Fake Ginger

muffins

Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins

More pumpkin. I’m sorry, I can’t help it.

Speaking of things stereotypical 20-something girls like, I was at Target the other day and saw a shirt that said, “Don’t be basic”.

And I was all, “Is that your way of being ironic, Target?”

Because Target is kind of the motherland for us basic ones.

But anyway, today I bring you muffins. Muffins with pumpkin and blueberry. So they’re kind of fall-ish and still kind of summer-ish. The blueberries I used were taaaaaart, though, so you may wanna make these sooner rather than later. Or just use frozen ones – which just came to me and I totally wish I would’ve done that instead.

Dang.

According the magazine I got these from, they’re biscuit muffins. Which I didn’t know was a thing but Better Homes & Gardens probably knows better than me. They’re more airy and fluffier than a typical muffin. Kind of like a cupcake. And they totally melt in your mouth!

Ask my husky. She had 4 when I made a taco run last night.

Yep.

I hope you guys are having a relaxing and wonderful weekend. I’m gonna spend my day watching my Broncos and all the other teams I don’t really care about. But first, I’m gotta track down my fave food truck because they’re doing pumpkin arepas this weekend. Yeah, you heard me right. Pumpkin. Arepas.

#basic

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Blueberry Muffins

I’ve been in a muffin mood lately.

I blame the people at coffee shops.  I go through the drive-thru just so I don’t have to stare down the muffins in the pastry case and every time they ask “Are you sure you don’t want a muffin to go with that?”

YES YES! I WANT ALL THE MUFFINS!

But… too much money, too many calories, etc, etc, etc. Plus, I’m holding out for the pumpkin cream cheese muffins at Starbucks! It can’t be long now before they’re back!

But anyway, I have literally been thinking about blueberry muffins for over a month now. On our way home from our roadtrip, we stopped at basically every Starbucks we passed because I was trying to get mugs for each city (#basic) and every time we stopped, the muffins looked so good. They’re just so big and fluffy and with all the streusel on top… I just love muffins!

I finally caved and made some over the weekend (after once again buying too many berries!) and they were so perfect. I used my jumbo muffin tin to give them that coffee shop feel and all the blueberries burst open and made the tops so pretty!

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Mini Sausage Pancake Muffins

 

Mini Sausage Pancake Muffins – easy, make-ahead breakfast idea. Only 3 ingredients! Sweet and savory and delicious!

 Mini Sausage Pancake Muffins - easy, make-ahead breakfast idea. Only 3 ingredients! Sweet and savory and delicious!

My seven year old is on Spring Break this week which I thought was going to be pretty awful because, omg, what am I supposed to do with 3 kids for an entire week when it’s 20 degrees outside? But it turns out that there are good things about it.

Like, I don’t have to yell “YOU HAVE EXACTLY 22 MINUTES UNTIL WE HAVE TO LEAVE! HURRY UP!” up the stairs every morning. Or we don’t have to sneak into the neighbor’s garage at 6:30 am to look for shoes we left over there last night. 

Plus, instead of shoving cereal down his throat while also trying to put makeup on, get his brothers dressed, and make sure the dogs get ouside, I have time to make fun breakfasts.

Like these Mini Sausage Pancake Muffins!

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Cranberry Orange Muffins

I’m obsessed with muffins right now. But I’m also incredibly busy lazy right now so instead of making my own muffins, I’ve been hitting the Starbucks drive-thru (because getting out of the car is too much work) and getting a 500 calorie monster pumpkin muffin whenever the craving strikes. I think I’ve put on 5 pounds of muffin in the last few weeks.

Well the past few days I’ve had the urge to bake! everything! all! day! My oven has been on nonstop and my kids are eating everything faster than I can get it baked.

I made these on Sunday and threatened everyone in the house because THESE WERE FOR MONDAY’S BREAKFAST and no one was allowed to eat any. And then I ate 3 for dinner and I couldn’t really get mad at anyone else.

