Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Our vacation last week kicked off in Aspen with an all-day trail run/hike around the Maroon Bells.  The views are dramatic and the peaks are steep... and we learned a lesson the hard way about winging it when trail running in the mountains and ended up on an adventure that lasted three times as long as we originally planned.

Thankfully, I had greedily stashed a delicious and filling pumpkin chocolate chip muffin in my backpack from the Aspen Farmer's Market earlier that morning.  The plan was to just peruse the market rather than to buy, but I couldn't resist the table of muffins and pastries.  I think about about hour four of running, Rob wished he hadn't resisted (don't worry, I set aside my only child tendencies and shared the muffin).

Pumpkin is one of my favorite foods.  I look forward to fall each year - pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattés.  After savoring the muffin on our Aspen adventure, I had to try my hand an recreating the muffins at home.  The recipe I used comes from the Baking from the Heart cookbook and the contributor of this particular recipe is Joanna Chang of Flour Cafe & Bakery in Boston fame (I've posted about her banana bread here).  These take a matter of minutes to put together and make a great treat for breakfast (yes, I'll eat a muffin which chocolate chips for breakfast... I can tell you are judging).

The only significant change I made to the recipe was inspired by this month's Fine Cooking magazine, which included an article on baking with olive oil.  While the magazine cautions against substituting olive oil for butter when the butter is to be creamed, I found that it worked extremely well in this instance - the resulting muffins were surprisingly light and flavorful.  If you'd prefer to only use butter, the original recipe called for only 1/2 cup.  Happy fall!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from Baking from the Heart
Yield = 1 dozen muffins 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup solid packed, canned pumpkin puree (1 15-ounce can)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.   Place rack in the middle of the oven. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray each cup with a non-stick vegetable spray.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, ground spices, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla extract.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and pumpkin puree in three additions, beginning with the flour mixture.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  

Fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter using two spoons or an ice cream scoop.  Place muffins in the oven and bake for about 18 -20 minutes, or until firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.  Place the muffins on a wire rack to cool.

Blueberry Muffins Two Ways

On our trip to Alaska earlier this summer, we made some wonderful new friends and were lucky enough to enjoy a few meals with them.  These friends are vegan and it was inspiring to see the amazing and delicious meals they have without including any animal products.  I've been trying to work in more vegetarian meals into our week and when I was perusing Gwenyth Paltrow's cookbook the other night I came across her two recipes for blueberry muffins.  She calls one "blythe's blueberry muffins" and the other "healthier version of the blueberry muffins".  Blythe's version contains the usual butter, eggs, sugar, milk and all-purpose flour whereas the healthier version includes spelt flour, soy milk, maple syrup and agave nectar.  I was intrigued... and I happened to have enough blueberries on hand to try both.  Taste test time!

Rob is my opinionated taster who lacks a filter, which I appreciate in the kitchen.  He sampled both of the batters for the muffins, as well as doing a taste test this morning.  I wish I could say that the healthier muffins won, but they didn't... that said, they were quite tasty and had they not been sampled before or after the full-fat version, I don't know that you would think they were anything but delicious!

I've made minor adjustments to both recipes.  For blythe's muffins, I used low fat buttermilk in lieu of 2% or whole milk.  In the healthier version, GP called for 1 cup whole spelt flour and 1 cup white spelt flour - I only had white so I used 2 cups of white.  Aside from a difference in taste, the major difference I noticed between the muffins was that the blythe muffins rose considerably more (and therefore were larger) than the healthier muffins... that is about it!  The Blythe muffins are pictured on the left above and the healthier version is on the right.

Blythe's Blueberry Muffins
Yield = 1 dozen muffins
Active time = 15 minutes; Total time = 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 eggs (preferably organic)
• 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preparation

 Heat your oven to 375°.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.  Whisk butter, eggs and buttermilk in a bowl.  Combine flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in another bowl.  Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients; fold in blueberries.  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.  Bake until muffins are golden brown and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.  Serve warm.

Healthier Version of the Blueberry Muffins

Yield = 1 dozen muffins
Active time = 15 minutes; Total time = 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup light agave nectar
• 2 cups white spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.  Whisk oil, soymilk, maple syrup and agave nectar in a bowl.  Combine spelt flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl.  Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients; fold in blueberries.  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.  Bake until muffins are golden brown and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.  Serve warm.

Colorado Wildflowers & Baked Oatmeal Cups

I've written before about my inability to sit down at home to eat breakfast and it isn't something I am working to change.  It is what it is.  I strongly prefer to sleep an extra fifteen minutes instead of eating sitting down or making breakfast in the morning, but it is next to impossible to find healthy breakfast options on-the-go.  I always love eating oatmeal, but then you have to microwave it, get out the milk, find something yummy to mix into it.... you get the point.  I am lazy in the morning!  Enter this recipe for baked oatmeal cups!  Oatmeal on the go, pre-flavored and with fruit baked in?  Yes, please!

