Category Archives: Muffins

Do You Know The Ginger Muffin Man?

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For the life of me I don’t know why I put off making these ginger muffins! They are delicious, have a great texture and are relatively easy to make. Oh! I used 1 1/16” inch diameter cupcake papers so they are bite sized.

One of the best things about making these is you don’t have to peel the fresh ginger. Just cut off the required amount and grind it up in a food processor.

Ginger Root
Frosted and Unfrosted muffins

The unfrosted muffins have a nice heat from the ginger while the frosted ones have a nice balance of cool sweet and heat.

Fresh Ginger Muffins

INGREDIENTS
Muffins
• 2-oz (58g) piece unpeeled ginger root
• ¾ c plus 3 tbl sugar
• 2 tbl lemon zest with some pith
• ½ c (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
Frosting
• 8 oz (224g) full-fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• ½ c. (115g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 3 c. (360g) confectioners’ sugar, plus an extra 1/4 cup (30g) if needed
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt

METHOD

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Grease 16 muffin pans. I used small cupcake papers to make mini muffins.
  3. Process the ginger in a food processor until it is in tiny pieces. You should have about 1/4 cup. It is better too much ginger than too little.
  4. Put the ginger and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a small skillet and cook over medium heat until the sugar has melted and the mixture is hot. Do not walk away from the pan – the sugar will melt quite quickly. Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool completely.
  5. Put the lemon zest and 3 tablespoons sugar in the food processor and process until the peel is in small bits. Or, sprinkle the sugar over the zest and chop by hand. Add the zest and sugar mix to the ginger mixture and set aside.
  6. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter slightly, then add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until smooth. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the buttermilk and mix until blended. Add the flour, salt and baking soda and beat until smooth. Add the lemon-ginger mixture and mix well.
  7. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups so that each cup is about 3/4 full. Bake 15-20 minutes. Serve warm.
  8. In the bowl of a stand mixer use the paddle to beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy.
  9. Add 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar.
  10. Cover and store leftover frosting for up to 5 days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. After freezing, thaw in the refrigerator then beat the frosting for a few seconds so it’s creamy again.

Lemony No Snicket

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As we hunker down at home I realize I have to stop reading new recipes! Despite exercising nearly as much as pre-Covid19 my baking is up around 400%. While all this baking is increasing my skills, it is also increasing my belt size. Luckily, as we are sheltering-in-place stretch waist warmup pants are all the rage.

I saw this recipe from PopSugar online and as I had lemons and raspberries all I needed was the plain Greek yogurt, which was procured during our sanctioned grocery shopping yesterday. Speaking of grocery shopping, we find it difficult to buy a weeks, much less two weeks worth of groceries in one trip. Any suggestions?

The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute equal quantities of olive for canola oil. The intense flavor of the fresh raspberries complemented, but didn’t overpower the lemon. It may be fun to remake these muffins using AP flour rather than whole wheat. I’m thinking it may make a lighter muffin. We have weeks more hunkering down here. Who knows? Obviously, only the Shadow knows.

I also baked these using Convection, which dropped the temperature from 400 deg to 375. I set the timer for the lower range (18 min) and took the muffins out at 20 min.

The batter is very thick so folding in the berries without mashing them is difficult. Be gentle. Be patient.

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

from PopSugar

INGREDIENTS
• 1 lemon
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups white whole-wheat flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups fresh raspberries

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 large (½ -cup) muffin cups with cooking spray, or line with paper liners.
  2. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from the lemon in long strips. Combine the zest and sugar in a food processor; pulse until the zest is very finely chopped into the sugar.
  3. Add yogurt, oil, egg, and vanilla. Pulse until blended.
  4. Combine whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the yogurt mixture, and fold until almost blended. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide the batter (it will be thick) among the muffin cups.
  5. Bake the muffins until the edges and tops are golden, 18 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm.

…Thrill on Blueberry Hill

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Having just washed some rust and dirt from my hands caused by carrying some rebar I bought at Home Depot (for the uninformed, rebar is a steel rod with ridges for use in reinforced concrete, or in my case, stakes for anchoring wooden tripods framing  our frost blanket tripodnew citrus trees to hold frost blankets,) I caught up with Fran who was just leaving the produce section of the supermarket, when she said: “Look, I bought some blueberries.”

 

 

Hence:blueberry muffins cropped
Jordan Marsh BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
by KAF
INGREDIENTS

  • ½ cup (8 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2½ cups blueberries, fresh preferred
  • ¼ cup sugar, for topping

METHOD

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin; or line the tin with papers, and grease the papers.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well combined.
  3. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl and beating well after each addition.
  4. Beat in the baking powder, salt, and vanilla.
  5. Add the flour alternately with the milk, beating gently just to combine. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
  6. Mash 1/2 cup of the blueberries. Add the mashed and whole berries to the batter, stirring just to combine and distribute.
  7. Scoop the batter by the heaping 1/4-cupful into the prepared muffin pan; a muffin scoop works well here.
  8. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon granulated sugar atop each muffin, if desired. It’s traditional — go for it!
  9. Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, until they’re light golden brown on top, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
  10. Remove the muffins from the oven, loosen their edges from the pan, and after about 5 minutes transfer them to a rack to cool.

TOPPING

  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1½ tsp cinnamon

Mix together sugar, flour, butter, and teaspoons cinnamon. Mix to a coarse granular consistency, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.