Sweet Potato Maple Muffins

We never got around to making our fancy Christmas dinner, and so began the rush to use some of the ingredients I had bought.  This recipe happened to flip open while I was looking for something interesting to do with brussels sprouts, and it looked intriguing.

And it was absolutely delicious.  Not as rich as the pumpkin muffins I made from the Flour cookbook last week, but also a tad bit healthier so it was a tradeoff I accept.  The tops were deliciously chewy, and the interior nice and soft.  None of the flavors were too overpowering, but they melded together nicely.

Sweet Potato Maple Muffins.  Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, The New Basics Cookbook.  Pg 628.

Pumpkin muffins with(out) candied pepitas

After waking up at 4 and being unable to fall back asleep, and then discovering that my brioche dough needed 6 hours in the fridge before I could use it, I needed something else to make for breakfast.  I settled on this intriguing pumpkin muffin recipe, despite not having any pumpkin seeds to candy and sprinkle on top.

The recipe made way more than the 12 muffins claimed: and, yes, I filled the dough to the top.  And what muffins they were.  Another hit from the Flour cookbook.  They were amazingly moist on the inside, and the top was downright chewy.  I guess this is what two sticks of butter and four eggs does to your muffins.  When I spread a little bit of butter on a warm one, it was actually too rich… I preferred them butterless when they were straight out of the oven.  They were delicious with cream cheese when cold.

I’d definitely, definitely make these again.

Between the brioche dough, these, and the scrambled eggs I made for the kids, I had used 14 eggs by 7am this morning.  Yikes.  The brioche dough is in the freezer waiting for Christmas Eve breakfast.

Pumpkin muffins with candied pepitas, from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.  Pg 56

browned butter cranberry lime muffins

I made these as part of a challenge on a mom-themed internet message board that I frequent.

The dough was really, really dry, which did concern me.  It was more of a stiff cookie dough than a muffin dough, in my muffin inexperienced opinion.  And they only filled maybe 1/2 of the muffin tin, which also worried me.  However, these fears were for nought, as the muffins popped right up when baked.

However… holy sour, batman!  I probably would have macerated the cranberries in some sugar before cooking them like this.  The lime and cranberry combination is a favorite of mine, but I’m also not a hug fan of sour.

Overall, they were really good.  Bobs LOVED them, and ate his and his sister’s.  She took one look at them and said “I don’t like these,” but that’s her new favorite sentence and I saw her nibbling at one discretely.  B said he didn’t mind the tartness.  So maybe it was just me: I wouldn’t be surprised.  But next time I’ll work to mellow the cranberries a bit anyway.

Browned Butter Cranberry Lime Muffins, from Joy the Baker: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2010/11/browned-butter-cranberry-lime-muffins/#more-3870

Corn Muffins with Raspberry Jam

Bibs made these!

She did a lot of the measuring, and most of the dumping, and a good portion of the stirring.  And she did the most important part: spooning the jam into the center of each muffin!

They’re pretty heavy, but not as dry as most corn muffins.  I’m not a huge corn muffin fan, but the relative non-dryness makes these really good, comparatively.  The raspberry jam adds a nice little surprise.  Next time I think I’ll add more jam, LOL.

Corn Muffins with Raspberry Jam, from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, pg 55.