Elle's New England Kitchen

Think Blueberry Pancakes. In a nice little handheld size. And no slaving over a hot griddle making pancake after pancake. These are almost instant gratification!

Some of you may remember the Daring Bakers Cake, Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, from Shuna Fish Lydon. One of the best cakes ever, and the one I’m requesting for my birthday in September. It’s amazing how browning the butter makes the whole thing better. And it’s a simple step, too! Just make sure you run the browned butter through a strainer (a metal mesh one, so it doesn’t melt!) and let it cool slightly before you add it to your recipe.

So, I was thinking about muffins, as I often do. Yes, really! I love them like family. They make a nice breakfast or a delicious snack. It’s cake that’s contained in it’s own little hand held package. Want fruit? Go for it! Nuts? Chocolate? Whatever you feel like!

While I was thinking about muffins, I inadvertently drifted over to breakfast--->pancakes--->blueberry pancakes--->maple syrup--->muffins! The light went on over my head and hit me like a dozen muffins. Or in this case, ten.

Blueberry muffins. Nearly everyone loves them. But putting a spin on them is the fun part! To mimic blueberry pancakes, I could add maple syrup. And browned butter to get the flavor you get from frying your pancakes up in melted butter.

Oh, yes. Now we’re talking! These are right up there in my top 5 favorite muffins now. I’ll definitely make them more, and in fact, they’re now my official blueberry muffin recipe!

I used frozen Wild Maine Blueberries in these. You know, the little tiny ones? But you can use any kind you like. And even though I think purple muffins are extremely cool, I did rinse them before using. I wanted to see if the browned butter gave the batter some color, and it did. After baking, they were a nice caramel color.

Maple Syrup. Please, if you love me, use real maple syrup in these. Not the doctored up corn syrup with artificial maple flavoring and coloring. In this case, I used a maple agave blend from Trader Joe’s. It’s real maple syrup blended with agave. It’s one of my new best friends! If you can’t get your hands on that, maple syrup is perfect.

I adapted this recipe from one found in 100 Muffins and Scones, by Felicity Barnum-Bobb. This book is packed with mouthwatering recipes to feed my muffin addiction!

Browned Butter Blueberry Maple Muffins
adapted from 100 Magnificent Muffins & Scones, by Felicity Barnum-Bobb

To print this recipe, click here.

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup blueberries (if frozen, rinsed and set aside to dry a bit)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup maple syrup, for brushing over tops

Heat oven to 375, and lightly grease your muffin pan.
Melt the butter in a small pan, letting it go until it starts to brown and smell nutty. Don't let it burn, but stop
when it gets deep brown. There will be dark sediment in the pan, so pour the butter through a wire mesh strainer
and set it aside to cool a bit. Don't worry if a bit of the sediment makes it through the strainer.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and sugar.
In a smaller bowl, toss the berries with 1/4 cup of the flour mixture.
In a large measuring cup or smaller bowl, whisk the melted butter, maple syrup eggs and salt.
Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff, mix just until blended--then fold in berries.
Fill the muffin cups evenly (I got 10 muffins) and bake for 18-20 minutes.
Do the toothpick test--it should come out clean.
Let the muffins cool a few minutes in the pan, then run a knife around the edges, and turn them out on to a
cooling rack.
Place the cooling rack over a parchment lined pan, and brush the tops with the maple syrup.

A question to you, my readers--what are your favorite kinds of muffins?

Cravings. I’m one of those people that can’t stop thinking about them once they hit me. I have to satisfy the cravings to get them out of my head. And they’re for all kinds of things, like the rest of you, I’m sure. A very common one for me is spaghetti and meatballs—I crave that all the time! My family is lucky they don’t eat it every week. Though, I don’t suppose they’d mind…hmmm…I know I wouldn’t!

But that’s not what this post is about! Cravings, yes. Spaghetti and meatballs, no. I had a craving for a Chocolate Glazed donut. Could not stop thinking about them. But do I really want a deep fried, full of fat, greasy donut? Well, maybe, but should I have one? Hell, no! So I went for the next best thing.

Yes. Cake for breakfast. Also known as Muffins. My friends, muffins. I love them! These are no exception—they were so. Damn. Good. And very easy to make—a bonus!

Chocolate Glazed Donut Muffins

To print these recipes, click here!

makes about 9 muffins

2 cup flour
scant 1 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Cake Spice + 1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Mix in the eggs, oil, butter, milk and vanilla.
Grease the muffin pans. Divide the batter between the muffin cups--an ice cream scoop works great!
Bake for about 18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool in pan on rack for about 5 minutes, then turn on out on rack to cool.
Cool completely before glazing.

And here is the recipe for the glaze, from King Arthur Flour. King Arthur is the only flour I use, ever. It’s such great quality and never lets me down. And have you checked out their site? Bakers Heaven!

