Fresh Peach Muffins

Fresh Peach Muffins

(photo taken in my cubicle at work)

It's been really hot and muggy in Los Angeles. And houses where I live weren't built with air conditioning (350 days a year this isn't a problem because we get ocean breezes...but those few days of heat wave are killer). I sat in the backyard with Cidney the Girl Dog this weekend (thank you iPad) until 9 pm hoping the house would cool down (it didn't). So I haven't been baking much because it would be a crime against humanity to turn on the oven.

But last week I made some peach muffins for work early in the morning. I didn't have time to pull out the big camera and take photos. Also, as summer ends, I don't have any morning light anymore as I leave the house at 6 am for work. Sad times, yo. So, even though the photos aren't pretty, these muffins were good. They aren't sweet, and rely on the sweetness and tenderness of your summer fruit to carry the muffin. We only have a few weeks left of peaches, so make these soon.

Recipe:
Adapted from the Easy Morning Muffins in the Art & Soul of Baking, page 148 (find it in your library via WorldCat)

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (4 3/4 ounces) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
3/4 stick (3 ounces) butter
Zest of one lemon or orange (I used an orange)
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, room temp
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 medium peaches, peeled and chopped (about 1 1/2 cups of peaches)
Sanding sugar or Sugar in the raw

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prep a muffin tin with liners or butter the tin. I got 14 muffins from this recipe (I put liners in individual ramekins and place them next to the muffin tin in the oven)
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into small bowl. Add the zest and buttermilk and let sit for a few minutes to cool off. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
4. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).
5. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour the butter/egg mixture and the chopped peaches (reserve a few pieces) into the dry ingredients and quickly fold together. Don't overmix. Don't worry if you have a few small lumps.
6. Using an ice cream scoop, dish batter in the muffin tins. If you wish, place a few of the peach pieces on top of the batter in an attractive fashion. Sprinkle sanding sugar on top of batter.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.
8. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then remove muffins to let cool on a wire rack...or eat warm!

Read the book for more yummy recipes and variations!

Here is something else you can do with the last of this summer's fresh peaches - grill them and serve with Greek yogurt and muesli for a quick and delicious breakfast.

I threw white peaches and red plums in my cast iron pan for a few minutes...until warm and grilled. It really brings out the sweetness in the fruit and is sooo delicious. Of course, this is lovely after you use a real grill and serve with ice cream...for. the. win!

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Blueberry Muffins - Real Simple

Blueberry Muffins

Sometimes, I look for recipes based on ingredients I have sitting around.
Sometimes, I look for recipes based on the time I have to bake.
Sometimes, it's a little of both.

Sprouts Market had pints of blueberries on sale for 4 for $5 last week. I couldn't pass that up and grabbed a bunch. I had a meeting in the morning and came home exhausted the night before...so that morning, I was looking for a muffin recipe that didn't use the Kitchenaid, had liquid ingredients and could use up some of my pretty blueberries.

This recipe is from the Real Simple website. It's a simple batter made with melted butter and milk as the main liquid ingredients. I think you should add some vanilla extract, but you can opt to go with the original recipe too.

Fresh blueberries are a perfect treat for the morning!

This is what I did with some of the other muffins. I love having plain Greek yogurt, Bob's Red Mill Muesli and blueberries & bananas. Do you have a "go-to" breakfast meal?

Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Real Simple

2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit
1/2 cup whole milk (I always have some individual shelf stable one-cup milk cartons around)
2 large eggs
2 teaspooons vanilla extract (the original recipe didn't have vanilla but I like to add a bit of vanilla to almost all my muffins)
1 1/2 cups blueberries (I used fresh blueberries but you can use frozen too)
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar ("Sugar in the Raw") or sanding sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with non-stick baking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, butter, milk, vanilla and eggs.
4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and fold together, but don't overmix. Fold in the blueberries.
5. Use an ice cream scoop to divide scoop batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with turbinado sugar or sanding sugar.
6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool - or eat warm!

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Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins from The Recipe Girl Cookbook

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

Happy Monday Morning to you! I hope you had a great weekend. Here is something to make to fill your morning with delight...Recipe Girl's Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins!

The muffin is easy to make - mixing dry and wet ingredients with lots of peanut butter. I used Skippy PB. The dough is pretty thick so it makes it easy to scoop into the muffin tins.

This makes a little sandwich with your favorite jam in the center. Scoop a small amount of batter into the mold and then top with jam. Follow it up with another scoop of batter. I topped mine with some sanding sugar...that always gives muffins a nice top and sweet crunch.

