Mini cornbread puddings

I pulled this recipe out of Everyday Food magazine a few years ago, and I haven't made another cornbread recipe since. I find that sometimes cornbread can be dry - not these muffins. They're actually called cornbread puddings because they come out so moist.

The recipe starts out with typical cornbread ingredients - flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.

The dry ingredients are mixed with an egg and sour cream. The sour cream adds all the moisture, there's no butter involved. I use light sour cream, it works just fine. A generous amount of corn kernels are also stirred into the batter.

The batter is spooned into muffin tins to bake. You can use mini muffin or regular muffin tins. If you go with a regular muffin pan, add a few more minutes to the bake time. Here I used a mini muffin pan, but I almost always go with full sized muffins.

These bake very quickly, and are out of the oven in less than 15 minutes.

I tend to serve the muffins with jam, but they're also great with butter or honey. If you wanted a more savory muffin, you could probably add some minced bell pepper or jalapeno to the recipe.

A healthier take on blueberry muffins

Last weekend I had a couple of different things cooking at the same time, including a loaf of bread. My husband came out and asked if I was baking muffins, because that’s what he smelled. When I told him that there were no muffins in the oven, he was a little bit disappointed, so of course I had to remedy that. I put together this recipe for blueberry yogurt muffins for a healthier take on an old classic.

I think that sometimes muffins can be so sweet that they’re almost like a cupcake. To me, that’s fine for a snack, but I don’t usually like to eat an overly sweet breakfast. These muffins are just slightly sweetened, which really lets the flavor of the blueberries come through.

I used vanilla sugar to sweeten the muffins. If you don't already have a jar in your pantry, I encourage you to get one started. After you scrape the seeds from your vanilla beans, don't throw the pods away. Instead, store the pods in a jar of sugar. When the sugar gets low, just refill the jar and add new vanilla bean pods as you use them.

I made these muffins a little healthier by keeping the butter to a minimum, and instead relied on Oikos greek yogurt from Stonyfield Farm to add moisture. I also used half white whole wheat flour.

I was quite happy with the end result – you get all the goodness of a blueberry muffin with a much better nutritional profile. If you like your muffins on the sweeter side, you may want to increase the sugar by 2 tablespoons or ¼ cup, but I think these are great as is.

Blueberry yogurt muffins
Makes 12

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 eggs
8 ounces of vanilla greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
cooking spray
coarse sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the first six ingredients in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl combine the butter, lemon zest and juice, eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle the coarse sugar over the tops of the muffins. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until golden.

Double chocolate and allspice crumb muffins

At my office, we take turns bringing in breakfast on Thursdays. This week it was my turn, and I decided to make these double chocolate and allspice crumb muffins from Dorie Greenspan's baking book.

First up was this recipe for double chocolate muffins. I only had milk chocolate on hand, so that's what I used. The muffins were quite good, but they would have been even better with the bittersweet chocolate that the recipe specified. I also increased the amount of chocolate chunks to get a muffin with a little more texture.

Next, I made these allspice crumb muffins. This is a fairly simple muffin, with a generous streusel topping. The allspice provides a background note of spice, but is not overpowering at all.

Both muffins were very well received. One of my coworkers commented that they had a great texture and weren't greasy at all, like store bought muffins can be. I don't have to bring breakfast again for a few months, but when I do, I may be turning to Dorie's book again! Everything I've made from from the book has been great.

Mesa Grill blue and yellow corn muffins

Don't these muffins look cool?

It took me about 5 grocery stores to find the blue cornmeal that Bobby Flay uses in many recipes in his Mesa Grill cookbook. But, I think it was worth the search. I find that corn muffins can vary widely - some are very sweet and almost cakelike, and others are on the savory side. This is a distinctly savory muffin, flavored with red onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic and cilantro. All of the ingredients are divided to make separate batches of blue and yellow batter. The batters are spooned side-by-side into the muffin tins before baking.

These muffins were very flavorful and had a nice texture. They were a little dry on the second day, so eat them while they're hot! I served the muffins alongside Bobby's black bean soup with toasted cumin crema and three relishes.

Carrot spice muffins

My husband loves carrot cake. In fact, if he had his way, we would have had carrot cake at our wedding. I never make carrot cake because there's no way that the two us can polish off a whole cake. When I saw this recipe for carrot spice muffins in Baking From My Home to Yours, I thought that this might be a good way for my husband to get his carrot cake fix.