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup (I use Golden Syrup)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the ingredients together over low heat or in the microwave, stirring often. Add extra corn syrup if needed to make a smooth, shiny glaze. Yield: about ½ cup glaze.

If you’re using sprinkles, get them on there right after glazing the muffins so they’ll stick. And then let the muffins sit for a bit so the glaze can set up. The easiest way (for me) to glaze them was to put the glaze in a bowl that’s kind of narrow at the bottom, so the glaze isn’t too shallow. If it is, you’ll be bumping the muffins on the bottom of the bowl and won’t get a pretty glaze.

And I’m here to prove it! I was recently contacted by Katharine Schuler from U.S. Mills. She wanted to know if I would be interested in trying some of their products. One of them is Uncle Sam Cereal—we buy that pretty often at Trader Joe’s, so I said yes, please! She asked what I’d like to try, but I left it up to her—though I did add that I have four kids, so if she could tuck a few kid things in there, that would be great. My kids get so excited when a package arrives, but so bummed when there’s nothing in it that they think is cool.

Katharine packed a box so full of stuff, it was like a puzzle. I don’t think I could have ever repackaged it if I had to, hehe. But I was so surprised, and the kids were thrilled! U.S. Mills doesn’t just have cereal, they have cookies, graham crackers, 100 calorie graham cracker snack packs, hot oatmeal---if it’s for breakfast, they probably have it. Have a look around their site—I’ll bet you see something you want to try, or have already tried and had no idea it was from them.

So I had all of this cereal, and aside from eating it in a bowl, I knew I could find something else to do with it. I had a quick look at the recipes on the site, and messed around with a couple. I’m happy to report my experiments were successful!

You all know how much I love muffins—they’re an excuse to have cake for breakfast. So I went with those first. And came up with these Chunky Monkey Muffins. What’s not to love about banana and chocolate? Nothing! And adding a healthy dose of good for you Uncle Sam Cereal was perfect. Gave them a little crunch, and the kids loved them. They were like “Cereal? In a muffin? Have you gone nuts, Mom?” But I knew they’d love them. And I was happy they were getting some good grains into their systems.

Chunky Monkey Muffins
Makes 2 dozen

To print this recipe, click here!

3 1/2 cups Uncle Sam Cereal (Original)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 smallish bananas (1 cup total mashed banana)
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Combine wet ingredients in a medium bowl.
Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff, fold in chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
Bake for about 18 minutes, until tester comes out clean.
Cool in pans for a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool.

Look who was hoping I’d drop a muffin…sorry, Hamilton!

A couple of days later, while looking at the bounty of cereal in the pantry, I decided it was time to try something else. The Erewhon Raisin Bran said “Ooooh! Pick me! Pick me!” So yay, it was the lucky cereal of the day. And it had a recipe on the back for Apricot Nut Bread. I didn’t have dried apricots, but I did have dried figs, and just about everything else it called for, so I got to work and came up with this Fig Nut Bread. It’s very moist and dense, almost like a gingerbread that’s studded with raisins, figs, and nuts. It very much reminded me of Morning Glory Muffins, in fact! It was totally delicious.

Fig Nut Bread
Makes one loaf

To print this recipe, click here!

1 1/2 cups Erewhon Raisin Bran
3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp Cake Spice
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup agave or honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup diced dried figs
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350.
Pour the boiling water over the figs and set aside.
Grease a loaf pan.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a medium bowl, blend the egg, oil, agave, vanilla and applesauce together.
Add to the dry ingredients and stir; fold in the figs (and any leftover water from the figs) and nuts.
Pour into loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

SO the moral of the story is…get out and look for these cereals and other good things from U.S. Mills. And stop looking at cereal like it’s only good for eating in a bowl with cold milk. Although that’s cool, too.

But start thinking outside the cereal box!

My inspiration for these came from of course, Mexican Hot Chocolate. I saw some somewhere online and decided to translate the cinnamon-laced chocolate drink to my my favorite little hand-held-excuse-to-have-cake-for-breakfast, muffins.

It wasn't very difficult--a basic chocolate muffin, and add some cinnamon and chocolate chips for good measure. And then a nice chocolatey, cinnamony streusel over the top. I found the streusel here, and just added a good dose of cinnamon to it. It's so good! Could've sat there and eaten the streusel with a spoon. A little crunchy that way, but so tasty.



These are my entry to Grace's Cinnamon Celebration. I love Grace! She makes the most delectable sweet things that constantly make me say "I want that!" And she's got a thing for cinnamon. Lots of cinnamon.

The winner of the Cinnamon Celebration is getting some Vietnamese Cinnamon bark. That's a good reason to enter right there! Head on over and give her your best cinnamon recipe!



