Four friends, four babies, four weeks.

Needless to say, it’s been a crazy few months for all of us.  So now that our babies are all 2 months old, we decided it was time to get together so they could play and we could drink coffee and chat.

This morning, two of my friends and their babies came over to play!

Of course, I needed to bake something delicious for us to enjoy during our Coffee & Babies Play Date… so I whipped up these muffins.

I’ve already eaten three of them… cause yeah, they’re that good.

I love these muffins because you don’t need an electric mixer to make them.  Just two mixing bowls, a whisk, spatula and measuring cups/spoons.  SO EASY!  These would be great too with a little cheddar cheese thrown in or some cream corn.  YUM!  So many ways to mix this up!

Honey Cornbread Muffins
Makes 24 muffins

2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 cup flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 large eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
1/2 cup honey

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp honey

1. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.  Line cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milks, eggs, 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup honey.
4. Create a well in the flour mixture in the large bowl and pour in the wet ingredients.  Using a spatula, mix together until just combined,  about 15 strokes.  Do not overmix.
5. Scoop into cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop.
6. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Let cook in pans for 2 minutes before removing to wire rack.
8. In a small bowl, combine the 2 tbsp melted butter and honey.  Using a brush, spread glaze over the top of each muffin.
9. Serve for breakfast or with your favorite chili! YUM!

So, I got the recipe for these muffins from The Pioneer Woman.  Yes, well all know she’s a GENIUS and she’d never steer us wrong.  Besides, a recipe with yogurt in it is gonna make a killer muffin anyways.  I added my own struesel topping cause I like that more than just the sugar she suggests.  I mean really, can you go wrong with a muffin topped with more butter and sugar?  I THINK NOT!  And because I made a TON of this delicious streusel topping, I even lined the bottom of the muffin liners with it.  Yah, these muffins have a crust.  Go ahead, drool.  I seriously am.

Streusel Blueberry Muffins
Makes 2 dozen muffins

3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
Heavy pinch of salt
Dash of Nutmeg

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 generous cup plain, unflavored yogurt (I used three small containers of Oikos Greek plain yogurt)
1 tsp vanilla

2 cups fresh blueberries (I used frozen, no biggie – and to be honest, I might add another 1/2 cup)

Streusel

1. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Line muffin tin with liners. Prepare streusel.
2. In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In another large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir to a count of 10.
4. Add blueberries to mixture and stir 3 times.  (Don’t over mix!!! You don’t want to overwork the flour!)
5. Press 1 tablespoon of streusel into the bottom of the liner. Using an ice cream scoop, place one full scoop of batter into each baking cup. Sprinkle streusel on top of batter, gently pressing into batter.
6. Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the streusel has browned.
7. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Streusel
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened and cubed
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp cinnamon

1. Place all ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. With your fingers, work the ingredients together.  Almost like you’re playing with play-dough.  Smash the dry into the butter, rolling it between your fingers.
3. Do this for at least 5 minutes until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the butter.  You should feel the butter throughout the streusel and no dry should be left.  It will be a uniform brown color and the consistency should be clumpy.

I’ve been on a bit of a muffin kick lately, mostly because they’re super easy to make and I like having them around the house so that I don’t feel tempted to grab snacks in the morning at coffee shops.

These are pretty delicious… the lemon isn’t over powering and the poppy seeds add a fun little crunch.  I decided to use a huge muffin tin because I wanted to use these fun liners that I found at Safeway a few months ago.  Since I changed the portion, I only had about 7 or 8 muffins, regular portions should make a dozen.  Also, the recipe said to make sure that the baking powder you’re using isn’t more than 6 months old.  I decided to buy a new tin, just cause I wasn’t in the mood for a fail.

Recipe (via Simply Recipes):

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder (make sure your baking powder is no older than 6 months)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tbsp poppy seeds

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy (about 2 minutes with an electric mixer). Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the lemon zest.

4 Beat in one third of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in a third more of the dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.

5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil, grapeseed oil, or a little melted butter using a pastry brush. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set muffin pan on wire rack to cool. After 5 minutes, remove muffins from pan.

6 While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Add more lemon juice if necessary. While the muffins are still a bit warm, use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over each muffin. The muffins will absorb some of the glaze, so you add more glaze to each muffin if you like.

Makes 12 muffins. Best eaten fresh and warm.

Hope you like!

