywhere between 12 and 24 depending on the size of your muffin pans.  I made about 20.
8. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes then enjoy the best whole-wheat muffins you ever have had!

I hope you enjoy them!

Pumpkin Raisin Hazelnut Muffins (and Banana too!)

  » By Keith Prickett

April 9th, 2008 - Posted in Breakfast, General | Leave/read a comment (4)

This last weekend was my sister-in-law’s wedding.  The wedding was beautiful and my wife especially looked hot!  I wasn’t part of the wedding party, but I did have the pleasure of cooking breakfast for the “day of.”  She didn’t want to put me out or have me do any major cooking in the morning, so we decided on muffins and fresh fruit.  After going to Costco and looking for muffins I decided they looked WAY too unhealthy (sugary and such) for a bridal party and to last them throughout the morning.  I definitely didn’t want anyone having a sugar high and subsequent crash.

My solution was to bust out the muffin tins, whole wheat and go light on the sugar!  The result was about 100 delicious small muffins.  I made both pumpkin and banana muffins with hazelnuts in each and raisins in the pumpkin variety.  Everything turned out good, except I wish I would have had riper bananas and I might add a little more oil, butter or milk next time to the banana muffins.

My wife and I also had a discussion about the whole wheat flour.  We noticed that the flavor of these and other things I’ve made has been turning out weird with this brand of flour I have.  I usually buy King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour which makes for great bread making too (I know I owe you this recipe sometime!).  I think, even though the prices of wheat keep going up, I am going to have to keep buying this brand due to the quality.  Of course, I used my wife’s Stahlbush Island Farm Organic Pumpkin again with great success!

I’m going to share the Pumpkin Raisin Hazelnut Muffin recipe.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup regular flour (mix and match to your taste)
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup of raisins
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of roughly chopped hazelnuts (walnuts work too) — try Hazelnut Hill!
• 1 can Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin (15-oz)
• 1/3 cup canola oil (or unsalted butter for a slightly richer flavor)
•  2 eggs, whisked
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup of sugar (down from 1 and 1/4 in the recipe I modified!!)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of fine sea salt
• cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top right before baking

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f.
2. Pour about 2 cups of boiling water over the 1 cup of raisins to plump them for about 5 minutes, drain well before using.
3. Place muffin liners in your muffin tin (this will make about 20 average sized muffins or about 12 large ones)
4. In a small glass bowl mix flours and baking powder, set aside
5. Mix together remaining ingredients until combined well to create a pumpkin mixture
6. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix only until just combined
7. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of batter
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on size) or until a toothpick comes out clean
9. Remove from oven and let cool

I hope you enjoy them!