Miner Muffins

After her birthday, Kate was enamoured with the Princess cookbook from Philip (and whenever she finds it these days, she is again!). Pretty soon after the Abu Bread, we made Miners Muffins. 

The original recipe is for mini muffins and is regular flour.  We modified these to make regular sized muffins and used gluten free flour.  Kate was pretty excited! 

We did this without a mixer, so she got to stir. 

Then, I let her try out the muffin dispenser.  She is quite the little baker. 

These turned out pretty good.  I think I'd like to try them mini at some time.

Miners' Mini Muffins
1 cup GF flour (or regular)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (or buttermilk or almond milk)
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 375.  Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk and butter.  Stir the flour into the butter mixture.  When it is all "just wet" fold in the blueberries.  Spoon into prepared muffin pan (mini or regular).  Put the pan into the oven and allow to bake for 12 (mini) or 15-17 minutes (regular).  It is ready when a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Remove from pan and enjoy!

Mystery Muffins - Cooking by Letter

We've fallen behind on the Cooking by Letter. I don't know if we've done anything recently.  The last one we did was "M."  The topic that day was "Mystery Muffins."

K had a lot of fun doing it and even made some with Allie when she was visiting them.  We used blueberries, pumpkin kisses,

chocolate chips, and peanut butter. 

The blueberries were my favorite and chocolate chips David's.

The peanut butter didn't work so well.  Not sure why. 

Basically, you just make a basic muffin and "hide" whatever filling you want in the middle. Tada!

Mystery Muffins
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
Chosen "Mystery" ingredients

Preheat oven to 350.
1. In a large bowl, blend the butter, sugar, and egg.
2. Stir together dry ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Add flour to butter mixture in stages, alternating with the milk.  (We did flour, milk, flour, milk, flour)
4. Mix batter until well combined.
5. Line muffin tin with paper muffin cups.  Then fill the cups halfway with batter.  Add a teaspoon of your mystery ingredient then cover with more batter.  Do not fill more than 2/3 full.
*6. Place tin in oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
7. Enjoy!
*Adult step

Muffins but Not for Him

Remember when David made the shrimp for me?  Well, I thought about him when I did baking that weekend.  I made banana butterscotch muffins since I knew he didn't really like banana that much and would prefer chocolate over butterscotch...so I went in search of a recipe to fit the bill. 

I found this recipe from the Baldpate Inn.  Now, I have no clue what the Baldpate Inn is other than it gave me this recipe.  The muffins ended up really good and my co-workers loved them.  I think they ate them for the rest of the week!  Definitely a good muffin.

Banana Butterscotch Muffins from the Baldpate Inn
1 Cup Oatmeal, uncooked quick variety
1/2 cup white sugar
2 bananas
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Butterscotch chips
1 Egg
1/4 C milk
1/4 C Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat over to 400.  Puree peeled bananas.  Add bananas with liquids to dry ingredients, stirring by hand just to blend.  To bake, fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full.  Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees for 13-15 minutes, until top springs back when lightly touched.  this makes 1 dozen muffins.
Butterscotch Banana Muffins from the Baldpate Inn

Banana Bran Muffins

Most weeks, K goes through all the bananas I buy.  But sometimes she eats something else...like when we had watermelon.  She loved that and kept requesting it in the morning instead of banana.  So, I ended up with extra bananas.  Not that I'm complaining; I love making banana baked goods.  Another thing I love is bran muffins.  So, a few weeks ago, K and I made banana bran muffins.  These were so simple to make and turned out surprisingly moist and delicious!  I think David even liked them.  :-)

 Banana Bran Muffins adapated from Max and Kaylee who adapted from Fuss Free Cooking

1 cup bran cereal

1/2 cup milk

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup olive oil

1 egg

1 cup flour

2.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375º.  In large bowl, mix bran cereal and milk together.  Let sit for about 5 minutes, allowing the cereal to soak up the milk.  In a separate bowl, mash the bananas.  Add cereal-milk mixture and mix well.  Add oil and egg, stirring well to incorporate.  Next, add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar.  Stir until just combined.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.  Enjoy!

