Blueberry Muffin (Shortcake)

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe left us with a choice. We could make blueberry muffins, or we could make Sweet Berry Fougasse, which is a blueberry streusel pastry on top of focaccia dough. The fougasse sounded really interesting, but the dough has to refrigerate at least 24 hours. I planned to make the dough Friday and then bake up the pastries over the weekend, but that just didn’t happen. I didn’t make the dough, and it all went downhill from there. Ok, so I’ll make blueberry muffins.

Well, I’ve posted blueberry muffins so I wanted to figure out a way to make it different. I ended up making the blueberry muffins, but then using the muffins as a base of a shortcake-type dessert. I made blueberry compote and then used that to top the muffins. It was pretty good and it was a different way to enjoy blueberry muffins. 

These muffins are quite plain looking. They are flat on the top and mine browned very quickly. They are very moist though and taste good, but just don’t look that great. It was good that I made them into the shortcake! You can get this recipe with a quick search of the Web. It’s not too unusual, but does use cake flour and some sour cream in the batter. Check out the Tuesdays and Dorie website to see how all of the bakers did with the two recipes for this week.

Blueberry Compote

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoon lemon juice

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup blueberries, the sugar, water and lemon juice. Heat over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the remaining blueberries and heat for another 5-8 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, page 208

Blueberry compote recipe from The Food Network

Cream Cheese Muffins with Pineapple Passion Fruit Jam

It’s been fairly warm in the Pacific Northwest the past couple of weeks, but the weather is finally cooling a little bit. I’ve had to sneak in and bake whenever we’ve had the slightest bit of cooling. I got off work the other day and I figured the house wouldn’t be too hot, so I searched and found this recipe to make. I hadn’t made muffins in a while and I liked the idea of jam-swirled muffins.

I’m pretty guilty of picking up all sorts of jams and preserves, so our cupboard is quite full. Farmer’s markets, vacations, etc. it seems like I find something interesting to buy and bring home. The original recipe for these called for raspberry preserves, but I knew that I would have something interesting to use. I looked through the cupboard and found pineapple passion fruit jam and thought that would be wonderful. 

These muffins seem plain: a basic muffin with the addition of cream cheese to the batter. The cream cheese adds a lot to the richness of the muffins. They have a very tender crumb and remain fresh a lot longer than a typical home-baked muffin. The original recipe said the yield was 12 muffins, and I made 12 mini and 12 regular-sized muffins.  I really liked the pineapple passion fruit jam topping; it was sweet and just a bit different from your traditional jam flavors. 

Cream Cheese Muffins with Pineapple Passion Fruit Jam 

1-3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

½ cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

¼ cup milk

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup jam or preserves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease about 18 muffin cups. Or 12 muffin cups and 12 mini muffin cups.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, and sugar until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Add half of the flour mixture, then the milk and vanilla, then the remaining flour. Stir just until the flour is incorporated.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling about ⅔ full. Drop about 1 teaspoon of jam on the top of each muffin. Swirl the jam and the muffin batter with a knife or toothpick.

Bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Recipe from Chez CateyLou

Gingerbread Streusel Raisin Muffins

I know that you typically think of gingerbread for Christmas, but there’s no reason you can’t have it the rest of the year too. I love anything with cinnamon and ginger, so how could you go wrong? I was looking for some sort of muffin to make and I had found a couple of raisin and oatmeal raisin muffins that sounded good. This one has the cinnamon and ginger that I love, plus molasses. I knew that I wanted to give it a try.

I like muffins and quick breads since they usually mix together quickly and don’t dirty too many dishes. This recipe uses a different method that I am used to for muffins, as you mix this batter more like cookie dough. I don’t even use my mixer to make these; just stir everything together with a spatula and whisk. That’s good in this case as I am adjusting to using a new mixer, and I don’t have all the extra bowls for this mixer that I had with my other one.

My kitchen smelled fantastic while these were baking; all those spices coming together. The muffins don’t rise that much, but you still don’t want to fill the muffin cups too full. With the streusel, if the cups are too full the streusel can melt and make a big mess in the oven. These are fine little muffins, yes they would be great in the fall but they are good for breakfast anytime!

