Category Archives: Muffin

Blueberry Muffins

blueberry muffins

When I worked in Chelsea Market in New York City, I would stop by Amy’s Bread at least twice a week for a muffin and coffee snack. As I’ve already established, muffins are one of my favorite foods to eat and to bake, so I was thrilled when my sister gave me the cookbook The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread. Now I can have a bite of Amy’s from my Boston apartment.

Zoe is still my little muffin monster. I usually have a stash of muffins in my freezer but yesterday I ran completely out. At some point she had a full on tantrum, crying “muffin, muffin, muffin” as though I was holding out on her. So today I wasted no time getting these in the oven.

These take a whole cup of butter! Yes, that’s two whole sticks. I was horrified at first, but when my apartment started to fill with the aroma of butter baking, I got over it. Butter is good. Roll with it. These are dense, rich muffins, no extra butter or jam required when you serve them.

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Sweet Potato Muffins at Midnight

sweet potato muffins

“No no, Zoe, let mommy take a picture!”

Sweet potatoes are Zoe’s favorite vegetable these days. And since being a toddler evidently means learning to spit out peas and broccoli, I’m so grateful she’s still stuffing handfuls of baked sweet potatoes into her mouth with enthusiasm. I’ve mixed mashed sweet potatoes with quinoa, rice, yogurt and even lamb stew! She eats it all (knock on wood).

As I mentioned before, I love making baby (and now toddler) foods. But it’s a three-step process: 1) Buy the ingredients, 2) Cook the food, and 3) Freeze the food within 2-3 days. As the steps progress, I get more and more challenged. So, last night (or this morning) at midnight I realized I still needed to freeze a large bowl of baked sweet potatoes I had in the fridge. On my way to bed I stopped to diligently portion out the chunky potatoes into my cute freezer trays, only… they didn’t all fit. So, what to do with leftover baked sweet potatoes?

Bake muffins, of course! I adore muffins — they’re simple, easy, quick and cake-like without being cake. In baked goods, sweet potatoes are basically just sweet pumpkin, so I looked up “pumpkin muffin” recipes and chose one that looked easy and foolproof (it was midnight after all). I was delighted to find an old Gourmet magazine (Nov 2006) recipe written about on one of my favorite all-time blogs, Smitten Kitchen. (Aww, Gourmet… I could find that same magazine issue right now if I had to, lovingly tucked into one of my bookshelves). Continue reading

Healthy Everything Muffins

healthy muffins

Whole Wheat Banana Blueberry Muffins

I’m really a good baker. I mean, I’m great at measuring and following instructions, just like my grandmas always taught me. But somehow, this morning, I decided I was going to throw every healthy ingredient I owned into a batch of muffins (and eat as many as I wanted without feeling guilty). And I’m talking about flaxseed meal, oat bran, oatmeal (is that redundant?), applesauce, a ripe banana, oh yeah, and the buttermilk I’ve been trying to use up all week. I was a little out of control. And I’m usually more of a, “cook it because it’s delicious and hope it happens to be healthy-ish” type of person, but I’m happy to report that, even though these muffins were baked as healthy treats, they just happen to be delicious.

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