These couldn't be simpler to make.  Everything can be mixed in one bowl and you can adapt the recipe to include whatever fruit you have on hand and sweeten the oatmeal to your preference.  The oatmeal cups definitely taste healthy (like oatmeal does), but a quick 30 seconds in the microwave and you have a healthy breakfast that you can eat on the move.

We went on a beautiful hike today up Rosalie Peak in the Mt. Evans Wilderness west of Denver.  The wildflowers were spectacular, as were the views from the top of the peak.  We both started our day with an oatmeal cup... and both wished we had a few more on-hand as the hike dragged into its fifth hour and we were out of food and water!  We saw wild strawberries and roses, a marmot, white-tailed ptarmigan and a jack rabbit... and I managed to fall twice!  This is what we get for running where most people walk (and, let's be honest, I am klutzy).

A few thoughts about the recipe... first, definitely use paper liners for ease of eating and easy clean up.  Second, you can use any fruit you have available.  I bet these would also be great with slivered or sliced almonds or walnuts as well.  Third, substitute the milk for whatever type you like best - I used soy milk because we were out of skim milk and the oatmeal cups were great.   Fourth, I used only ⅓ cup of brown sugar... but if you've read any of my other recipes, we are a "less sweet is better" family.  Definitely increase the amount of sugar you use if you like a lot of sugar in your oatmeal.  Finally, these don't rise or increase in size during baking so feel free to fill the cups to the brim.

Baked Oatmeal Cups
Adapted from Door-to-Door Organics
Yield = 14 cups 

Ingredients

• 1⅓ cups fresh cherries, pitted and chopped
• 1 fresh peach, diced into ½ pieces
• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 cups oats
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ⅓ cup packed brown sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (without any fruit).  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until combined.  Fold in the fruit.  Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray or insert a paper liner (recommended) into each cup.  Fill each cup 2/3 full (or a bit more if you'd like).  Bake the cups at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and no longer wet from the egg mixture.  Cool for at least 10 minutes, particularly if you do not use paper liners.

Flour Bakery's Banana Bread

Homemade Banana Bread MuffinsWe moved to Denver last September after living in Boston for seven years.  There are definitely things I miss about Boston, one of which is Flour Bakery.  Flour Bakery now has three locations in the city, but our neighborhood location was on Washington Street in the South End.  It was a blessing for my waistline that Flour wasn’t close enough for me to visit every day, but on weekends we would walk over for a delicious breakfast sandwich or pastry and steaming cup of coffee.  It is always packed and inevitably there are many adorable neighborhood dogs lined up outside awaiting their owner’s return.  Flour also makes the most delicious sandwiches at lunchtime... it revolutionized my life at work when we started to have our work lunches catered by Flour.  When you work 80 hours a week, it is the little things that really matter.  But, I digress!

A few years ago I read an article in Runner’s World about Flour Bakery’s banana bread.  I was intrigued - with so many delightful-looking breads and pastries available, I’d never been enticed by (nor even noticed, really) the banana bread.  However, I do love a good slice of banana bread, fresh from the oven and lightly coated in butter.  There was only one problem:  I love my Mom’s banana bread and am a loyal follower of her recipe so each time I reached into my freezer for the past-ripe frozen bananas that I keep on hand for when I get the urge to bake banana bread, I also reached for my Mom’s recipe.

So, we’ve moved from Boston and I don’t get to visit Flour regularly, but I did receive their recently-published cookbook for Christmas and have been wanting to test a recipe or two for some time.  I had a huge stash of frozen bananas in my freezer and, unfortunately, I don’t have the buttermilk required to make my Mom’s recipe, so today was the day!  Banana bread recipes really don’t differ must from one to the next, but Flour’s calls for crème fraiche or sour cream to be included and it does give the resulting bread a certain moistness and great flavor.  The recipe referenced above from Runner’s World provides a lower fat variation, but I’ve included the recipe as set forth in the cookbook.  For ease of eating this on-the-go, I made mine into muffins and I noted a few additional small changes I also made.  Enjoy (and be sure to visit Flour when you next find yourself in Boston)!

Flour’s Famous Banana Bread
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I also added 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
2 tablespoons crème fraiche or sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 325°F.  Butter a 9” by 5” loaf pan or a muffin tin.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a handheld mixer), beat together the sugar and eggs on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  If you use a hand mixer, this will take about 8 minutes.

On low speed, slowly drizzle in the vegetable oil.  This should take about a minute.  Do not pour the oil in all at once - it must have time to incorporate into the eggs without deflating the air you have just beaten into the batter.  Add the bananas, crème fraiche and vanilla and continue to mix on low speed until just combined. 

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture and the nuts just until thoroughly combined.  No flour streaks should be visible and the nuts should be evenly distributed.  Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan or the muffin tins.

Bake the loaf for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until golden brown on top and the center springs back when pressed.  Let cool in the pan or a wire rack for at least 30 minutes.  If using a muffin tin, I found the muffins took 25 - 30 minutes. 

The banana bread can be stored tightly wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 3 days.  Or, it can be well wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 2 weeks; thaw overnight at room temperature before serving.

*Lower-fat options include reducing the oil to 1/2 cup and adding 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce and using low fat sour cream in lieu of crème fraiche.