Strawberries and Double Cream Muffins

Strawberries and Double Cream Muffins

Strawberries and cream is a classic combination and sour cream in the batter and cream cheese in the center make these muffins doubly delicious!


Strawberries and Double Cream Muffins
Printable Recipe
Makes 18 regular sized muffins


Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups strawberries - diced

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese - softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions:

Grease 18 muffin tins and set aside
Heat oven to 375 degrees F

1. Blend together cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar for filling until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Refrigerate until needed.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. Set aside.
3. Melt butter and add to oil. Stir in milk, sour cream, vanilla and eggs.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and blend until just combined - there may be a few lumps. Fold in strawberries.
5. Spoon into prepared muffin tins 2/3 full. Drop filling onto top of each muffin - about a tablespoon for each. If refrigerated the filling will sink into the batter and settle in the center while baking.
6. bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched. Cool completely in tins before removing.

Blueberry Corn Muffins

Blueberry Corn Muffins

This recipe is adapted from the Raspberry Corn Muffins in the Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook, Food to Live By. Please purchase the book to see that and other wonderful recipes by Myra Goodman.

This makes a moist muffin that is not quite as moist the second day. Either way, they are delicious!

Blueberry Corn Muffins
Makes 18 regular size muffins or 9 larger
Printable Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal - I like regular grind for texture
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup sour milk (1 Tablespoon lemon juice and enough milk to make 1 cup)
1 pint fresh blueberries - washed and dried

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place cupcake liners in 18 muffin cups.
Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Blend well. Make a well in the center and add eggs, oil and milk. Stir until there are no more lumps. Add blueberries and fold in. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops of muffins spring back when touched.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins

Walking through the grocery today with my daughter, Megan she picked up a mammoth muffin and pointed to the top, "Look, see that sparkly sugar on top? Why don't you make muffins like this, woman?" Yes, she calls me 'woman' and points to the fact that Jesus also called his mother 'woman' as her reasoning for doing this and not being disrespectful. Right.

Anyway, I can make muffins like that, I just don't because I like to limit sugar consumption here to what is in food without making it worse by putting sugar on the food as well. I caved and made them for her. This combines two of my favorites - chocolate and cinnamon.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 12 large muffins
Printable Recipe

3 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs - beaten
1/2 cup oil or melted butter (I like olive oil for baking)
1 12 ounce package mini chocolate chips
large grained sugar - I use Wilton's White Sparkling Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 12 large (a.k.a. mammoth) muffin tins with muffin liners. Stir together dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Blend milk, eggs, butter or oil and vanilla together and pour into well. Mix batter thoroughly and fold in chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout batter.

Divide batter evenly between muffin tins and top each with sugar. Bake until tops spring back when touched lightly - about 20-25 minutes.

Constant Comment Muffins

Everyone has heard of the popular Bigelow tea, Constant Comment. To be perfectly honest, bad pun intended, it's not my cup of tea. In fact, if it were the only tea on earth, I simply wouldn't drink tea. My family, however, are all quite enamored with the amber brew and drink it like there's no tomorrow. There's no accounting for palates being passed on, is there?

At any rate, when I was devising muffins for my most recent Family.com post (Morning Muffins) I decided to see if I could come up with a muffin that would taste like the tea my family so adores. These are those muffins.

Constant Comment Muffins
Makes 12
Printable Recipe

1 cup sour milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 teaspoon orange zest
3/4 cup oat flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon apple pie spice (allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg)
1 cup instant oats
1 cup finely diced apple

Combine milk, orange juice, sugar, oil, extract, egg and zest. Blend well. Sift wheat flour, oat flour, spice, soda and powder. Add to wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in oats and apple. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees F for or until tops spring back when touched.

Delicious Autumn

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns.
- George Eliot

I am lucky enough to live in a climate that experiences, in their fullest, each season the world has to offer. Of all four, Fall is my favorite. The intense aromas and colors are unmatched in any other season. The sky is never bluer and the shadows seem to take on a life all their own in Autumn.

The foods of this time of year also tend to be my favorites. Apples abound, pumpkins are ripe and ovens are lit in expectation of comforting dishes.



Anne's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 24 standard sized muffins or 12 large
Printable Recipe

4 eggs
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
l can pumpkin (15 oz.- about 2 cups)
3/4 c vegetable oil
3/4 c olive oil
1 t vanilla
3 c flour
2 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
l t ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
l t salt
2 c semisweet chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oils until smooth.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt-add to
pumpkin mixture and mix well. Fold in chips. Fill greased or
paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees F for
16 to 20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes
before removing to a wire rack.

My "Ham Ball" with Ham Balls!

Ham Balls

Ham Balls
Makes 12 individual size loaves
Printable Recipe

Makes 24  2-ounce ham balls

1 pound ground pork
2 pounds ground cooked ham
2 cups dry bread crumbs

2 teaspoons dry ground mustard

1 Tablespoon Kosher salt
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons brown or grainy mustard

In a large bowl combine pork, ham, bread crumbs, dry mustard, salt, eggs and milk. Mix well with hands.
Shape into 24 meatballs and set on a greased baking sheet.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Heat brown sugar, water, vinegar and mustard over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved. 

Pour over meatballs and toss to cover.