Cherry-Almond Muffins

I recently wrote about making two batches of Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins using two different recipes and comparing the results.   The one that came out the worse of that comparison was a recipe from My Gourmet Connection.  That one wasn't the only muffin recipe I've tried from that site, though, and the other one - a recipe for Cherry-Almond Muffins - turned out vastly better. 

I pitted and chopped a lot of fresh, sweet cherries to make these muffins (1 1/2 cups of chopped cherries, in fact).  As a result, the muffins had a delightful and rich cherry flavor.   The cherries were supported by almond flavor, provided by almond extract in the muffins and a topping of chopped almonds.  

The muffins were light and moist and really quite delightful.  Not only were they vastly better than the Lemon Poppy Seed muffins I made from a recipe at that site, but they were in fact one of the best batches of muffins I've ever made.  This is a good time of year to purchase fresh cherries in the grocery stores, and this muffin recipe puts cherries to excellent use.  If you try out the recipe yourself, I'm confident you'll agree.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin Taste Test

I like a lot of different types of muffins, but lemon poppy seed is among my favorites.  I can get a really good lemon poppy seed muffin at Smokey Row Coffee House on Cottage Grove in Des Moines, which is pretty close to my office, but for awhile now I've been thinking about making some of my own.  The problem was, I had a couple different recipes that looked quite good, but I didn't know which one to try.  Finally it occurred to me to try both, and see whether they were equally good, or whether one was a lot better than the others.

The first recipe I tested was one for Lemon Poppy Seed Buttermilk Muffins from My Gourmet Connection.  I've had mixed results with My Gourmet Connection recipes.  The site features a really diverse bunch of recipes, but I've found the occasional dud, and more often than not I've found myself using the recipes there as a point of reference for my own creations, rather than making them as written at the site.   That said, I'd recently made a different muffin recipe printed there, and that one had turned out great, so I wanted to give their lemon poppy seed recipe a try.  I figured the buttermilk would provide some extra tang that would go with the lemon juice and zest.  

The second recipe I tested was the Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins recipe form Annie's Eats.  I've not made very many of the recipes featured there, but the ones I've made have turned out well, and there are several recipes from that site on my "need to make this one of these days" list. 

I made one batch of twelve muffins from each recipe, following the recipes as written.  The only way in which I deviated from the published recipes was that I did not use paper liners to line the muffin pan as suggested in the recipe from Annie's Eats.  Juli and I then tried both muffins to see if one was better than the other.

It wasn't even close.

The first muffins I made, the ones using the recipe from My Gourmet Connection, were not very good at all.  They turned out dry and dense and weren't very flavorful.   The lemon flavor was quite muted, even with the use of lemon extract.  Indeed, the most notable aspect of the flavor of these muffins was that they left an unpleasant, slightly bitter aftertaste. 

After trying one bite, Juli said "I've made ones from a mix that are better than this."   For my part, I'd have to say these were among the worst examples of a lemon poppy seed muffin I've ever tried.

In contrast, the muffins I made using the recipe from Annie's Eats were just plain delicious.   They were light and moist and flavorful and full of lemony goodness.  Even better, they were topped by a glaze made of powdered sugar and lemon juice.  These were better than the other batch of muffins in every single way.  The picture below shows clearly how much more these muffins puffed up in the tin than did the other ones, even though both were made with approximately equal amounts of batter.

I'll definitely be making these ones again, and the only change I foresee making from the recipe as published on the blog is that I'll probably add a couple drops of yellow food coloring to the batter, in order to give the muffins a bit more color.

Making these two batches of muffins reminded me of how much I rely on a couple different tools.  Specifically, the Microplane Rasp Grater and our old Oster juicer.   I use the rasp grater all the time, for all sorts of things, but it most frequently comes into play when I need some citrus zest.  Those who have followed our blog for awhile will probably recall that I use citrus zest a lot, and this tool makes zesting a quick and easy task.  There's a reason why the various Microplane rasp graters are considered the best in class by America's Test Kitchen and pretty much everyone else.