I think 5 muffins made it to breakfast.

They are so good, so soft, and they didn’t require me to make the 10 foot frigid walk to my car to hit Starbucks.

One year ago: Monster Munch
Two years ago: Southern Comfort Apple Pie
Three years ago: Falafel
Four years ago: Pomegranate Butter Chicken

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Cranberry Orange Muffins
from Food Network
Servings: 15 muffins
Ingredients
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
  • 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
  2. Put the cranberries and orange juice in a small saucepan, and bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Remove berries from the heat, and set aside to cool and plump. Drain off any excess liquid and set aside.
  3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl and set aside.
  4. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, orange zest, and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  5. Fold the flour in 3 parts into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk in 2 parts, until just combined. Fold in the cranberries. Do not over mix. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin.
  6. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan on a rack.
  7. Repeat with remaining batter.

Chocolate Chip Muffins & a Tate’s Bake Shop Giveaway!

(Giveaway at the end of the post! Get excited! Also, Thirsty Thursdays will return in a couple weeks. I am just so busy getting ready for the husband to come home (!!) that I didn’t even have time to get to the store and then Nicole and I are both taking next week off since it’s a holiday. Nicole has cute wine glass decorations up today!)

I recently received the newest Tate’s Bake Shop cookbook, Baking for Friends and I have to say that it’s quickly become a favorite. I have already made 3 cookie recipes from the book, including these Chubby Tates that Nicole made, and they were all fantastic! So why am I not sharing one of those cookie recipes? Oh, because I made the cookies at night and they didn’t survive to see morning, of course. I have just been having one of those weeks.

Anyway, I made these muffins because muffins usually don’t call out to me in the middle of the night but guess what? These did. They are SO SOFT and I didn’t expect them to be because the batter is pretty thick. I think it’s the sour cream – it just does something magical to muffins. I don’t even like chocolate chip muffins so I picked the chocolate chips out and ate the muffin part alone. They’re that good.

The whole cookbook is awesome and I can’t wait to make even more recipes. There’s a killer Coconut Custard Pie recipe that I know my husband will love! You can use the code BAKEOFF on the Tate’s website to receive $5 off an autographed copy of the book.

Today I’m excited to be giving away one of their Cookie and Bar Towers!

I received one of their cookie packs a couple years ago and they are so fun! And not to mention tasty! You definitely want to win this, trust me. Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

One year ago: Apple-Sage Brined Turkey Breast
Two years ago: Spicy Tofu Stir-fry

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Chocolate Chip Muffins
from Tate's Bake Shop: Baking for Friends
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 6 tablespoons 3/4 of a stick salted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups sour cream not low-fat
  • 1 cup 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
  • 2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400F. Butter twelve 3-by-1 1/2-inch muffin cups.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the sour cream. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture, until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips. Using a 1/3-cup food portion scoop or a spoon, transfer equal amounts of the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.
  4. Bake until the muffins are golden brown and the centers spring back when touched, about 20 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pans on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack.

Carrot Cream Cheese Muffins

Y’all remember this time last year when I excitedly bought a can of pumpkin only to realize it had expired 2 years before?

I feel like I never really got over that. Don’t get me wrong, I was definitely beating down Starbucks’ door the day the PSLs were released but I just haven’t been excited to bake with pumpkin this year. But I’m still craving those fall flavors, you know?

So I was catching up on my DVR’d shows this past weekend and saw the Pioneer Woman making a carrot cake and, ding ding ding, immediately knew how to get my fall flavor fix! Carrot cake muffins! With sweetened cream cheese in the center!

You can’t go wrong with a muffin like this. The only way these could be better is if they had a ton of pecans in them! These were very moist and I didn’t even have to adjust them for the altitude! The carrots aren’t super obvious – you could probably get away with adding more than a cup. And like I said, pecans would be an excellent addition! And raisins! Mmm!

