Loaded Blueberry Muffins

 

As you guys can probably tell by now, I am a huge advocate of muffin making. I bake them often, and many times I like to feature them here on the blog. This is because, in my eyes, muffins may be the world’s most perfect food.

They are simple to prepare, they taste kinda like cake, and there are endless variations to be thought up. I could probably make muffins every single day and never repeat a flavor combo even once… at least for a year or so. And I’d relish every single minute of it.

You know what else I love about muffins?  My picky two year old will eat them for breakfast. She has a hard time agreeing to putting anything in her mouth that’s not a “leaf” (kale salads, raw spinach, etc.) or a cookie. Yet, every single muffin I’ve ever fed her has been happily gobbled up–mostly by her, sometimes by the dog. She’s also into sharing.

When I make muffins these days, I like to jam them full of mix-ins to balance out all those leaves. ;) These are typical blueberry muffins with a few extras–buckwheat, zucchini, and banana–added in for good measure.

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Yeasted Mocha Muffins

These baked morsels are somewhat difficult to classify. On one hand they taste like a muffin, and on another, a sweet yeasted bread–yet they are so versatile, that by adding some mix-ins and a frosting, you could even get away with calling them a cupcake.

I personally think they taste like bread. My son voted cupcake. My daughter said “cookie” (okay, her 2 year old vocabulary isn’t very extensive and she calls anything sweet a cookie). I am positive my husband will think they taste just like a normal muffin.

I actually intended on doing something else, something more bready with this dough… but my plan was foiled since I didn’t have the ingredients handy to make what I originally intended.  One of those last minute “oh no!” moments.

So these muffins were born!

I decided to make them slightly mocha flavored (because I am a coffee fiend), but some fresh berries, nuts, or even chocolate chips would fare well in these. Heck, you could even halve the sugar, leave off any toppings and have a basic dinner roll!

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Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (GF)

vegan-and-gluten-free-muffins-4

Sometime last week, as I opened up my Google reader, I was greeted by this.

Is that not the most wonderful and genius muffin ever? It made me mad with muffin envy. Those bad boys just looked so damn good I set myself a goal to make muffins ASAP. I wanted to de-glutenize Mihl’s version, but I had no Dandies or cranberries. Plus, I really suck at looking at/using other people’s recipes. I pretty much never follow them as written. Admittedly, when I look at all the other fabulous food blogs out there, I skim over the whole “recipe” part and get right to the photos.  Look again… you know you want to.

But, back to the issue at hand…

Before I started to even preheat my oven, I realized that I hadn’t yet created a gluten-free version of my own chocolate muffins. Naturally, I decided to nip that problem right in the bud. I started by making a simple chocolate muffin that accompanied our family on a long hike this weekend. By round two, I had created the muffin monstrosity pictured above.

I also happened to pick up some Dandies at the grocery this past weekend while we were out in “the big city” gorging on ridiculously huge and ever-so-tasty dosai (plural? for dosa).  It all made for a pretty spectacular weekend.

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Blackberry Cobbler Muffins

blackberry cobbler muffins

When I woke up this morning, it was beautiful and sunny and the birds were singing. Yay!

There was still two feet of snow on the ground… but the sun gave me a much needed  burst of energy.   So, rather than the usual bowl of cereal my son is honored with in the morning, I made him these muffins.  He was thrilled to have anything other than cereal and ate 4 of them!  I’m not super good in the kitchen before I have had a ton of coffee… but these turned out really well.

One tip- use silicon muffin pans, grease and flour your pan, or use some really good muffin liners.  I used craptastic paper liners this morning and they sorta stuck- just a little bit. :(

Given that it was so early… I’m lucky to have remembered to line the cups at all.  The muffins were delicious, though.  They were a tad tangy and slightly sweet.  And full of crumble topping!  Oh, how I love crumble topping. <3

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