Have you picked up Lori Lange's book? She is a great school teacher turned blogger who was in San Diego but just moved to Nevada. I met her at the first BlogHer Food conference in 2009!

Try these tasty treats - they are perfect for breakfast or an afterschool snack. You know you can eat peanut butter all day long!

Recipe: Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins
From The Recipe Girl Cookbook
Find it in your library or on Amazon

Two Peas and their Pod has the recipe posted on her site here. 
The only difference I made was sprinkling some sanding sugar on top of the muffin before they went into the oven.

Get the book! It has some great savory and sweet recipes with easy to follow instructions.

Disclosure: I'm part of the Amazon Affiliate program and get a few cents if you purchase the book from the link above.

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Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

You know the sad bananas you have on the counter? I have a home for them!

These muffin have 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas so it is very banana-y. The muffins don't have any dairy, but the topping has a little butter (you can sub margarine if you want to make it dairy free).

I used about 3 1/2 medium bananas, and mashed them with a fork to yield 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas. It's easy to make with a simple combination of wet and dry ingredients. The brown sugar gets incorporate in the wet ingredients so it can dissolve a bit with the egg and oil.

These are good both warm from the oven and later in the morning.

It's a portable banana bread!!

With a topping that includes oats, put this in the "you can convince yourself it's kinda healthy" category! :)

Recipe:
Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

Topping:
1/2 cup (50 grams) light or brown sugar
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
2 Tablespoons (18 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter

Batter - Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Batter - Wet ingredients:
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3-4 bananas)
3/4 cup (150 grams) light or dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil

1. Prepare 12 muffin tins with paper liners or with butter/flour.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Mix all the ingredients together (except butter) in a small bowl. Add the butter and use your fingers to make small crumb. Set aside.
4. Mix the dry ingredients of the muffins together in a large bowl.
5. Mix together the wet ingredients with a fork or whisk until combined.
6. Mix the wet batter with the dry ingredients quickly and with a few strokes. Don't overmix.
7. Scoop batter into muffin tin. Fill 3/4 full. Spread topping on each muffin.
8. Bake in middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes (depending on your oven - mine took 23 minutes) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let the muffins sit for 5 minutes and then carefully remove to wire rack to fully cool...or eat them a little warm!

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Girl Scout Thin Mint Muffins

Thin Mint Muffins

Chocolate Muffins.
Girl Scouts Thin Mints.
Morning happiness.

These muffins are based on my favorite chocolate muffins - from King Arthur Flour. Instead of chocolate chips, I chopped up a sleeve of Thin Mints and added a few Andes Mint Chips too.

My UCLA college roommate, Agnes has two beautiful daughters, Lucia & Julia. They are in the Girl Scouts and each year I put out the cookie order form at work. To be honest, I don't know why anyone orders anything but Thin Mints... especially those Samoas covered with coconut (yuck!)

Over the years, I've tried to incorporate Thin Mints into favorite baked goods. You know, baking with seasonal ingredients and all. This year, I ordered six boxes of Thin Mints for myself. I'm not sure how long they'll last though. There have been incidents that require Thin Mint assistance: a bad week, nothing in the fridge to eat, and actors leaving Downton Abbey which translates into sad, sad endings (total thin mint worthy).

So, what have you been up to lately? Obviously, I haven't been blogging too much... I've been watching some TV. What's on your DVR? I have:

The Following with Kevin Bacon on Fox. Holy smokes. This show is fantastic but scares the beeejesuzzz out of me. I can't watch it on Monday night because then I can't sleep. I have to watch it on the weekend during the day. With the doors locked.

The Good Wife. CBS. Still a good show. Liked Julianna Margulies since her Nurse Carol Hathaway days on ER.

Elementary. CBS. Took some episodes to warm up to this one, but it's a good one to keep me in the Holmes world until the BBC releases more Sherlock.

Southland. TNT. Great cop show...and I like seeing Los Angeles landmarks throughout. :)

House of Cards. Netflix streaming. Damn, this is sooo good. Kevin Spacey is amazing.

Comedies:  The Mindy Project, New Girl, The New Normal

Waiting for more episodes from: White Collar (season just ended), Mad Men (coming back in April), Downton Abbey (if they don't kill off everyone...)

I don't have premium channels on cable so I have to wait and buy Amazon instant videos of Homeland (don't tell me what happens in Season 2 please! :)

Fun way to start the morning. Or to enjoy while catching up on your DVR. ;)

Here are some other Thin Mint creations:

Thin Mint Scones


Thin Mint Brownies


Thin Mint Pancakes


Thin Mint Cupcakes

Recipe:
Thin Mint Muffins

Adapted from King Arthur Flour's website's: Chocolate Breakfast Muffins with added Thin Mint cookies and Andes Mint Chips.