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Carrot Cream Cheese Muffins
from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients
For the filling:
  • 1 8- ounce package cream cheese low-fat is fine
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • dash of vanilla
For the muffins:
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup grated carrots lightly packed; about 2 large carrots
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line or grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
  2. To make the filling, microwave the cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl for about 40 seconds on low. Stir in sugar an vanilla. Set aside.
  3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Set aside.
  4. In the bowl of a mixer, beat together the sugar, brown sugar, eggs, water, and vegetable oil until light. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and beat until just moistened. Add carrots and beat just a couple seconds until the carrots are dispersed.
  5. Put about 2 tablespoons of batter into each muffin cup. Add a heaping tablespoon into the center of each cup. Top with another couple tablespoons of batter, making sure the cream cheese is completely covered.
  6. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center (of the actual muffin, not cream cheese) comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.
  7. Repeat with remaining batter (or use a second muffin tin if you have it.)

Carrot Cream Cheese Muffins - carrot muffins filled with a sweetened cream cheese mixture! These are a great alternative to pumpkin in the fall!

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Muffins – the perfect soft and fluffy blueberry muffin recipe. These are even better than the muffins at your favorte coffee shop!

Blueberry Muffins - the perfect soft and fluffy blueberry muffin recipe. These are even better than the muffins at your favorte coffee shop!

Remember how a few weeks ago I swore I was going to cook breakfast every morning?

Well… I made it exactly 3 days into the school year before cereal was back on our table.

Really though, it was a “Mommy, can I pwwwwweeeease have some cereal?!” buy and it didn’t even occur to me that it was ruining my plan until we were home.

But now, the day after I opened that box, we are out of cereal.

Yeah, one day.

For a box of cereal.

Between two kids.

Are you seeing why I don’t like buying cereal? So I’m back on the “NO MORE CEREAL” train.

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Chocolate Banana Muffins

It’s time for another Secret Recipe Club reveal! This month I was lucky enough to be assigned Edesia’s Notebook which is written by Lesa. She has hundreds of recipes that all sound fantastic like these Asian Turkey Meatballs with Peanut Sauce that are high on the list of things I want to make.

I picked these banana chocolate muffins for SRC because some days require chocolate for breakfast – like today.

I spent last night in the emergency room with my 2 year old. It was the first of what I assume will be many ER trips with those boys of mine but the kid says the free popsicle was worth taking a chunk out of his tongue so…

Yeah.

These muffins are so perfect for those mornings where you just need a little something extra to get you moving. I don’t even like chocolate that much but I couldn’t stay away from these. They’re great at room temperature but they’re perfect hot out of the oven with just a smear of butter on top.

Two years ago: Chocolate Angel Food Cake

5 from 2 votes
Print
Chocolate Banana Muffins
adapted from Edesia's Notebook
Ingredients
  • ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
  • ¾ cup of brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 very ripe bananas mashed
  • 2 cups of flour
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non-stick spray.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream together butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before moving on; add vanilla and mashed bananas.
  3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients; mix until just combined.
  5. Fold in chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.
  6. Bake in preheated oven for 20 – 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
  7. Cool on a wire rack.


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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Alternate title #1: See husband, I told you I would find something to do with an orange glittery pumpkin!”

Alternate title #2: Someone needs to buy neutral cupcake liners so she doesn’t have to put pumpkin muffins in turquoise ones.

I’ve never been a huge fan of pumpkin muffins. I’ve always found the actual muffin part to be too earthy and the cream cheese to be not sweet enough. But I keep seeing rave reviews about this muffin so obviously I had to give them a try. You guys, unbelievable. Sweet but not too sweet, so moist, and just plain delicious. Seriously better than any coffee shop pumpkin muffin you’ll find.

The original recipe is kind of complicated (as far as muffins go) because it has a topping and requires you to freeze the cream cheese mixture for awhile. But, in the words of a Real Housewife of Miami:

(Oh yes, we’e going there)

“I have a lot of kids, a lot of hair” and I very rarely plan far enough in advance to do something like freeze a cream cheese mixture for a muffin. It worked fine. I just dropped pretty generous teaspoons of the mixture into the batter.

