"muffin" news and stories

Since the two main elements of Halloween are candy and pumpkins, what could be a better way to start the day off that with a batch of sweet, fall-flavored pumpkin muffins? The only thing that could top these Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Molasses Glaze from What We're Eating would be a batch that was emerging from your oven - as opposed to your computer screen - right now. Fortunately for anyone who wants to get into the seasonal spirit by doing a little baking, Amada included her recipe along with the oh-so-tempting photograph.

The muffins have typical pumpkin muffin/bread ingredients - flour, pumpkin, molasses - with one exception: fresh ginger juice. Instead of simply mincing the ginger or adding candied/crystallised ginger. It seems that the advantage of using the juice is that you get all the flavor from the ginger and it is more evenly distributed throughout the muffin, with no risk of biting down into an unminced bit and disturbing the balance of the pastry. Although, if you're a ginger fan, as I am, it probably wouldn't hurt to toss in a handful of crystallised ginger for good measure.

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A mini muffin is just not as cute when it isn't tucked inside a miniature wrapper. The downside, of course, is that a portion of the already small morsel will stick to the paper. The upside, however, is that you can simply eat a second muffin to make up for it without any guilt. These are Mini Mocha Macadamia Muffins from Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea and, although the word "muffin" might inspire thoughts of wholesome fare, these sound deliciously decadent. The muffins are flavored with coffee and cocoa and they are rich with sour cream and butter. On top of that, they are packed with macadamia nuts, white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate. The recipe makes about 48 mini muffins, so be prepared to share them. It shouldn't be hard to find willing friends and family to help polish them off.

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I have never been much of a zucchini fan, so I thought I'd just incorporate it into some comfort food. Since zucchinis are in season and I had a couple handy, I thought, "How about chocolate zucchini cake?" It's been done many times before, but how about a pseudo-healthy muffin? Well, the zucchini is a versatile veggie...I used a cake recipe from this slashfood page and fiddled with it a little.

Replacing the fat in baked goods is something that we have done a few times now, but for some people fat is not the issue that they want to tackle - it's sugar. Baking without sugar is much harder than baking without fat because fats contribute to the texture of the finished product, but not as much to the flavor. Granted, a buttery flavor can be nice, but I have had fat free cookies (made with applesauce) on numerous occasions that have tasted quite good, even if they are lacking in the texture department.

Berries, along with chocolate chips, nuts and other mix-ins you might like to add to cakes, breads and muffins, often seem to sink to the bottom of the pan during baking. While you still get to eat the same number of berries per muffin, this usually means that you have one bit of berries and several of plain cake. Berries sink when a batter is not thick enough to support their weight and hold them up during baking. Choosing a recipe that you know has such a batter will produce the best results. One other benefit of using very thick batters is that you will get a much more bakery-like dome to your muffins, since the muffin will be able to support the weight of a high rise better.

But to prevent the berries from sinking into a thinner batter, tossing them with a little bit of flour before stirring them in can help a bit. The flour helps them "grab on" to the rest of the batter and remain in position during baking. Adding a teaspoon of flour will not change the way the recipe works or tastes, so it's a good trick to keep in mind just in case, whether you're working with a thick batter or not.

You can also simply poke the berries into the top of the batter once it is in the pan, instead of stirring them into the batter while it is still in the mixing bowl. This way, even if they sink, they have a much better chance of remaining in the center of the muffin or cake.