Hidden or Not?

Where's my little helper? There she is!!!  Just like K wanted to hide, we had a secret ingredient to hide this month in the Daring Bakers.  Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

Her favorite parts about helping:  stirring, eating a chocolate chip ("Can I have one of those?"), and liking the beater...which she always asks for before we're done!

I thought it would be fun to mix things up a bit and make donuts.  K and D love donuts but I prefer not to get them.  K and D (especially D) also like chocolate...which I prefer to avoid for breakfast.  However, I thought I'd make an except this time.  I mean, I'm baking the donuts and putting carrots in them...which K was actually REALLY excited about!  She asked for a carrot to snack on while we were making them and INSISTED that SHE pour the carrots in the bowl!

I found the recipe on Pinterest, which I have come to LOVE as a paperless filing system!  GREAT!

The recipe is from Clever Muffin.  Several things I liked about this recipe: 
1. Not much sugar.  Yes, there is some but so many muffin recipes use a cup or more!  Use 1/2 a cup and make it brown...so much more flavor.
2. Not much oil...and olive oil at that!
3. My mistake - I forgot the eggs...didn't even notice!  It was so fudgy and moist even without them.  D, of course, said it needed to be more chocolatey.  Ha!

Verdict:  They like them!  K was excited from the beginning and couldn't wait to have her donut for breakfast on Sunday.  D tried it last night and said they were good.  He had complained about the carrots.  When I said you couldn't taste them he said "but I can see them!"  So, he kept the lights out when he ate it.  ;-)  Ha!  All in all a successful recipe to make everyone in the house happy!

Chocolate Carrot Muffins/Donuts adapted from Clever Muffin
1 cup raw oatmeal or quick oats
1 cup low-fat milk
3/4 cup flour / rice flour or a gluten-free alternative
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 cup grated carrot
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup (about 100 grams) of dark chocolate chips
Note: I cut up some of a block of dark cooking chocolate for the chocolate chips, the recipe tends to lend itself to the rough kind of chocolate chips you get by doing it that way.
Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line with patty cases and spray with cooking oil.
2. Soak the oatmeal/oats in the milk while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
3. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder together, then add the rest of the ingredients, including oats/oatmeal (don’t over mix!).
4. Spoon into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and they bounce back to touch. Cool on wire rack. Makes 12.

Enjoy!

French Braid and Chocolate Muffins

A couple of weekends ago I kept K while D was on call for the weekend.  Friday night we made cookies.  Then Saturday K got up early, ate some cereal while I made pancakes for the next morning (a great idea if you have hungry kids who want to eat IMMEDIATELY and can't wait on you to make something), then we got dressed.  I asked K how she wanted me to do her hair and she said "a braid!"  So, I tried a French braid.  The first time it was too loose and crooked.  For some reason I couldn't get the braid straight...so I did a side French braid! 

Turned out pretty cute if you ask me!  Sunday after church and a nap (for K...just as I was falling asleep she got up..."Good morning!!!") we went back to D's house and made...gasp!...

 chocolate muffins for him.  It was a recipe that I found when searching for "chocolate chunk muffins."  Now, this is a healthy recipe...but D did eat them. There was something a little missing in them; the bites with the chocolate chunks in them were really good...without, not QUITE enough flavor.  Not really sure what I'd add.  I'd probably play around with these again...unless D doesn't want it again.  He's the chocolate fan!  :-)

Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins

1 3/4 cup	Oats
3	Egg whites
3/4 cup	Unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup	Unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp	Vanilla extract
1/2 cup	vanilla greek yogurt
1/2 tsp	Cream of tartar (or 2 tsp. vinegar) - didn't have this, may have made a difference
1 1/2 tsp	Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp	Baking soda
1/4 tsp	Salt
1 cup	Hot water
1 cup	splenda
1/2 cup	Chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with foil cupcake liners, or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a small food processor, blend oats until they are ground.  Then mix all ingredients together in a bowl on a mixer.

Gently stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips (set the rest aside). Scoop mixture into prepared muffin pans.

