Vegan Pecan Pumpkin Muffins

Mama Lori was kind enough to make these little treats for me the other morning. USUALLY I'm not a big fan of having bumps in my muffins unless its of the chocolate variety. But, to my surprise and delight (I get excited about my tastes maturing) I really enjoyed these. And I enjoyed them even more the next day when they had developed that slightly tacky texture on top. You know the texture I'm talking about? No?



She presented the muffins to me in this delightful and very familiar little tin. I picked this tin of cookies or biscuits as they are called out for Lori while we were in Paris. I've talked about La Cure Gourmande in previous posts. Love their design work.

Makes 12
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs (egg replacer plus water)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 to 1 tsp cloves
1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/3 cup water
chopped pecans

1. Prepare the vegan egg replacer according to the package. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Mix together the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat together the sugar, oil and eggs. Add the water. Add the dry mix.
4. Fold in the chopped pecans and pour into muffin tins.
5. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Serve with pumpkin butter or a bit of maple syrup!

Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

YAY! Muffins! I am experiencing the simultaneous joy and frustration of finding my kitchen supplies in my Dad's basement. But where is that darn food processor, agh! Sorry...

I stumbled upon my muffin tins while I was looking for a few things and thought - hey, I haven't had a muffin in a long time. Voila - muffins were made. This is a recipe I got from Cooking Light but I altered it a bit to make it dairy free. Also you will notice that I use whole wheat white flour - this will give it that wheaty taste (so don't expect the sugar loaded, starchy tasting muffins we all begged our mom for in the grocery store bakery...no one else wanted those? you all wanted the donuts didn't you?!) But! Because its white wheat (still whole wheat - no worries) it has less of a pronounced taste. If you want to use all-purpose flour of course you can - but these are muffins not cupcakes so why not make them a little healthier and save the all purpose for the cakes?



Lemon Blueberry Muffins
(makes 12)
2 cups whole wheat white flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegan butter spread
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy buttermilk (almost 1 1/4 cups vanilla soymilk plus the juice of one small lemon)
1 large egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 cup fresh blueberries, washed
raw sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a bowl. Next cut in the vegan butter spread. You can use a pastry blender for this or two knives, or my go to - your hands (its fun and fast!), until you have a mixture that resembles a coarse meal.
3. Combine the buttermilk, lemon rind, and eggs - mix well. Add in the flour mixture a bit at a time until its all mixed in, but be carfeul not to overwork it.
4. Toss the blueberries with a little bit of flour (this will keep them from sinking to the bottom right away) and then gently fold them into the mixture.
5. Spoon the batter into 12 pre-buttered muffin cups. Bak for about 20 minutes or until the muffins are golden and spring back when touched. Remove the muffins from the pans and cool on a rack.

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls always seemed to me like they would be a time consuming process that I just didn't wana deal with...I was wrong. Totally easy.



Cinnamon Rolls
Dough:
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp veg oil
2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp yeast

Inside icing:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp soft butter
heavy amount of cinnamon

Outside icing:
2 tbsp soft butter
3-4 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1. Put dough ingredients into a bowl and mix well. When smooth, mash it around a bunch (or knead it if you wana use fancy pants terms) with floured hands. When you can pat it into a ball....do so. Then put it into a floured mixing bowl and let it hang out for 15 or so.

2. Roll out the dough into a rectangle (when i did this it kept shrinking back into a circle looking rectangle. stretchy stuff! but you know...just make it big enough to slather it with icing and roll up) on a floured surface. Spread with butter and then sprinkle with the cinnamon and brown sugar. Roll it up and slice. I rolled it hotdog style but you could do hamburger style and just have like 2-4 giant ones as opposed to 6ish small ones.

3. Bake 15 min at 400 degrees...or! refrigerate them overnight..or two nights if you're lazy like me, and bake them in the morning. Also...dont bake these on tin-foil like I did. They get all stuck. Grease the pan a little before and just bake right on the sheet.

4. Combine the icing ingredients (this requires a bit of elbow grease...just stick with it) and spread it over the hot rolls




Also! I baked my last (unless I cave) batch of pumpkin flavored treat for the season. Its the same recipe I used for the chocolate chip pumpkin bread..I just made them muffin style and used a little less chocolate chips so they are a little less rich and thus easier to eat in fatty quantities.



I made 20 last night and Pang, J and I scarfed a bunch right off the bat and then I took a bunch to work today so...just from last night to this morning we are down to like 9. Yay! I love when my baked good get eaten before they go bad!

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins with Orange Cream Cheese Butter

Its been so nice with the windows open I just can't hold back the baking urges. Long ago, in the time before Pang and I became roomies, she bought me some lovely poppy seeds from the Amish Market in Hagerstown. So finally I made something with them.




They are little wee muffins

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour or part whole wheat
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
2 tbsp grated orange peel
2 tbsp orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins.
2. Cream together butter and sugar (there is a correct and incorrect way to do this as I learned the hard way). Add the other wet ingredients to the creamed mix one at a time.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together and then add to the wet. Stir until just blended. Bake 17-20 minutes.

Orange Cream Cheese Butter
1/2 cup butter
1 (3oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp grated orange

1. Combine all ingredients- mix until smooth and store in a covered container in the fridge.
2. Serve over warm muffins



They were so good I ate two right off the bat

Yogurt and Honey Muffins

As soon as I finished eating my cheesy yesterday the sun came out! It must have heard my cries..of course the sun also came out just as I was getting ready to go to work. Curse you sun! Today was a lovely pre-fall feeling day though so I was happy again.

I had time before class today so I whipped up some of these.



I had been wanting to make them for a while because I love yogurt (even though its gives me a tummy ache, Im dairy sensitive) and I have grown more and more fond of honey/agave nectar the more I use them. These turned out quite yummy but I think I should have thrown in a small handful of dried cranberries to sweeten things up a bit. But I love how these are good for me, will give me a little energy boost and wont make me want to eat all of them in one sitting.

Yogurt and Honey Muffins (The Cookie and Biscuit Bible
makes 12

4 tbsp butter
5 tbsp honey (i prefer raw honey but Im sure it doesn't matter)
1 cup plain yogurt
1 egg
grated rind of one lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of grated nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375 F and grease muffin tins
2. In a sauce pan, melt better and honey, remove from heat and set aside
3. In a bowl whisk together the yogurt, egg, lemon rind, and lemon juice. Add the butter and honey mixture.
4. In different bowl sift together the flours, baking soda and nutmeg. Fold into yogurt mixture until just blended.
5. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 min. Leave in tin to cool for 5 min then transfer to wire rack.



I paired my muffin with a mixed berry jam :) Don't worry Jon I will bring some with me tomorrow.