Gingerbread Streusel Raisin Muffins

1 cup raisins

½ cup boiling water

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

¾ cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup flour

¼ cup brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup chopped nuts

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper liners.

In small bowl, combine the raisins and boiling water; allow to sit for 5 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and molasses until light. Whisk in the egg, mixing until incorporated. Switch to a spatula and stir in the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon. The batter will be thick. Stir in the raisins and water and stir to combine.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling about ¾ full.

Make the streusel: in a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is crumbly. Top each muffin with streusel.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Brand Name Book of Baking

Red Hot Chocolate Mini Muffins

After I made the Red Hot Imperial Shortbread, I had extra Red Hot Imperial sugar left over and I knew that it was just too good to go to waste. I didn’t have that much of it, so I had to be creative in what to use it with. I knew that the Red Hot Imperial sugar would pair well with chocolate, but chocolate in what form? I thought about a doughnut muffin that I had made before where you baked up muffins and then dipped them in melted butter and cinnamon sugar. They are one of my favorites so I decided to make a variation of that recipe.

I looked for a simple chocolate mini muffin recipe and found this one. The original recipe called for chocolate chips, but I left them out since I wanted the simplest of muffins. The doughnut muffins that were the inspiration for these had you dip the entire muffin in butter, but I knew that I didn’t have enough Red Hot Imperial sugar. I just dipped the tops in the sugar and that was just the right amount of Red Hot Imperial flavor and the chocolate flavor. If you like Red Hot Imperials, these will be a great treat for you.

Red Hot Chocolate Mini Muffins

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons Red Hot Imperial Candies

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/8 teaspoon espresso powder

3/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon vinegar

¼ cup butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 24 mini muffin cups.

In a food processor, combine the sugar and Red Hot Imperial candies. Process until powdery (the Red Hot Imperials may not be completely pulverized; that’s ok.) Put the Red Hot Imperial sugar in a bowl and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, espresso powder, salt.  Set aside. In a large measuring cup, whisk together ¼ cup melted butter, the egg, milk, vanilla and vinegar. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend. Do not over mix; the mixture may be slightly lumpy. 

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each muffin cup ¾ full. Bake for 10-12 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove them to a rack. While the muffins are still warm, dip the tops of the muffins in the ¼ cup melted butter and then immediately dip in the Red Hot Imperial sugar. 

Recipe adapted from Mochi Thoughts

Eggnog Muffins

Wrapping up this holiday season, I just couldn’t resist offering you one more eggnog treat. These are quick to put together and they would be good for brunch. I know many people are so busy during this season that get togethers sometimes happen after the holidays. These are fancy enough to serve to guest and easy enough to make for any day.

The base of these muffins is very plain; the only thing that is different is the use of eggnog for the liquid in the batter. The original recipe also says that you can use half and half in place of eggnog, but that would just make them nutmeg muffins rather than eggnog ones. The difference here is the crumb topping. Simple, but it makes all the difference. You do want the topping crumbly, so don’t mix too much. I also used a little less than 3 tablespoons of butter, which helped the topping from becoming too solid.

You fill the cups of these muffins really full, and they rise a lot, so they are very impressive when you take them out of the oven. I served these warm, just a couple of minutes from the oven, and they were great. The muffin is very light and the topping is nice and crunchy. Do make sure that you spray the muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. I could tell where I had missed spraying the liner as the muffin baked up really tough and stuck in those places. 

Eggnog Muffins

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups eggnog

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and spray the liners with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, beating for several minutes and scraping the bowl, till the mixture is smooth and light colored. Beat in the baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.

Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the eggnog, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, filling nearly full.

Stir together the ½ cup sugar and flour, ½ teaspoon nutmeg and melted butter, just until crumbly. Do not over mix. Sprinkle the topping over the muffins.

Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, until they are pale golden brown. Serve warm or cool to room temperature.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour