Peach Muffins

Do you find yourself with leftover juice from canned pears, peaches, etc and wonder if there is any use for it? Good news for you! It can be used in place of apple juice in muffin recipes. I don't remember why I bought a can of peaches as I am normally adverse to any store-bought canned fruit and its syrupy water, but I did and I finished all the peaches while the syrup sat in my fridge. This is one of those times of the year where I simply cannot afford to have spare things sitting in my fridge. So I pulled up this recipe for apple muffins and modified away! It was the perfect muffin consistency, not too sweet, and subtly peachy.

Peach Muffins

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1/4 c. wheat bran or wheat germ
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup white sugar (I used 1/4 c. and it could have been just a touch sweeter)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup peach syrup
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• possible some ground ginger?
• 1 cup fresh chopped peach or nectarine (or leave out and substitute 1/2 c. chopped walnuts)

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin tin or line with baking cups.
2. Whisk flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices together. In a small bowl, whisk peach juice, oil, and egg. Add wet ingredients to dry; stir until dry ingredients are almost moistened, then stir in chopped fruit or walnuts.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (I used a 1/4 c. filled to the top for each muffin cup and it worked perfectly) Bake for ~20 minutes. Let cool for 1- 2minutes before removing muffins from pan.

Raspberry Balsamic Kefir Muffins

One of the advantages of having a mother with a large raspberry patch is free, fresh berries -- unless you live across a border over which they cannot be transported. :( We've gotten around this restriction by canning large amounts of raspberry puree that can be taken across the border without issue and I then happily incorporated into smoothies, pancake toppings, yogurt breakfast, and other baked goods. I recently found this recipe for a strawberry-balsamic vinegar-goat cheese muffin and immediately thought of switching it up with a raspberry-basalmic-kefir cheese muffin. I have never had such rave reviews about muffins from the wife before! Clearly a keeper recipe. What I like about this recipe is the subtle tendency towards savory with the balsamic/black pepper addition. Definitely a muffin for the grown-up palate.

Muffin Batter (makes 10-11 muffins)

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose, unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup kefir cheese* with ~1-3 Tbs warm water (or greek yogurt)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Raspberry-balsamic sauce (See below)

Raspberry Balsamic Sauce

• 3/4 c. raspberry puree
• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin tins (or use muffin liners).
2. Melt butter and let cool for 2-3 minutes.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
4. Combine kefir cheese, egg, and melted butter in separate bowl. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.
5. Lightly fold in raspberry-balsamic sauce.
6. Scoop batter evenly into muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing from pan to cooling rack.

Holy Saturday brunch

The cooking continues this weekend ... a lovely afternoon brunch where I was finally able to test my ability to recreate the amazing bread pudding muffin I experienced at Little Nest.  I started off using the base recipe from the Grand Central Bakery cookbook, and added the additional flavors I wanted. My only complaint about my muffin, although delicious, was that I didn't quite get the crusty exterior I was going for. Perhaps baking longer at the recommended heat, or letting the bread soak for less time (or having bigger bread chunks of more stale bread).

I also made a version of the quintessential breakfast egg casserole. The best thing about both of these recipes is they can be ASSEMBLED THE NIGHT BEFORE!!! And just hang out in the fridge until morning time or brunch time when you are ready to bake them!

Orange Blossom-Pistachio-Chocolate Bread Pudding Muffins
(makes 16 muffins)
1 lb crusty artisan french bread
1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 eggs
1 1/2 c. whipping cream
1 1/2 c. milk
2/3 c. sugar
2 tsp orange blossom water
1.5 -2 oz roughly chopped semi-sweet chocolate (I used Bakers)
1/4 - 1/3 cup chopped unsalted pistachios
1/4-1/2 tsp salt*  (the original recipe did not call for salt, nor did I add it, but I think it would be a good addition!)

1. Cut or tear bread into 1" chunks. Toss with cinnamon in a large bowl.
2. Beat eggs, sugar, cream, milk, and orange blossom water together. Pour over bread. Stir to coat bread.
3. Mix in chocolate and pistachios. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. (I removed the batter from the fridge about 30 min before baking to let it come to room temperature).
5. Line muffin tin with paper cups and scoop batter into tins. The batter should be mounded up (and the muffin tins very full since the muffins won't rise at all).
6. Bake for 40-50 min until crusty on top and muffins are cooked through.

Breakfast Egg Casserole 
6 - 10 pieces of bread
6 eggs
3 c. milk
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
(pepper if desired)
1 chopped green bell pepper
chopped basil
~ 1/4 c. rehydrated sundried tomatoes
1 package veggie breakfast sausage
1 1/2 - 2 c. grated cheddar cheese

1. Grease a 9 x 13" baking pan. Tear bread into chunks and cover the bottom of the pan.
2. Beat eggs, milk, mustard and salt until smooth. Set aside.
3. Layer the bell pepper, basil, sundried tomatoes, breakfast sausage over the bread and top with cheddar cheese.
4. Pour egg mixture evenly over the ingredients in the pan.
5. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
6. Remove 30 min prior to baking and preheat oven to 350oF. Bake for 40-50 min until cooked through in the centre and egg mixture has become puffy/golden brown on top.

These are just suggestions; you could add a variety of vegetables and spices like corn and jalapenos, or green onions, or feta, etc to the egg casserole instead!

Friday afternoon muffin bake

Despite the fact that it's one of the sunniest days I've yet to see this spring, and sun is glistening on the fresh snow in the distant mountains, I am inside baking. No complaints though because if I need to run to the store in the middle of a recipe, I don't need gum boots, a rain slicker, and an umbrella! And I can go bask outside on a lawn chair (admittedly still wearing a hoodie and jeans) with a book while the muffins are in the oven.

 This recipe is based on Anne's Bran Muffin recipe from The Grand Central Baking Book. I'm not sure how their muffin recipe yielded 12 muffins unless they have giant muffin tins, so that's the reason for the extremely odd number of muffins produced below. I would rate these muffins a success! An aside to baking: while most recipes say to fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, I always do the reverse, using a large bowl to hold the mixed dry ingredients and a smaller bowl to hold the wet ingredients. No baking items have been injured in this manner.

Buttermilk Bran Muffins (makes ~18-19 muffins)

1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. butter 
1/3 c. molasses
2 large eggs
1 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. yogurt (alternately just use 1 1/4 c. buttermilk)
1/2 c. applesauce
3/4 c. wheat bran
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. - 3/4 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. raisins (or currants or chopped dried apricots)

(1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two muffin tins with paper liners. Whatever cups you don't end up filling, remove liners and put a bit of water in.
(2) Whisk sugar down through applesauce together and add wheat bran in to soak.
(3) Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a bowl (reserving walnuts and dried fruits for later).
(4) Fold the wet ingredients into the dry mixture until just combined. Add the nuts and dried fruits in. This batter appears very runny compared to other muffin batters, but it works. You can always add in a little extra flour if you really want to.
(5) Scoop batter into the muffin tin, filling each cup 3/4 full (or as close as you can get!)
(6) Bake for 25 min until edges are browned and the centre of the muffin springs back when gently poked.