Place muffins tins in the oven for 15-20 minutes.Cool muffins before removing from pan. ENJOY!!!

Quick Breads

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles. 

I was really a bit excited about this.  Some of the recipes that we were provided with looked really good.  I planned to make several of them.  The third of the month, I decided I would try the cream cheese pumpkin loaf.  My loaf came out dense gummy.  WHY do I have such trouble recently with quick breads?!  I used to make them with no problems, so good.  I had to throw away two loaves of bread.  That one...a fail. 

For my birthday, I decided to make some banana bread to take to work...and apparently forgot to take a picture.  Oops! When I walked in with bread I was asked if I made it.  When I said yes, D gave me a look like "you shouldn't bake for other people on your birthday!"   Why?  I liked it.  ;-)  When I made this one, I just threw things together.  I forgot to put the egg in and didn't realize it until I was finished; it turned out fine.  The bread was gone by lunch time.  I call that one a success. 

The next one I tried was a ricotta cheese chocolate muffin (follow link for picture...again, forgot to take one! Bad blogger!)  I found the recipe a while back and thought D might like it.  I used cottage cheese and was trying to use baker's chocolate, but it re-solidified when I added it to the butter so had to add some cocoa.  I wasn't sure how they were but D said they were good heated...sometimes I wonder if he's just being nice!  ;-)

 The last one I tried was a bit different but I liked it.  This is a buttermilk quick bread which turns out to be a good bread for soup.  I've been telling D that I'm going to make sourdough bread, but that requires me to make a starter.  Unfortunately, I don't know if that will happen this month.  So, I thought I'd try something that might be a little close.  Well, it's not exactly sourdough bread, but it was good.  The texture is dense and almost....ALMOST...cornbread like but not grainy.  I do think that I overcooked it a tad.  I did my "I know what time I put it in the oven so I won't set a timer" thing.  Then I actually got distracted.....CLEANING!  All of a sudden I remembered the bread! 

The inside was still nice and soft and the edges were firm.  I enjoyed it as did D.  I'd make it again.  This was such a fun challenge. I really wish my pumpkin bread had worked.  Will probably try that recipe again sometime along with the lemon bread recipe.  REALLY wanted to try this one but didn't get to make bread this past weekend since I was out of town.  Thanks for a fun challenge, Lis!

Chocolate Chunk Ricotta Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup cottage cheese

 2 eggs 

1 1/3 cup milk

 1 T. vanilla extract
4 T. unsalted butter melted and cooled

 2 cups flour 

1 1/4 cup sugar

 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

 2 tsp. baking powder 

1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chunks or chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin pan with cooking spray (love the one with flour in it). In a medium size mixing bowl whisk the ricotta cheese with eggs until well mixed. Add the butter.  Whisk in milk and vanilla and set aside. In a large mixing bowl sift all the dry ingredients together to get out any lumps. Stir together the dry ingredients so the cocoa powder is incorporated well.  Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined, do not over mix, then fold in chocolate chips.

  Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full because of the ricotta being heavier they will not rise as high as normal muffins would, so they need to be filled 3/4 full.  Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. When the muffins come out of oven let cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto cooling rack. Enjoy!
Makes: 9 large muffins or 16 regular size muffins.

Buttermilk Quick Bread from Cooking Light on My Recipes
9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups) 
2 tablespoons sugar
 1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk 
1/4 cup butter (I used oil) 
2  large egg whites (I used 1/4 cup packaged egg whites)

Preheat oven to 350°. Measure flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, butter, and egg whites, stirring with a whisk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Pour batter into an 8 x 4–inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 45 minutes to one hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.  Enjoy!

Apple Pie...in a Muffin

So, I have had several requests to post this recipe ever since I made the muffins.  Plus, it's finally cool and fall like here...so, I give you apple pie muffins.  After making a fruit salad for that surprise party a few weeks back, I had LOTS of apples left over.  So, I went in search of a good recipe to use those apples.  I stumbled across this muffin recipe and thought it looked great...plus, it had a crumble topping.  I think the top is the best part of the muffin...so a crumble top is even BETTER!  I ended up using applesauce in replacement of the oil to make these a little bit healthier.