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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
 
Ingredients
For the filling:
  • 8 oz. cream cheese softened
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
For the muffins:
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups pumpkin puree
  • 1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
Instructions
  1. To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Set aside.
  2. To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350Ëš F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.
  3. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Place a generous teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture on top of that batter. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely.
  4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

Just yesterday I was telling you how my husband had been gone for awhile, remember? Well he came home early which means that the floors weren’t mopped, the clean clothes were still in the dryer (you know, the ones I washed 3 days ago), and most importantly, the fridge was empty. And by empty I mean there’s nothing but a gallon of milk, 2 eggs, and a jug of tea that one of his friends left here months ago.

I felt pretty awful that he had come home to no food – not awful enough to actually get dressed and go to the store, mind you – and ended up making these blueberry crumb muffins for him to snack on.

I have to say, this might be the best blueberry muffin recipe I have tried. I think it’s the crumb to muffin ratio that makes these so fantastic. You’re going to think you have too much crumb topping but just keep piling it on! It’s the best part, of course. The muffins by themselves are great too – soft and sweet with the slightly tart blueberry throughout.

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Blueberry Crumb Muffins
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
22 mins
 
Servings: 16 muffins
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
Muffins
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 8 tablespoons 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 pint blueberries
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Line muffin pans with paper liners.
  2. To make the crumb topping: Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon to a medium bowl; stir with a fork to combine. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar to the pan, using a rubber spatula to combine with the butter. Pour the butter/brown sugar mixture over the flour mixture and use the fork to stir until all of the flour is moistened. Set aside while you make you muffin batter.
  3. To make the muffins: Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium speed until pale in color, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/2 of the flour mixture then the milk and finally the remaining flour mixture, beating only until just combined.
  4. Scrape the sides of the bowl then add the blueberries, folding them into the batter. Divide the batter evenly among the wells of the muffin pans, filling each about 3/4-full. Break the crumb topping into small pieces and scatter over the tops of the muffins. Bake for about 22 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the muffin pans to a wire rack and let the muffins cool for a few minutes before removing them from the pan to the rack to cool completely.

Blueberry Muffins

Oh blueberry muffins, how I love you.

You probably won’t be shocked at all to hear that when I decided to make blueberry muffins, the first thing I googled was “starbucks blueberry muffin”. I have a problem with their muffins obviously. I go searching for a copycat recipe every few months and each time I’m shocked that there isn’t one. So I’m working my way through recipes, changing things here and there to see if I can get close to my beloved Starbucks muffin.

This one was pretty close. The taste was right on but it just wasn’t as light and fluffy. I’m thinking maybe cake flour next time? We loved them though and it gets bonus points for only making 8 muffins. I halve just about every recipe I do so it was nice to not have to do any math.

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Blueberry Muffins
from AllRecipes
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup butter cubed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
  2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
  3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Banana Nut Muffins

My favorite muffin ever is the Starbucks banana nut muffin and for a couple years now I’ve been trying to recreate it. The only problem is that I’m not 100% convinced that they use real bananas in it because for one, it tastes more like banana Laffy Taffy than the real thing. And two, there are no banana chunks!

I can’t say I succeeded (might need to look into some banana extract or something) but I did make some awesome muffins! I used a mixer so there were no big banana pieces and I think I actually prefer it to mashing them. For the tops, I wanted to do what Starbucks does and just add some walnuts and raw sugar but I didn’t add enough of either. Still very good though, light but still rich! Even Spencer agrees that they are some of the best muffins ever.

5 from 1 vote
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Banana Nut Muffins
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 overripe bananas
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • raw sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and fill 2 muffin tins with liners.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the bananas and sugar together, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Sprinkle the tops with walnuts and raw sugar.
  3. Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.