This is a chunky muffin with shredded carrots, coconut, raisins and nuts (I used pecans). It's not quite as sweet as a standard carrot cake. The only change I made to the recipe was to cut the fat by substituting applesauce for half of the oil. If you added a cream cheese frosting, these muffins could definitely be elevated to cupcake level. That being said, they're perfect as is for brunch or a snack.

Rhubarb muffins

My husband happens to love rhubarb. I found some really nice rhubarb for a good price over the weekend, so I picked up a few pounds of it. I used some of the rhubarb in these muffins - I coated the chopped rhubarb in sugar before adding it to the batter to temper the tartness. The result is a nice contrast between the sweet and tart flavors.

Rhubarb Muffins
Makes 1 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons lemon zest, finely grated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 and 1/2 cups rhubarb, small dice
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon coarse sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°. Combine rhubarb and 1 tablespoon of sugar, set aside. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk and next 4 ingredients (buttermilk through egg) in a bowl; add to flour mixture. Stir just until moist. Fold the rhubarb into the batter. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle the tops evenly with the coarse sugar. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove muffins from pan; cool on a wire rack.

Lemon poppy seed muffins

These muffins are unique because they're sweetened with honey instead of sugar. I did make a few changes to the recipe. I added about 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract to the batter, and instead of the glaze, I sprinkled the muffin tops with pearl sugar prior to baking.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

You're probably thinking that it's a strange time of the year to be making pumpkin muffins. I had a can of pumkin left over from the holidays and I'm finally getting around to using it. I love the combination of pumpkin and chocolate.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
Makes about 20 large muffins

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
2/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin
1 and 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
cooking spray
2 tablespoons coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs and pumpkin. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until just moist. Stir in chocolate chips.

Grease two 12 cup muffin tins with cooking spray. Fill 20 of the cups about 3/4 full. Put a little water into the empty muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sugar. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in pans for about 7 minutes. Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack.

Date and coconut muffins

I had some buttermilk that was about to expire and an unopened bag of dates in the pantry that I bought for baking purposes. Dates and coconut are both really sweet, so I made a muffin base that doesn't contain that much sugar. The end result is a muffin that's not overwhelmingly sweet. Use freshly grated nutmeg if you can, it makes a big difference.

Date and Coconut Muffins
Makes 1 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup vanilla sugar (you can also use regular granulated sugar)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dates, coarsely chopped
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon coarse sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and dates in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk and next 6 ingredients (buttermilk through egg) in a bowl; add to flour mixture. Stir just until moist. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle the tops evenly with the coarse sugar. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove muffins from pan; cool on a wire rack.

Cranberry almond muffins

I had half a bag of cranberries in the freezer left over from the holidays, and I wanted to use them up. The buttermilk makes the muffins tender and the almonds add crunch.

Cranberry almond muffins
Makes 1 dozen

2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped fresh cranberries
1/4 cup sliced almonds, plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg, lightly beaten
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Stir in cranberries and almonds. Combine buttermilk, butter, almond extract and egg - add this to the flour mixture and still until thoroughly mixed. Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray, spoon batter into muffin cups. The muffin cups should be about half full. Top each muffin with a sprinkle of almonds. Bake for 17 minutes or until muffins are browned and spring back when touched. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes, remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Cherry lime and coconut muffins

I initially thought that combining dried cherries, lime zest and coconut would make for a muffin with strong flavors. The ingredients blended really well together and actually produced a muffin with a rather delicate flavor. The lime zest adds a hint of citrus undertones - if you're looking for a pronounced lime flavor, increase the amount of zest to 1 tablespoon.

I highly recommend sprinkling the tops of these muffins with coarse sugar before baking. I bought mine at Sur La Table, but some grocery stores carry coarse sugar in the baking aisle. You could also use turbinado sugar, or regular granulated sugar. I just really like the crunch that the coarse sugar imparts to the muffins.

Cherry Lime and Coconut Muffins
Makes 1 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup vanilla sugar (you can also use regular granulated sugar)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup coconut
2 teaspoons lime zest, finely grated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon coarse sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk and next 6 ingredients (buttermilk through egg) in a bowl; add to flour mixture. Stir just until moist. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle the tops evenly with the coarse sugar.

Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove muffins from pan; cool on a wire rack.