2/3 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
1 3/4 cups (7 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups (9 3/8 ounces) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, chopped (in 2013, that was about 15-16 cookies and equaled about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup Andes Mint Chips
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) milk (I used whole milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons vinegar
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter, melted

Prep: Preheat oven to 400°F. Prep muffin tin (I sprayed mine with Pam with Flour spray).
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, chopped Thin Mint cookies and Andes mint chips.
2. In a large measuring cup or medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar.
3. Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend, just until combined. Do not mix.
4. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. King Arthur makes 12 muffins with big tops, but I made them smaller and made 16-18 muffins.
5. Bake the muffins for 18-25 minutes (depending on size), or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes remove them from the pan, to cool on a rack.

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Brown Sugar Buttermilk Muffins

Brown Sugar Buttermilk Muffins

Do you bake much? Sometimes you have some leftover buttermilk...and although you can keep buttermilk for ages, you need another recipe to use it up. This is that recipe! 1 cup of buttermilk, some flour, cinnamon, brown sugar and you a great breakfast treat.

My friend JustJenn tweeted about these muffins the other day. She made them in 2010, but sometimes you need to be reminded of little gems. That night, our friend Nosh with Me tweeted that she was going to make them...and I joined in too!

They are easy to make and assemble. The night before, I mixed the dry ingredients together in a bowl and made the simple crumb topping in another bowl (and refrigerated the topping). In the morning, I just mixed the liquids together and folded it all together. Easy peasy.

These are so yummy! Everyone at the library liked them - make them for your office or family today!

Recipe:
Brown Sugar Buttermilk Muffins
Find the full recipe on JustJenn's blog here!

My changes:  Added 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Baked for 18-20 minutes. I got 16 muffins, and Nosh With Me got 20 muffins.

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Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins

I got my first Christmas card yesterday. What?! I'm in denial about the holiday season. But I do love photo cards...always amazed how fast kids are growing. My mom and dad made my brother and I sit for holiday cards until I was 21 years old. Do you make photo cards for the holidays?

Here are some simple pumpkin muffins...and they are dairy-free! (contains eggs so they aren't vegan). They come together in a jiffy. Next time, I think I'll add some crystallized ginger. Everything is better with ginger.

It's my dear friend Helen's Birthday today! Woo hoo! Happy Birthday Helen!

Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from the American club, in Kohler, Wisconsin via Gourmet Magazine

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15 ounce can)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I used Trader Joe's pumpkin pie spice)
1 1/4 cups sugar

Topping:
1 Tablespoon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
and/or shakes from the Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar Grinder

Preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in 12 muffin cups (I used brown parchment cups - love these. I get mine from Surfas in Los Angeles...they are opening a store in Costa Mesa soon.)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sugar.

Quickly mix the wet mixture with the flour mixture. Don't overmix!

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl.

Scoop batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar topping. (I topped mine with a few grinds of the Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar grinder). Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit for a few minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

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Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins from Joy the Baker

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Some days, you just need a muffin that has:

1. Melted chocolate in the batter
2. Chocolate chips
3. Topped with white chocolate

These are the perfect remedy for those situations in life.

Chocolate muffins are so close to cupcakes...but they don't have frosting. You know me...not the biggest fan of frosting.

These muffins are from Los Angeles' own Joy the Baker Cookbook that came out this year. It rocks. I hope you have it in your collection. These muffins are super easy to make, and are beloved by all. Who doesn't like chocolate chocolate and more chocolate?

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
From: Joy the Baker Cookbook - Find it on Amazon or your library

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
5 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chunks (I used Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (I used 96 grams of Nestle white chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a muffin pan. Joy's recipe says it yields 12 muffins, but I must have made mine a bit smaller and got 16 muffins.

Create a double boiler (place some water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer) and place the butter (chopped into about 8 pieces) and 5 ounces of chocolate into a heatproof bowl over the simmering water. Don't let the bowl touch the water. Melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring together. Once melted, remove and set aside to cool a bit while you mix the rest of the ingredients.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, soda, salt.

Whisk the brown sugar into the chocolate mixture. Follow with the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla. Add the flour mixture all at once and fold together. Don't overmix. Add the chocolate chunks.

Dish into muffin tin. Bake for 18-20 minutes - until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pan after 5 minutes and place muffins on wire rack to cool completely.

When the muffins are cool (or as long as you can wait), melt the white chocolate like you did the semi-sweet chocolate. Note that white chocolate melts at a lower temperature. Once melted, have fun drizzling it over the muffins.

