Granola Muffins

Hello readers! I hope that you had wonderful times with your families this past weekend, no matter what your faith might be. I am so excited to share my favorite Christmas present with you. Here it goes...

So I channel some Oprah Winfrey to say, "I got a Kitchenaid!" I was so excited. I've wanted one for so long. I can't wait to make pizza dough and not have to knead it. I will now be producing a massive amount of cookies, cakes, and something I've been wanting to try forever - Swiss Merigue Buttercream Frosting. This particular kitchen feat has been on my list for quite some time, but I was not excited about using a non-stand mixer and mixing for hours. ALthough I do think that it would count for my workout for the day. Oh well. 

If not for the granola in this recipe, I definitely would have christened my mixer already. These muffins are a wonderful start to a morning. They are a bit different than your normal muffin recipe because these are fantastically lumpy. The egg, butter. sugar, and yogurt make a wonderful binder that helps to make the granola cake-like. Lumpy is a good thing though - the granola make for a filling start to the day and the vanilla yogurt adds a great flavor to the crunchy granola. When buying the granola, I accidentally bought a plain granola instead of the dried fruit granola. I will definitely be trying this recipe with a variety of granola flavors. Dried fruit - yum! 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup granola cereal

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup wheat flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 egg

1 cup vanilla yogurt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted**

** If using salted butter, eliminate the sea salt from above ingredient list.  

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and granola. Add sugar to mixture.

Combine egg and yogurt, beat slightly. Add butter and mix until thoroughly blended. Put into muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes. 

Source: SparkRecipes

Eggless Apple Banana Muffins

DJ had a feast with his class a few days ago. Everyone was responsible for bringing their favorite things.Some brought smoothies, others brought mini-pizzas -- and I was bound and determined to bring something that DJ enjoys and flex my muscle in the kitchen. I decided on muffins. I knew the muffins couldn't have egg due to allergies in the classroom. Using a miniature muffin pan, I was able to make two bite muffins. Perfect for little toddlers to pick up and helped tons with portion control. Or popping more of them into your mouth quicker. 

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripe bananas
1 cup applesauce

1 1/8 cup flour
1/3 cup+1 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt  


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease/line a muffin tray.
Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Mash the bananas with a fork and mix in the sugar and vanilla and beat till the sugar blends well into it. Add the melted and cooled butter and give a good whisk.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, applesauce and salt. Mix the flour mix into the wet ingredients with a spatula and fold it in just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups and bake for 20-22 minutes or till the muffins have risen and become golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Source: Easycooking: Eggless Apple Banana Muffins

Apple Strudel Muffins

One of DJ's current favorite movies is Over The Hedge. Weeknights, we spend in "school" learning letters, making crafts, and reading books. On weekends, he is allowed to pick one animation movie to watch. Many times, he'll pick Over The Hedge. It's a cute little movie about a pack of animals that learn that while they eat to live, humans live to eat. 
There is an adorable little clip (click here to watch it) that explains all of the things that food is to humans: how it's made, heated and cooled, right down to how it is thrown in a garbage can.  

How true it is - food really does affect our lives and moods. Regardless of whether I'm happy, sad, or the million things in between - I cook and bake. When I feel so frustrated that I think I'm going to blow my lid, I get myself in the kitchen to take it out on some baked goods. These muffins were a blow-off-the steam-and-give-me-my-cell-phone-and-five-minutes-of-peace-so-I-can-find-a-recipe-ASAP. Some people smoke, others drink, and some gamble - my get away is no further than my own kitchen. 


These muffins are great - and I especially love the strudel on top. After reading some of the reviews, I adapted the original recipe slightly based upon the suggestions of others. I split the sugar between brown and white. I added cinnamon to the batter as it was just originally in the strudel. Lastly, I added a few tablespoons of apple sauce. A wonderful balance of cinnamon, sugar, and apple make these muffins moist and delicious and made the house smell nice and cozy warm. All you need with smells like those are a big, comfy hoodie, hot chocolate or coffee, a movie, a blanket, and some snuggles - maybe with your favorite three-year-old. 
Enjoy! 

Ingredients

For the muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 heaping tablespoons applesauce

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup apples, half grated other half chopped

For the strudel:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugars and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon well to avoid sinking. Once blended, cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.

Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

Source: Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Hint Of Hazelnut Pound Cake

Hello. Yes, I am still alive. Last week was absolutely crazy. Trying to prepare my students for the regional science fair on Friday took up way more time than I thought it would. It was all worth it - one of my students placed third in his division. I am so excited mostly because this was the first science fair that the school had in over a decade. I was not expecting any of my students to get awards. It makes me a little excited to start next years projects now. 


I have decided to make my font blue this month for autism awareness. I have cycled through all the possible emotions that come with a diagnosis. I have been angry, upset, in denial, felt guilty, but I am finally in a place where I want to meet whatever may come our way head on and do what is in the best interest of my little boy. So no, I am not pregnant and expecting a boy, it is just my little way of showing  my support to a cause that has quickly become an important part of my life. 

One of the things that I love about reading so many blogs is the wealth of information and awesome recipes that I have found. I love getting lost in all of the links and blogrolls. When I ventured onto a new blog and saw this recipe, I knew it would be a wonderful treat between breakfast and lunch. The hint of hazelnut smelled amazing while baking and is subtle in the pound cake. These would be amazing (and definitely a little more up my alley) filled with a chocolate ganache. But chocolate makes everything more delicious, right? Yum - which coincidentally in the name of the blog where I found this recipe. Thank you, Sherri, they are a wonderful addition to my breakfast rotation. 


Hint of Hazelnut Pound Cake
1 c. butter
3 c. sugar
6 eggs
3 c. flour
2 c. liquid hazelnut flavored coffee creamer
1 T. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in flour and creamer alternately. Mix in vanilla. 


To bake these puppies you have several options: 10" tube pan or 2 loaf pans for about an hour and a half or until top of loaf springs back when pressed gently. I used a silicone muffin tray to make them portable. 


Source: Yum. 

Banana Muffins

It is very hard to roll out of bed on any given Monday. When the alarm goes off in the morning, I want to throw the covers up over my head and just go back to sleep. That's on a typical Monday...throw in a late night watching a disappointing loss by your home team in the biggest game of the year and you're really in trouble. When I say late, I mean that I usually am in bed by 8:30pm.  

When I asked Dan what he wanted for breakfast, he said something with banana. I love looking for breakfast items. It is like a giant scavenger hunt. I look through all my cookbooks and browse the web until I find something that looks and sounds good. Dan always makes fun of me because he says that I am always on my phone. Well, I am and constantly looking up new recipes to try and seeing what my favorite bloggers have posted about.

I turned to these banana muffins. I'm not a huge fan of bananas, but my fellas like and eat them, so I always have them around. I did try one of these muffins and was pleasantly surprised that I liked them as much as I did. They were soft and fluffy with a nice flavor. It was a nice little pick me up to the start of another fun Monday.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

Source: Banana Muffins II Recipe, AllRecipes