Call them mini muffins, call them donut holes…
Call them whatever. I call them delicious. Way delicious.
These little-mini-pumpky-babies are so moist, and so packed with spicy pumpkin flavor. For me, this is fall – all wrapped up into one little…donut hole….or mini-muffin. Whatever.
They’re called “whole” lemon muffins for a reason, you know.
I’ve been intrigued by these muffins since I first saw the recipe: A whole lemon, skin – everything except the seeds – and all, goes into this muffin batter. The end result was promised to be a deeper lemon flavor, and it was. I love this idea – as a matter of fact, I’m already thinking about making whole orange muffins.
These muffins are incredibly light and fluffy, and I even opted to replace one cup of regular flour with whole wheat, making for an even “whole-r” muffin. I also love that these muffins aren’t overly sweet. You have the option to add a simple glazer of confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and a touch of vanilla, and there you can control how much sweetness you want to add. If you do opt to use this glaze, I would be sure to add enough sugar to thicken it enough, or let it sit and harden a bit before you try to use the glaze.
The recipe says it yields 12 texas-sized muffins at the top of the page, but when you read the instructions, it says to use 8 muffin cups. I’m not sure which is supposed to be correct, but I used regular-sized muffin pans and I got 18. I also had a problem in one of the pans with getting the muffins out safely after baking – not sure if it was the pan, but you may want to use muffin liners to be safe.
Head over to Tara’s blog for the complete recipe!
I am a person of cravings. Have I mentioned this before?
The other day, I had this crazy craving for jelly-filled doughnut muffins. I just couldn’t get it out of my head.
{Imagine poor Daniel when I am preggo one day – I can just imagine him on the hunt for jelly-filled doughnut muffins…}
It all started because I was craving muffins, actually. Not so much eating them, but baking them. I was at work, but I wanted to be in the kitchen, mixing batter, baking muffins. Can you blame me?
I tweeted to see if anyone had any favorite muffin recipes to share, and someone pointed me in the direction of Nigella Lawson. It was strange, I thought, that I’d never tried any of her recipes, and after searching her muffin recipes, I immediately fell in love with this jam doughnut version. I also knew I’d be back for more.
You may recall the sugar donut ice cream cupcake creation I made last year. For those, I used a recipe for sugar donut muffins, and slightly modified it to be more like a cupcake. I still, however, always thought it would be perfect as a muffin, since a muffin is more of a breakfast thing.
{Note that I said “more of a” breakfast thing – because a cupcake can totally be eaten for breakfast, in my book}
They’re very simple to make: You just fill the muffin cups partly with batter, add a dollop of jam, then fill with more batter. This recipe should make 12 muffins, though I ended up a few short. It made for good portion control, but I’d probably double it next time – they are that good!
Jam Doughnut Muffins
Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
With a fork, beat together the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir this into the flour and 1/3 cup sugar to combine. Don’t worry about lumps; if you over-beat, the muffins will be tough. Spoon the mixture into each muffin cup so that it’s just under a third full. Then with a teaspoon add a dollup of strawberry jam, then top with more muffin mix so that the cups are just about full.
Place the pan in your preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops feel springy and resistant and the muffins have puffed up.
Meanwhile, melt the butter slowly in a thick-bottomed pan, and lay the remaining sugar out in a wide, shallow bowl. As soon as the muffins are ready, remove them, dip them in the butter, and roll them in the sugar. Eat warm.
Makes 9-12 muffins, depending on the size of your pan.
And so the pumpkin begins.
Is there anyone out there who’s not totally obsessed with this stuff? Anyone? Didn’t think so.
Right now, my kitchen is in pumpkin overdrive. I’ve got pumpkin spice lattes brewing in my Crock-Pot, and an oven full of streusel-topped pumpkin bread and muffins.
I know you must be excited… But that’s for another time.
Today, we discuss the Pastry Queen’s Pumpkin Yumkins. She describes them as a mix between a muffin and a cupcake, but for me, they’re just straight-up muffins. Muffins topped with some straight-up delicious icing.
The recipe calls for chopped dates and pecans to be stirred into the batter before baking, and wouldn’t you know! I didn’t have either of those on hand. But I did have some walnuts and some raisins, so I used those instead.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it, so I made half the batch with the raisins and walnuts, and half without. The with batch was definitely the winner.
Wondering what kind of icing these muffins have going on? It’s cream cheese frosting with a tiny bit of orange juice and lots of zest. The pictures show what it looked like when I first iced them, but if you wait a while the icing sets and hardens. I thought it was a little too orangey and it sorta overpowered the pumpkin in the muffins.
Even so, orange + cream cheese + pumpkin is definitely a powerful combo. These muffins are great for breakfast, and they do keep for days. I think they’d be great to have for brunch around Thanksgiving. Because, you know, there’s obviously not enough pumpkin going on already at that time.
There’s always room for pumpkin, right?
Thanks, Amanda, for choosing the first pumpkin recipe of Project Pastry Queen! Be sure to head over to her blog for the full recipe.
As it turns out, I’m a fan of corn muffins.
I’ve never been a big cornbread person – it’s always seemed a little boring to me. When that basket is passed around on Thanksgiving Day, I’m usually fast to skip it over in favor of a perfectly soft dinner roll spread with butter. Cornbread feels heavy, and I’d rather be filling up on mac and cheese.
But these – these just may be in competition with my precious bread and butter. I may even be willing to compromise a few bites of mac and cheese for one of these corn muffins – and that’s a big statement.
There’s butter. And fresh corn. And heavy cream. A lot of it.
That’s right, they are “rather rich” – the recipe is that of Rebecca Rather, the Pastry Queen herself.
You don’t even need to spread butter on these perfectly lush little muffins, though you certainly can if you’re feeling particularly gluttonous {as I happened to be feeling this morning}. They are rich in every sense of the word, and biting into one tastes like pure buttercream corn heaven.
Yes, I believe that if there were such thing as frosting made from corn and muffins, this is what it would taste like. Creamy, rich, decadent, buttery – and there’s even a little crunch thanks to the sprinkling of cornmeal overtop.
And to top it all off, these are about the easiest and quickest muffins I’ve ever come across. There’s no sifting of ingredients, no mixing dry ingredients in with the wet in steps. You’re just dumping it all in the mixer bowl, and giving it a quick stir. They only take about 15 minutes to bake, so you can be done and done in all of about 30 minutes flat.
They’re also pretty versatile – we’ve been munching on them all morning, and I’m sure they’d be just sinful with a little spread of jam. The batter can sit in the refrigerator for up to three days, and as we’re having a couple over for dinner tonight, I’ve saved a good amount of batter so that I can drop it in a muffin pan upon their arrival.
Because everyone should be able to taste these golden corn nuggets fresh and hot from the oven.
For the recipe, be sure to check out Amanda’s post over at her blog, Fake Ginger.
Happy Sunday!
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