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Spiced Pear Muffins

Spiced Pear Muffins

Do you read The Kitchn? I love the website. They always have helpful tips, recipes and just plain pretty things. I had a few pears on my counter and found Emma Christensen's recipe for Spiced Pear Muffins.

I used lovely bartlett pears from Ha's Farms. They are a farmer's market vendor in Hollywood, Torrance, Palos Verdes and a few other places. They have wonderful apples and even better pears. Unlike other muffin recipes that are more "quick bread" (liquid and dry ingredients combine), this recipe creams the butter and sugar together - more like a cake batter. As you can see, the batter is thick.

The original recipe uses a mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour. I didn't have any whole wheat flour in the house so I used all a-p flour. Also, I made these quite early in the morning and completely forgot to put cinnamon-sugar on top of the muffins...as well as the ground ginger. It was too early for me. Oops.

I dropped these off, along with some cookies, at my former workplace. Although I enjoy my new place, I was at the old library for five years and miss the folks. I miss hearing about K's beautiful granddaughter, E's smart toddler who never has a bad hair day, J's travels around the globe, V's gardening and her intelligent sons, P's son who is a fire fighter explorer (I wish I could join :), F's March Madness (UCLA Bruins all the way), and H's discussion of White Collar and all things George Clooney.

These were a hit at the library. I hope you make some for your friends and family - especially those that you don't see everyday.

Spiced Pear Muffins
Adapted from Emma Christensen / The Kitchn's Spiced Pear Muffins
See the original recipe here (as well as very pretty photos)


1/2 cup (4 oz) light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup (2 oz) white sugar
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4 oz) milk (I used whole milk)
2 to 2 1/2 cups pears, unpeeled and diced small (2 medium-sized pears, about 11 oz whole) (I used two Bartlet pears from Ha's Farm)
Cinnamon-and-Sugar for sprinkling on top (You can make a mix of 1/4 cup white sugar and 1 Tablespoon cinnamon, but only sprinkle a bit of that on the muffin and save the rest for cinnamon toast).

Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare 12-muffin cup pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the sugars and butter until fluffy. Add eggs one at at time and beat for 1 minute after each egg. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Scrape down side of bowl.

With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, starting and ending with the flour until just combined. Don't overmix! Fold pears into the batter.

Fill muffin cups. I use an ice cream disher. I didn't fill mine as high as The Kitchn and got 15 muffins, but you can fill them full to get 12 bigger muffins. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and sugar.

Place the muffins in the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 400°F (don't miss this part!) Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are cracked and a toothpick comes out clean.

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Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

It's fall. What? It was close to 90 degrees in the Southland today.

But I am sad that it's getting dark and we can't "play in the streets" like kids anymore. With my new work schedule, I'm running at dusk and end the jog in the dark. I bought these reflective ankle bands to illuminate myself...I'm thinking of making a set of snap-on ones for the dog too. Would that just be too embarrassing for her?! Anyway, please don't hit me if you are driving around Los Angeles. :)

When I think fall, I think oranges. Oranges and chocolate. And that brings me to these muffins.

The base recipe is from the Art & Soul of Baking cookbook by the fine folks at Sur la Table. Originally, you use lemon zest (with no chocolate), but I wanted to add chips and think orange goes really well with chocolate. I made the nectarine upside-down muffins using the same base recipe.

This is really easy to pull together because you melt the butter with the orange zest (the kitchen smells GREAT!). You can throw these together before a morning meeting or before a leisurely Sunday brunch.

I toss a few reserved mini chocolate chips on top of the muffin before baking, and tossed a little sanding sugar on top. I think everything is better with sanding sugar!

Recipe:
Adapted from the Easy Morning Muffins in the Art & Soul of Baking, page 148 (find it in your library via WorldCat)

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (4 3/4 ounces) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
3/4 stick (3 ounces) butter
Zest of one orange
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, room temp
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips (pull out a few tablespoons to sprinkle on top)
Sanding sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper cupcake liners.
3. Place the orange zest in a saucepan with the stick of butter. Melt the butter. (Melting the butter with the orange zest will bring out the orange flavor. Pour butter and orange into small bowl.
4. Add buttermilk and let sit for a few minutes to cool off.
5. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
6. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda,  salt, most of the chocolate chips).
7. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour the butter/egg mixture into the dry ingredients and quickly fold together. Don't overmix. Don't worry if you have a few small lumps.
8. Using an ice cream scoop, dish batter into muffin tins. Sprinkle with a few chocolate chips and sanding sugar.
9. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.
10. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then carefully turn over the muffin tin onto a sheet tray.

Be sure to check out this book - it's filled with some great recipes and very good instructions.

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