Mexican Hot Chocolate Muffins

Muffins:
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter, melted
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Streusel:
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of flour
2 TB cocoa
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 TB of melted butter



Heat oven to 350. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
Sift the dry stuff together, and make a well in the center.
Add the butter, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla and chocolate chips.
Mix well, but don't overdo it.
Fill the muffin cups evenly.



Mix the streusel stuff until it's crumbly and top each muffin with some.
Bake for 17 minutes or so, and check for doneness.
Cool in pan for a few minutes then remove to a rack.
A cooling rack, not the old torturing device.
And really, I hope you don't have one of those lying around.
Because then you're probably too mean to make nice little streusely muffins.

To print this recipe, click here!




The Sisterhood Award


This award comes from Giz and Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen. They are two of the sweetest ladies in the food blogging world, and I'm happy to have met them through their blog. Thank you, ladies! Now, all of you, get on over there and check them out--they have tons of wonderful recipes!

Here are the rules:

The rules for recipients are:
- Put the logo on your blog or post.
- Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
- Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
- Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.


I happily pass this award along to these lovely blogs and sisters in blogging (in no particular order):

1. Kelly at Sass & Veracity
2. Kat at A Good Appetite
3. Grace at A Southern Grace
4. Shelby at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch
5. Deborah at B More Sweet
6. Lori at Recipegirl
7. Nikki at Canarygirl.com
8. Judy at No Fear Entertaining
9. Shaye at Smarter Than Pancakes
10. Dawn at Vanilla Sugar

I L-O-V-E muffins. A kitchen with muffins baking is a happy kitchen...at least to me. Cranberry orange is one of my favorite ones to make, and of course--eat. They were a natural choice for me to mess around with and makeover to submit to Equal Opportunity Kitchen's Tried Tested and True Two.



TT&T2 is a bit different than the first TT&T. This time, the challenge is to take a family favorite and give it a makeover. Make it better for you, but still taste great.



So what changes did I make?

1) I cut out both fats--1/4 cup of oil and 1/4 cup butter, and replaced them with 6 oz of nonfat plain yogurt.
2) There are two cups of flour in these muffins, and I replaced one of them with white whole wheat flour.
3) Next came the sugar. One cup became 3/4 cup, and as usual, it's organic cane sugar.
4) I also chose a marmalade that had no high fructose corn syrup.
5) I added walnuts, which are good for you, too.



Cranberry Orange Muffins


1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup organic cane sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
6 oz plain nonfat yogurt
3/4 cup low fat milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp orange extract
1/4 cup orange marmalade
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped walnuts



1 Preheat oven to 350°.
2 Sift together dry ingredients, and make a well in the center.
3 Add eggs, yogurt, milk, and vanilla & orange extracts.
4 Mix by hand until just blended.
5 Fold in marmalade, cranberries and walnuts.
6 Spoon into lined or greased 12 muffin pan.
7 Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool for a few minutes in pan, then turn out on to cooling rack.

Makes 12 muffins

They turned out beautifully and I'm very happy with them! They are moist, tender, and not too sweet, just sweet enough. I'm scrapping the old recipe for the new, improved and better for us new one!

So make sure you get your makeover tried and true recipes ready and send them off to Giz and Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen. It's sure to be an amazing, not to mention good for you roundup! You've got until Monday, July 21st at midnight EST. And there are prizes! How can you say no to that?



Print me!

The other day, I was craving a jelly donut. I was at home, and didn't feel like running out to get one. Or two, hehe. I never get them anymore. They're just so not good for you. But it got me thinking, which can sometimes be dangerous. Luckily, this time it wasn't!

I love muffins. All kinds of muffins! Sweet ones, savory ones, healthy ones, not so healthy ones--you name it. So why can't we make muffins that taste like jelly donuts? Well, we can! I took a basic muffin recipe and changed things up to make donut/muffiny goodness. I started thinking, again...I wasn't interested in doing a raised yeasty type one, but the cakey plain donut type--you know the ones. Plain, but good, not too sweet, and often passed by for the frosted, dipped, glazed and jelly filled ones. Poor things.

I thought about what gives those plain ones their special flavor. Definitely some nutmeg, and there's gotta be a little cinnamon. Oh, and a sprinkle of sugar over the top before baking to give them that little "crunch" that a fried donut has. And while we're at it, let's add some raspberry jam somewhere in the middle so we can have our jelly donut fix!

I'm happy to report that they were a success! The kids loved them, and my husband said I should make more. He also said the whole world would love them, but then again, he's my biggest fan. I love that man. :) I put just over one teaspoon jam in these, and compared to my jelly donut standards, it could have used more, hehe. Maybe 1 1/2-2 teaspoons, but be careful, because you don't want the jam oozing out during baking and making a huge mess in your pan. Also, these aren't overly sweet, which is exactly what I was going for. I figured with the jam in there, I'd cut the sugar, and it worked.

I'm submitting these to SnackShots #3 Muffin Roundup at Greedy Gourmet.

