Sunday, May 18, 2008

muffin post!


This post is for
Catherine! I commented on her blog that I'd been baking a lot of muffins lately, and she came here and didn't see any. As usual, there's a lag between when I eat something and when I get around to blogging it, but I hope that she and all of you enjoy these muffins.



First, we have these blueberry muffins, the recipe for which comes from AmyArgh over on the PPK. (Here is the recipe- scroll down on the page. I left out the almond topping since I had none.) I was going to go shopping with a group of co-workers one day, and I wanted to get brownie points by baking everyone breakfast muffins. The recipe had to be suitably impressive, since I had a group of non-vegans to impress. This recipe, with its professional bakery-style topping was a hit. All these decadent muffins were gone quickly!



Second, we have these cranberry-orange-walnut(+chocolate) muffins, the recipe which I thought up one morning when trying to create a yummy yet healthy breakfast goody. They are whole grain, not-too-sweet, and if you omit the chocolate chips, totally free of refined sugar. Here's the recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with liners or lightly spray with oil.

In a bowl or measuring cup, mix together the following and set aside:
  • 3/4 C unsweetened soymilk
  • 1 TB flax meal (ground flax seeds)
  • 3 TB olive oil
  • 1/4 C agave nectar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp orange extract
Next, mix the following dry ingredients together:
  • 3/4 C whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 C cornmeal
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix gently with a whisk or fork until just mixed. Now add small fistfuls of:
  • dried cranberries (unsweetened if you can find)
  • walnuts
  • chocolate chips if you're feeling naughty!
And mix until just incorporated. Fill muffin pan and bake 20 minutes for normal-sized muffins and 15 minutes for mini-muffins. (I baked these in my toaster oven, so you might have to slightly adjust oven temps and times for your oven.) This recipe makes 6 big and 10 mini-muffins, or whatever combination of big/small you feel like!

*Note: I made another batch of these muffins, replacing the whole wheat pastry flour with barley flour and the cranberries with chopped dates, and those came out just as well. Feel free to mix up your ingredients to suit your tastes.*

By the way, thank you all for your blog suggestions in my last post! I am slowly making my way to visiting all of them. In celebration of all this new-found blogging energy, I promise to blog every day this upcoming week, with lots of recipes and photos that I have backlogged!


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15 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Glad to see you posting again, Bazu :0)

Blueberry muffins AND Cranberry-Orange-Walnut muffins??? YUM!!!

Hungry Hungry Dancer said...

hey! im new to your blog.. but oh wow, your food looks amazing!!!! these muffins look beautiful! I cant wait to try them!!!

:)

Jenni (aka Vegyogini) said...

Chef Ramsay did a lot of yelling because the contestants weren't able to spot the meat analogs in the dishes. He was very disappointed! Good question. :) Oh, and your muffins look wonderful!

Catherine Weber said...

YAY MUFFINS!

I'm going to have to bake again this week . . . I have bananas that are just about spotty enough!! :)

P.S. I'd never thought to add chocolate chips to cranberry-walnut muffins . . . what a delicious idea!

Anonymous said...

hooray, a post from B and muffins too!

Jackie said...

Thanks for your visit.

Those muffins look mouth watering, I must really get around to making some .

Deb Schiff said...

Those look fabulous! Always happy to see an agave nectar recipe as well. Really enjoy your blog.

Anonymous said...

omg muffins!

I might make your muffins tomorrow (if I can get Alex to do dishes for me). I don't have any cranberries but I do have some delicious looking dried blueberries that I need to use up. And everyone knows blueberries and orange are wonderful together.

anna/village vegan said...

Mmm, muffins. Those look so good. I'll definately be trying those orange-cranberry ones, as I've been on a cornbread kick lately. (I made a really tasty orange-fig polenta cake last week; it was so good I'm seriously considering reviving my blog just to post the recipe!)

meesh said...

Hi Bazu!
I just stopped by to catch up since I've been away from blogging for a while. Your muffins look amazing. :) Thank you for posting the recipes for all of us hungry vegan folk.

I'm so glad you're still blogging and I'mm looking forward to seeing what you post this week.

Anonymous said...

So, you are back. I like you post always. This also is my favorite. Thanks for your post.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Mmm, muffins! I was just looking for a good blueberry recipe.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

you're a brave soul, asking for more blogs to read (although I know, I know... it means more amazing things to see!)

And I love the cranberry-walnut-chocolate-orange muffins, mostly because there's so much going on and yet I bet the flavours get along great. They *look* great!

aTxVegn said...

We can never have too many muffin recipes, especially for ones that turn out like yours did!

Anonymous said...

Wow...your homemade breads look lovely! I really like your cooling rack set-up. Are you just using a kitchen cart, or is it specifically designed for cooling baked yumminess?

The weather in Portland is the same, we go from 95 degree days to 59 degree days in less than a week! My whole balance is messed up now!