-Jenn

This recipe is via The Pioneer Woman.  Back in 2008 she had a contest and a lovely, little lady named Ellen submitted this recipe for blueberry muffins.  I don’t know Ellen, but if you love this recipe as much as I do, then I’m sure you’ll agree that she’s also pretty awesome.

These baked for about 22 mins, after 6 mins my kitchen smelled amazing.  Like, super amazing.  I think the kicker is the Sugar in the Raw that you sprinkle over a few blueberries after you scoop everything into your muffin tins.  I decided to use liners, only because I think muffins are pretty with liners.  I’m all about things that are pretty & delicious.  Please don’t skip the blueberry yogurt sauce.  It’s some kind of wonderful, I promise.

into the oven they go

fresh out of the oven

The Awesome-est Blueberry Muffins

• 3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Heavy pinch of salt
• Dash of Nutmeg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 generous cup plain, unflavored yogurt (throw in extra if you want)
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• Vanilla Extract
• Softened Butter, for muffin tins
• Turbinado sugar/Sugar in the Raw

Preheat oven to 385 degrees.

In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, cap-ful of vanilla, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir to a count of 10.

Add blueberries, reserving 1/2 cup, to mixture and stir 3 times.

Add mixture to well-buttered muffin pans. Sprinkle remaining berries on top and press down lightly. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over top. (Brown sugar can be used instead.)

Bake 20 to 25 minutes and allow to cool completely.

Yogurt-Blueberry Sauce:

In small saucepan over medium-low heat, stir together 1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (if using fresh, add 2 tsp water) and 1 tsp sugar. Cook until berries pop and liquid begins to thicken. Dump in heaping 1/4 cup plain yogurt and stir to combine. Drizzle on muffins.

now. this. is. a. blueberry. muffin.

Recipe Source: The Pioneer Woman

Happy Monday, everyone!

-Jenn

Originally, I wanted to call it a cupcake… but let’s be honest here, there’s no frosting and it’s got a struessel topping and fruit. It’s a muffin. *le sigh*

These muffins have a vanilla base topped with a creamy cheesecake and a brown sugar crunchy topping. After baking and cooling, they are topped with a strawberry glaze, fresh raspberries and blueberries and a dusting of powdered sugar.

I just shared one with my husband… it was still warm. Oh em gee….. YUM!

JavaCupcake’s Very Berry Cheesecake Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Topping
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, melted

powdered sugar for dusting

1. With a wooden spoon, mix together the dry ingredients.
2. Add the butter and mix until crumbs form.
3. Set aside.

Fruit
4 large fresh strawberries
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. In a small sauce pan, combine the strawberries, sugar and vanilla.
2. On low heat, mash strawberries until broken down into tiny pieces, creating a lot of juice.
3. Heat until just starts to bubble.
4. Strain and reserve the juice. Eat the remaining berries. Yum.

24 fresh raspberries
40-60 fresh blueberries

Filling
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and sugar.
2. Scrape the sides then beat in the egg.
3. Mix in the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla.
4. Set aside.

Muffin
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup pan with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and the salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the egg, egg yolk and sugar.
4. Add the oil and vanilla. Scrape the sides, then add the sour cream. Mix on high for 2 minutes.
5. With the mixer on low, add the flour, half at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix only until the flour is completely incorporated.
6. STOP: See note below on how to assemble the cupcake before baking.
7. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until the top is firm, golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.
9. STOP: See note below for after cooling assembly.

Assembly BEFORE baking
Scoop muffin batter into baking cup no more than 2/3 full.
On top of the batter, scoop 1 heaping tablespoon of the filling.
Using a toothpick, swirl together the batter and cream cheese. You’re just trying to mesh the two together slightly, not mix it.
Generously top with the brown sugar topping. Press down into the cupcake.

Assembly AFTER baking
Top each muffin with 2 raspberries and 3-5 blueberries (depending on size of blueberries).
Drizzle strawberry sauce over the cupcake.
Dust with powdered sugar.

I’m not sure if I browned the butter correctly… my daughter said it smelled like grilled cheese while I was making it. I may have burnt it just a bit. Next time, I’ll watch it closer… like the recipe said to. *Ooops* The batter was perfect for 12 muffins, full of blueberries… and the crumbly topping was a perfect addition to add some crunchy texture to the muffins.

They were so good, I ate two just as they came out of the oven. Shoved them in my mouth while dripping crumbs all over the sink. Totally worth the mess. This morning, I’ve got my cup of coffee and have devoured two more muffins… a bit slower this time though. Delish.

PS… the muffins taste nothing like grilled cheese either