As to the Oster juicer... well, it's old.  Really, really old.  But it still works like a charm.  This also sees heavy use in our kitchen, because fresh-from-the-fruit lemon, lime and orange juice beats the bottled stuff hands-down.  I hope it doesn't break down any time soon, because I doubt anyone makes a similar device that is half as sturdy and reliable as this thing.

Banana, Strawberry and Orange Muffins

Regular readers will probably have noticed that Juli and I are rather fond of muffins.  We're always on the lookout for new varieties to try out, so when one of our favorite blogs recently featured a delicious-sounding muffin recipe, we knew we'd have to try it out.

The blog in question is For the Love of Cooking.  That blog's author, Pam, features a pretty diverse range of really good recipes.  If you haven't already checked it out, do yourself a favor and do so.  On March 18 she featured a recipe for Banana, Strawberry and Orange Muffins.  Muffins made with mashed, ripe bananas, orange juice and zest and pieces of strawberry.... that sure sounded good.   I'd been planning to make a batch for a couple weeks and finally got around to doing so last weekend. 

The result was pretty darn good.  They were full of fruity flavor, with the banana flavor being the most dominant.  The strawberry flavor didn't extend beyond the bits of strawberry, but those - and especially the more carmelized bits atop the muffins - were quite good, while the orange was more an accent than a primary flavor.  While a bit more dense than most muffins, they weren't heavy or overly chewy.  As is often the case, they were best fresh out of the oven (well, cooled for about 10 minutes before serving, actually), but a few seconds in the microwave warmed them up quite nicely.

As usual, I took the leftovers to work and shared them with my coworkers.   They didn't last long at all.

While I don't expect these muffins to become a frequently-made recipe like my Glorious Morning Glory Muffins or Cook's Illustrated's Best Blueberry Muffins, they were still quite good, and I do think I'll probably make them again sometime.

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Glorious Morning Glory Muffins

The current issue of Cook's Country (April/May 2011) included a recipe for Morning Glory Muffins.  Apparently they were a pretty common variety of muffin back in the 1970s, but I'd never heard of them before reading this article.   A muffin full of carrots, raisins, nuts, coconut, pineapple and apples sure sounded pretty good to me, though!

Something that caught my eye while reading the article was the mention of some other recipes including other ingredients, such as cloves and ginger, that she left out of her recipe.   I'm not a huge fan of cloves, but as our regular readers probably remember, I'm a big fan of ginger, so that sounded pretty good to me.   This got me curious about what was included in the other recipes out there, so I looked in some cookbooks and online to check some of them out.   None of them really had anything else I felt needed to be there, and some suggestions - such as sunflower and sesame seeds - struck me as just plain wrong for these muffins.    I did, however, decide on an addition all my own, namely orange zest.

After looking over the Cook's Country recipe and making a few other changes to make it more to my liking, I was ready to try out my own version.   I finally made up a batch last Saturday morning, and Juli and I were both quite pleased with the results.

The result was a batch of really, really excellent muffins:  Tons of flavor, nicely browned, great texture.  Juli and I loved them for breakfast, and warmed up the next day, and when I took the remainder to share with my coworkers, they were a big hit there as well. 

As always, I want to give credit where due.  In addition to using Sarah Gabriel's recipe in Cook's Country as a starting point, I also followed her suggested techniques, and I believe one of those techniques is a big factor in making these muffins great.  Specifically, she came up with the idea of squeezing as much juice as possible out of the apples and crushed pineapple included in the muffins, then cooking that juice down to concentrate the flavor  while cutting back the amount of liquid to a reasonable amount.   That sounded like a pretty good idea, and I took it further in my own version, adding the juice from the grated ginger and what I could squeeze out of the orange zest and cooking those liquids down as well.  I think that touch was a big part of why my muffins ended up with a bold fruit flavor and wonderful texture.

I will definitely be making these again, and probably often.  If you try them, I'm pretty sure you'll feel the same way.

