MUFFIN MANIA
Three surefire recipes for top-notch muffins
“Oooh! That looks so good,” raved a shopper, pointing to the display case. “What is it?”
“That’s a chocolate chip muffin,” answered an employee at the Ultimate
Bake Shoppe of Wayne, where “muffins are big” in size and popularity.
Choose from blueberry crumb, cranberry apple and more. National Muffin Day took place just last week.
“Everyone loves a good muffin,” explained co-owner Stephanie Brown. “In a day, we’ll make 60-plus dozen muffins. On Saturday, I can make 70.”
“It’s comfort,” she added. “It’s something they had as a child. It’s something quick and simple and wholesome at the same time.”
“It’s perfect all the way around,” agreed Nicole Banta, coowner of My Favorite Muffin near Phoenixville. Her pick? Strawberry cheesecake. “The real strawberries and the cream cheese - it just makes your taste buds explode.”
At Christina Verrelli’s Devon home, “t he cinnamon chip’s, hands down, my kids’ favorite.”
“Anytime they have a sleepover, that’s what they want for breakfast,” said the Pillsbury Bake-Off winner, food blogger and Kitchen Aid on-air guest for QVC.
As “a twist on the typical carrot caketype muffin,” try her beet, oat and chocolate muffins. Or spring forward with lemon-kissed blueberry muffins.
“These muffins are warm and fluffy and just like the quintessential muffin,” described Verrelli, who shared recipes and tips like don’t overmix. “You’re more or less just incorporating the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, but I’m not afraid to use my stand mixer.”
She also prefers lighter colored pans to dark, nonstick ones, but “if you do use one of the darker pans, drop your temperature 25 degrees.”
And remember, ovens vary. “Check your temps, for sure,” Brown advised. “I get that question more than anything.”
Here’s another: Paper liners or cooking spray?
“I use an oil-based pan releaser, so it continues the baking,” she said. “You’ll get more of a crust, that crunchy muffin top that everybody likes.”
Save $$$ on muffins today
Treat yourself! My Favorite Muffin near Phoenixville is offering a special promotion today. Buy two jumbo muffins, get one free. Or buy six mini muffins, get three free.
The cake-like muffins come in flavors like banana nut, double chocolate and golden corn bread, which is “almost like a dinner muffin,” said co-owner Nicole Banta.
#givemuffins
Did you know there’s a charitable “muffin movement” underway? Around National Muffin Day, which falls on Feb. 20, volunteers across the country make muffins for people experiencing homelessness. And you can too.
The fifth annual event happens this Sunday, Feb. 24. Bake a batch (or more!), share photos publicly on social media with #givemuffins and then deliver them to those in need. For everyone who does, organizers will donate to Project Homeless Connect and Family Promise.
It’s the brainchild of Jacob “MuffinMan” Kaufman of San Francisco and Atlantabased Julia Levy.
“We’ve taken a twist on the traditional food holiday that’s typically about the consumer and flipped it to focus on giving,” Levy explained. “This is our philanthropic version of the holiday.”
Last year, they had 235 volunteer bakers, aka Muffinteers, and donated $6,700.
Learn more at www.nationalmuffinday. org.
Our Favorite Cinnamon Chip Muffins
Tender muffins studded with cinnamon chips and drizzled with a cinnamon glaze!
Ingredients Muffins:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (see notes to make your own)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup oil (such as canola)
1 cup cinnamon chips Cinnamon glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan (I just rubbed mine with a paper towel dipped in a little extra oil) or line with cupcake liners. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour and sugar. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, vanilla and the egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir a few times. Add cinnamon chips and stir until just combined, being careful not to overmix. Scoop into prepared muffin tin (about 3 tablespoons in each.) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. They should be just golden brown on top, and a toothpick inserted should come out mostly clean. Let the muffins cool in the pan about 3 to 5 minutes as they are very tender and tend to leave their bottoms in the pan if you remove them right away. I also use a very thin metal spatula or knife to loosen the edge of the muffins before removing.
While the muffins are baking, stir together the glaze ingredients. I like to use my hand mixer or chopper to get out all the lumps. Once the muffins are removed from the pan, place them on a cooling rack over some parchment or a tray and drizzle the glaze all over the warm muffins.
Notes: Self-rising flour is a lower protein flour with salt and baking powder added. The lower protein flour helps make a tender biscuit or muffin. The added salt and flour are a nice baking shortcut! To make your own self-rising f lour, whisk together:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt Cinnamon chips can sometimes be found along with the other baking chips at your grocery store. I really like the mini cinnamon chips available on King Arthur Flour’s website. I buy several bags of them in the cooler weather (so they don’t melt in the mail) and store them in my freezer.
Beet, Oat & Chocolate Muffins
When these muffins come out of the oven, they smell chocolatey with a slight aroma of the earthy beets. When you bite into them, they’re surprisingly light and moist with a rich chocolate and very mild beet flavor. You can mix these with a food processor, stand mixer, hand mixer or by hand. Ingredients
2 medium-sized beets, shredded fine (2 cups)
2 cups old-fashioned oats, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup neutral oil (safflower, avocado, canola)
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12cup standard muffin pan or line with paper liners. Reserve 1/2 cup of the oats. Process the remaining 1 1/2cups using food processor, blender or chopper to make oat flour. Measure 1/2cup of the oat flour and reserve the remaining for another use. Stir the oat flour, reserved 1/2 cup whole oats, all-purpose flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Add the butter and sugars to the large bowl of the food processor fitted with the multipurpose blade. Pulse, then process on low. Scrape down and process again if needed. Can alternatively mix with hand mixer, stand mixer or by hand. With the processor running, add the eggs, milk and vanilla through the medium feed tube. Stop and scrape down if needed. With the processor running, drizzle in the oil. Stir the wet ingredients from the food processor into the dry ingredients; stir to mix partway. Add the shredded beets, chocolate chips and stir just until combined. Fill each muffin cup about 3/4full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top springs back when touched. Allow to cool 10 minutes and then remove from pan to finish cooling on cooling rack.
Lemon-Kissed Blueberry Muffins
When I sank my teeth into these light, fluffy muffins - warm and bursting with fresh blueberries, drizzled with a lemony glaze - my mouth said, ‘yes, these taste just like spring!’ Ingredients Muffins:
2 cups flour, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar plus more for sprinkling 2 large eggs
1/2cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2teaspoon vanilla
2 cups fresh blueberries
Glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners’ (powdered) sugar 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/2teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon water Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange rack to center position. Spray muffin pan with nonstick spray or use paper liners and just spray the top of the pan. In small bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. In large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in about 1/2 the flour mixture. Mix in the buttermilk, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix in all but about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the remaining flour, being careful not to overmix. Toss the blueberries in the remaining flour. Add themto the mixture and beat gently for a few seconds to break up some of the blueberries. Mix the rest gently by hand. Scoop evenly into the prepared muffin pan. Sprinkle the tops with about 1 tablespoon additional sugar and bake for about 30minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes.
Make glaze: Whisk together powdered sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and water. Drizzle on warm muffins.
Notes: If you have turbinado sugar handy, you can use to sprinkle on the muffins before baking. It adds a little more flavor and crunch than granulated sugar. The combination of whole and some crushed blueberries makes them taste full of blueberry flavor.
ALL RECIPES COURTESY OF CHRISTINA VERRELLI, WWW. EPICURICLOUD.COM