So now I'll shut up (finally!) and give you the recipe. I'm really happy with how they turned out!


Jelly Donut Muffins

2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
your favorite fruit jam
sugar for sprinkling over the muffins


1 Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2 Sift the dry ingredients together.
3 Mix in the eggs, oil, butter, milk and vanilla.
4 Grease the muffin pans. Fill the muffin cups almost halfway, carefully place about 1 tsp of jam in the center, and cover with a little more batter.
5 Sprinkle tops with sugar.
6 Bake for about 18 minutes.
7 Cool in pan on rack for about 5 minutes, then turn on out on rack to cool.



Yield: 9 muffins

Ben over at What's Cooking is hosting a Food for Plastic (Kidz) Challenge. Noooo, not plastic kids! Silly...hehe. Tupperware!

What's it all about, you ask? April is Children's Month at Tupperware, and to celebrate, they're donating $1 from the sale of certain items to the Boy's and Girl's Club. What a great cause! Tupperware has a lot of kid's items on sale for 30-50% off, as well. To see them, go take a look at Ben's Tupperware store. Check out those awesome lunch boxes--get a head start on back to school shopping (really, it'll be here before you know it! I'll duck now so you can throw your shoes at me.), and cross one of those off your list!

What is a Food for Plastic Challenge? Well, let me tell you! Ben sells Tupperware, so he hosts these themed challenges. You submit a recipe to the challenge, and they get voted on. The winner usually wins some Tupperware. Pretty cool, right? This one is food for kids. Something you enjoyed as a child, or something your kids love today--you get the idea. Oh, and Ben's blog is packed full of amazing recipes and tons of info, so get your butt over there check it out. Please. :)

My entry is Double Chocolate Banana Muffins. My kids absolutely love these, and really, unless you hate chocolate and/or banana, you'll love them, too. Moist, chocolatey, banana-ey--mmmm! And a tip: you can pop a cooled muffin in the microwave for 30 seconds and get the chocolate chips all melty again. Grab your glass of milk and you're all set for a chocolate break.

Muffins are usually easy to make and these are no exception. You'll have them in the oven in no time. I usually have to set some bananas aside (that means HIDE them from my four monkeys...I mean...kids) to ripen up if I want to make these. I got this recipe years ago in some e newsletter.

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients.
2. In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil and egg.
3. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. The batter is quite thick, but keep folding it gently, making sure to get the batter on the bottom of the bowl, and it'll all come together.
4. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three fourths full.
6. Bake at 350 deg F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

My husband was watching me scoop the batter into the pans, and he suggested I sprinkle some walnuts on top of some of them. Nice addition, and those seemed to be "overlooked" by the kids. So finally, we got to enjoy some, too, and didn't have to fight for a measly crumb, hehe. Oh! An ice cream scoop is a great way to get your muffins all the same size, and makes scooping the batter in the pans really easy.

Chocolate and coconut. Coconut and chocolate. Right up there with chocolate and peanut butter, I think. Well, really, aren't there a ton of things that just seem to be destined to go with chocolate?

At Halloween, after we've gone out to Trick or Treat, my three youngest always gladly hand over their little bite sized bits of chocolate and coconutty goodness, otherwise known as Almond Joys and Mounds. My oldest--she loves them, too, and won't give 'em up. hmmmph.

*side note: I'm laughing my butt off, because I was googling to get pics of the candy bars to post here. Almond Joy was easy. But Mounds...wow! Google Mounds ---> Images, and see what you get. hahaha! Are we supposed to believe those are real?!?

Anyway, back to the food...if you can get that image out of your head, hehehe. I was craving the choco-coco combo, and also craving muffins. I love muffins. All kinds of muffins. Muffins are our friends. I came up with these, working off of another recipe I have for fruit muffins. I changed things around, added stuff, took out the fruit, and came up with these. They're not sweet, like you think they might be--they're just right. Make sure you get coconut milk that isn't sweetened! If you can't find it, you can use regular milk, no big deal.

Almond Joy Muffins

Makes 6 large muffins, or 9 or so regular muffins

Ingredients

2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cups coconut milk, or regular milk
1 tsp almond extract
3/4 cups coconut, plus a little more for sprinkling over the tops
1/2-3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, butter, coconut milk and almond extract.
4. Stir into flour mixture.
5. Fold in the coconut and the chocolate chips.
6. Grease 1 (6 muffin) muffin pan.
7. Fill the tins about 3/4 full, then sprinkle the tops with the remaining coconut. (an ice cream scoop makes the tins easy to fill and makes your muffins the same size)
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Mine were done at 25, so start testing then. For regular size muffins, check them after 18-20 minutes.
9. Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then serve. But if you're like me, you'll grab a molten hot muffin right out of the oven and pig out. Cooling is for whimps. ;-) Kidding!

To print this recipe, click here!