Glorious Morning Glory Muffins

yield = 12 muffins

3/4          cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2          cup walnut pieces
2 1/4       cups all-purpose flour
3/4          cup granulated sugar
1 1/2       teaspoons baking powder
1             teaspoon ground cinnamon
5/8          teaspoon table salt
1/2          teaspoon baking soda
1             can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple
1             Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and shredded
                (use large holes of a box grater)
1             tablespoon orange zest
1             teaspoon fresh grated ginger
8             tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
3             large eggs
1             teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2       cups shredded carrot
1             cup golden raisins

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350 degrees.  Spray 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.  

Add coconut and walnuts to a medium skillet over medium-high heat.   Toast, stirring often, until the coconut has started to brown and the walnuts are fragrant.  Transfer to food processor.  Finely grind coconut and walnuts, then add flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and baking powder.  Pulse until combined, then transfer to a large bowl.

Place pineapple, shredded apple and orange zest in a fine-mesh strainer set over a large liquid measuring cup.  Press fruit and zest dry, collecting liquid (probably about 1 cup) in the measuring cup.   Add any ginger liquid to this mixture.  Bring juice to boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until reduced to 1/4 cup.  Let cool slightly.

Whisk juice with melted butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth.  Stir wet ingredients into dry mixture until combined, then add pineapple/apple/orange zest mixture, grated ginger, carrots and raisins and stir to thoroughly mix.

Evenly divide batter among muffin cups.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean (24-28 minutes).  Cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and serve. 

Cooking Tip:
Raisins don't stay moist forever, and shrunken, chewy raisins don't make for good muffins, so make sure to use raisins that are soft and moist. 



30 seconds in the microwave and these muffins were just as
good two days old as they were fresh from the oven.

Best Blueberry Muffins

On New Year's Eve, I got up early and tossed together a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast.  Talk about starting the day right... these were easily the best blueberry muffins either Juli or I'd ever had!

I made these muffins using the recipe for Best Blueberry Muffins from the May/June 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated.  That recipe was written up by a woman who had once owned her own bakery, and who, after coming to the Test Kitchen, had decided to try to make a recipe for blueberry muffins as good as the ones she made in her bakery with fresh-picked, wild blueberries, but made at home and with store-bought blueberries.  I never tasted her bakery muffins, but I'll take her word that these are every bit as good, because I honestly can't imagine a blueberry muffin being better than the ones I made using her recipe.

These muffins tasted wonderful.... sweet, with rich blueberry flavor in every bite.  They were moist on the outside but almost crisp on the outside, and the lemon-sugar topping literally was crisp and crunchy.

The key to these muffins is that in addition to stirring whole blueberries into the dough, the recipe has you cook a cup of blueberries in a saucepan with a bit of sugar, cooking them down to make a sort of jam.   After pouring the batter into the muffin tins, you then stir a bit of the jam into each batch of dough.  Cooking down the blueberries into jam intensifies their flavor, and stirring the jam into the muffins before baking them results in that flavor permeating virtually the entire muffin.  The extra burst of flavor you get when you bite into one of the whole blueberries baked into the muffin pushes these muffins - and the recipe - over the top and into the realm of awesome culinary achievements.

I really can't say often enough or strongly enough how wonderful these muffins are.  All I can do is note that these have instantly earned a place among my go-to recipes, and encourage you to seek out a copy of the recipe and try them out for yourself.

Note:
As with all Cook's Illustrated recipes, the recipe for Best Blueberry Muffins is available at www.cooksillustrated.com with either a paid membership or a free, temporary membership to the website.

Pumpkin and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Lately, Juli and I have been thinking a lot about foods associated with this time of year:  cranberries, apple cider, roast turkey and - most relevant to this post - pumpkin.   Juli recently made up excellent batches of pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins, which we have been greatly enjoying.   My office has a pot luck coming up, for which everyone is supposed to bring a normal lunch for him or herself, but also bring some sort of dessert to share.   I signed up to bring some cookies and muffins, and decided I'd also like to try my hand at pumpkin muffins, and at coming up with a recipe that was both different from, and as good as, the pumpkin, cranberry and pecan muffins she made.

I knew that whatever I ended up making, it would be a new experience for me, because while I've eaten a fair number of muffins over the years - some great, some not so good, and a few that were downright terrible - this would be the first time I'd ever cooked muffins.

