Orange Muffins with Dried Cranberries

Aromatic, soft, not to sweet morning muffins that are great for a low dose of sugar as breakfast or any kind of snack.

The orange juice adds a nice taste and additional sweetness while using very little sugar.  If you do not have dried cranberries, I am sure raisins would be fine and still delicious.  

The topping gives it additional sweetness while reserving the taste of the original muffin itself.  The cinnamon of it mixed with the nutmeg in the muffin give this muffin a very delicious taste to it!

Orange Muffins with Dried Cranberries

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Zest of 1 orange
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup low-fat milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2/3 cup dried cranberries

Topping

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 190.5°C and line a 12-cup standard muffin pan with baking cups (I buttered and coated with flour instead because I had no muffin cups, and I made 9 instead of 12); coat baking cups with cooking spray. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Combine orange zest, orange juice, milk, oil, and egg in a medium bowl; add to flour mixture and stir just until combined. Gently fold in cranberries and fill each baking cup 3/4 full of batter. 

 Mix together sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over muffins. Bake for 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let muffins cool in pan on a wire rack for 2 minutes before removing from pan to serve warm or cool completely. Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days.

Yield – 10 muffins (serving size: 1 muffin)
Calories – 166
Carbs – 26

ENJOY!!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin

These muffins are so easy and delicious to make. I decided to make these for my son to take it to his nursery. They freeze so well too! Just wrap each one with transparent paper (this is what I do). This recipe is one of the good ones to use when we find ripe bananas around the kitchen and we don't know what to do with them! :)

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 Tbsp espresso or strong coffee (optional)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• Chocolate chips (I used around half cup)
  
• Walnut to decorate (optional)
  

Method

No need for a mixer with this recipe.

Preheat the oven to 180 C. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

Mix in the sugar, egg, espresso and vanilla.

Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

Add the flour, mix until it is just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips and put a walnut on top of the muffin.

Pour mixture into a prepared muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean, it's done. Cool on a rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

ENJOY!!

Blueberry Muffins

Every time we are at Starbucks, we want to have one of these. I never made muffins but have made cupcakes, I was like what the heck, what would be the difference? So I tried this recipe and oh my GOD! I loved it specially because of the topping which is made from lemon and sugar so it gave this zesty taste to it on top of the sweet taste of the blueberry itself.. The recipe says you can use either frozen or fresh blueberries, I just did not bother and got fresh because getting frozen would get a mess since I have tried before baking with frozen blueberries, but if you do not have fresh it is ok, get frozen, do not defrost them, just right there take them out of the freezer and soak them in AP flour and whisk around slowly. That's it! do not worry!!

My son loved it and I got rave reviews!! I tell you, do them as soon as you can!

Ingredients

Lemon-Sugar Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
zest from one lemon

Muffins:
2 cups frozen blueberries (or 2 cups fresh)
1 1/8 cups plus 1 teaspoon of sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
1 cup buttermilk (OR 1 cup of milk mixed in 1 tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice letting it rest for 2min)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

For the topping, stir together sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.

For the muffins, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 190C. Spray a standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Rinse one cup frozen berries under cold water and spread on a double layer of paper towels to dry well. Bring remaining one cup berries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with a spoon several times and stirring frequently, until the berries have broken down and the mixture is thickened and reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and cool to room temperature, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Toss the berries that have dried on the paper towels in with the flour mixture. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl until thick, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture into flour mixture until just moistened. The batter will be lumpy with a few dry spots of flour – don’t overmix. This is the key to moist and tender muffins.

Using ice cream scoop or large spoon, fill the muffin cups until they are about 3/4 full. Spoon a teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into the center of each mound of batter. Using a skewer (or a chopstick), gently swirl the berry filling into the batter using a figure eight motion. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over the muffins.

Bake until the top of the muffins are golden and just firm, 17-18 minutes. Cool muffins in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

ENJOY!