I looked through cookbooks, cooking blogs and online recipe sites, and while I found some recipes that looked pretty good, I didn't find one that really struck my fancy, so I decided to come up with one of my own.  In doing so, I studied some basic muffin recipes and how-to advice, and gave thought to what had and had not worked well in various muffins I'd had, and what I might do to make more than just another muffin.  That led me to make a few decisions in designing my own recipe.

First off, I had to decide whether or not to add bits of some sort of fruit or nuts to give the muffins more range of texture and flavor.   Though I love cranberries, I didn't want my muffins to be too much like the great ones Juli had already made in the recent past, so that ruled out cranberries.  I also considered raisins, apple chunks and various other options, as well as different sorts of nuts, but finally decided to go with something else:  chocolate chips.   I'd tried a couple other pumpkin muffin recipes that used chocolate chips, not to mention some pumpkin and banana bread recipes that used the chips, and I'd always liked those.  Plus, I figured the dark bits of chocolate along with the orange-brown of the rest of the muffin would look good as a Halloween-time food.

The next decision was a bit more difficult.  Traditionally, muffin recipes have called for oil of some sort in order to make a moist muffin.  Over the past couple decades, though, a lot of people have looked for healthier alternatives to all that oil, and one of the most common alternatives is applesauce.  I will admit to going into this project with a bit of a bias against the applesauce option, mostly because a lot of the time when I've had muffins made with applesauce instead of oil, I've often found them flavorless and unpleasant - albeit with a reasonably moist texture.   In my experience, a lot of people who used applesauce in muffins have often been so concerned about making a healthy muffin that as they also loaded it with whole grains and bran and seeds and so forth, they forgot to make something that actually tasted good and wasn't so dense as to render it nearly inedible. 

Nonetheless, in designing my own recipe, I decided that I would go the applesauce route.  I made this choice not so much for health reasons as to produce the blend of flavors I wanted.  Since I was making pumpkin muffins, I wanted to use other ingredients that conveyed an autumn flavor, and applesauce fit that bill.  Along the same lines, rather than go with a fair bit of water or perhaps milk (both common in muffin recipes), I decided to go with something that would boost both the fruit flavor of the muffins and the spices that tend to go well with pumpkins.  Thus, I added some apple cider to the mix.  I doubt I'm the first person to have come up with this idea, but I didn't see it in any of the recipes I consulted.    It did occur to me that maybe I didn't see apple cider listed in any muffin recipes because it resulted in crappy muffins, but I decided to go with it anyhow.  Even if the result wasn't good, I'd at least learn something.

I needn't have worried.  The apple cider idea worked great, and so did the recipe as a whole.  I didn't use as much sugar as do a lot of muffin recipes, but between the applesauce, the cider and the chocolate chips, they aren't lacking in sweetness.  They're moist and chewy, with a nice blend of flavors:  warm spices, creamy pumpkin with an apple undertone and sweet-bitter, dark chocolate.  About the only thing I might do differently, should I make these again, is to forego the water entirely in favor of more apple cider.

Anyhow, along with a bunch of the cookies I made last weekend, these will round out my offering for the pot luck at work.   I'm hoping others like them as well as we do.  I also hope some readers will give them a shot and let me know what they think.

Pumpkin and Chocolate Chip Muffins

yield = approx. 26 muffins

1 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2    cup applesauce
4       eggs
2       cups canned or freshly pureed pumpkin
1/4    cup apple cider
1/4    cup water
3       cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1       teaspoon baking soda
2       teaspoons cinnamon
1       teaspoon ground nutmeg (preferably freshly-ground)
1/2    teaspoon ground cloves
1/2    teaspoon salt
1       cup semisweet dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray muffin tins with nonstick spray

By hand, mix sugar, applesauce and eggs until smooth.  Add pumpkin, apple cider and water and mix until smooth.  In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.   Add dry mixture and chocolate chips to wet mixture and stir to mix, but do not over-stir. 

Fill each cup of the muffin tin 2/3 full with batter.  Bake approx. 20 minutes.

Notes:
For chocolate chips, I went with a mix of Ghiardelli Bittersweet Baking Chips and Hershey's Special Dark Chips.