On a side note, I am of the opinion that applesauce does make the "shelf life" of baked goods a lot shorter.  So, if you do use the applesauce, either eat these quickly, or freeze them!

On the other hand, the texture of the muffins was still good.  I didn't think the topping was quite crispy and dry enough.  I still haven't figured out how to make the best topping.  All in all, though, these were really good muffins!  These were great and had a great amount of apple in them.  Check them out!

Apple Pie Muffins adapted from My Baking Addiction

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups peeled, chopped apples - I used gala but granny smith is the traditional type

Topping:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray muffin tin with baking spray.  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, applesauce, vanilla and brown sugar. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Pour liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in apples. Use a large scoop to fill each muffin well, filling the cups to the top.

  In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour, rolled oats, and cinnamon. Drizzle in 3 tablespoons of melted butter, mixing until well blended. Sprinkle this over the tops of the muffins. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed.  Cool on wire rack. Store at room temperature or freeze. Enjoy!

Mango Muffin

Have you ever had dried mango?  If you haven't you should try...especially the pieces that are a little thicker...oh, so good!  When I got the mango, I decided that I should try to make a mango muffin.  So, the other day when I got a bit of a baking bug, I decided to go for it. 

These are a little on the healthier side but you can adjust for your tastes.  I've made them twice and the upper end of sugar is just about right but if you like muffins that don't taste sweet at all go for the lower end.  I love a good bran muffin and this one is just that...not too heavy but an obvious bran flavor.  Try them out!  I'm taking some with me tonight to work.  We've had two good nights but I know that a busy one is coming soon, so having something quick to snack on (I made mini muffins) will be good!

Mango Bran Muffins by me
1 egg
1/2-2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup fat free buttermilk
1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup wheat bran
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3-1/2 cup dried mango, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Whisk together egg, sugar, oil and buttermilk.  In another bowl, stir flour, bran, baking powder, cream of tartar, and cinnamon together with your hands.  Slowly stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Stir in mango.  Spray the wells of a mini muffin tin (or regular sized if you prefer).  Scoop batter into wells.  Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes (17-23 minutes for regular sized).  Remove from oven and remove muffins to cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Donut or muffin?

My department at work is struggling...we have 5 women who are either pregnant or just had babies!  Three of those are fellow residents, which means that we have a decreased work staff to cover the hospital...but we are making due.  And being pediatricians...we LOVE babies!!!  Needless to say, we also love a good excuse for a party and we have been having quite a few showers lately.  For the first shower, I took a couple of things:  grape salad and donut muffins. 

First let's talk about the donut muffins.  You dip the finished muffins in butter and then drench them in cinnamon sugar.  Tell me, HOW could that not be good!  Everyone loved them.  And if you want to get a great grape salad recipe, come back again soon...this is a GREAT shower snack!

Donut Muffins from lemanda at Tasty Kitchen

1-¾ cup Flour
1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Nutmeg
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
⅓ cups Oil
 ¾ cups White Sugar
1 whole Egg
¾ cups Milk

FOR THE TOPPING:
¼ cups Butter
⅓ cups White Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine.Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. While muffins are baking, melt the butter in a bowl. Combine the white sugar with the cinnamon in another bowl.
Shake muffins out while still hot. Dip muffins in butter, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix. Let cool.  Enjoy!

Joyous Blueberry Muffins

When one of my friends got married, my mom brought me a recipe for a blueberry muffin.  It's name...Joyous Blueberry Muffins.  Who can resist a name like that!?  I waited a while to make them but finally did soon after my brother got married.  These are really good muffins!!! 

 It uses a slightly different technique for mixing in the berries.  Instead of stirring them into the batter, you layer the batter and berries into the pan.  This prevents any extra juice from the berries from staining the batter, which in and of itself is delicious.

 I decreased the sugar and butter slight and still ended up with a tender muffin.  The flavor is slightly less sweet than a typical "American breakfast muffin" but more sweet than a "tea muffin".....if any of that makes sense! 

Joyous Blueberry Muffins adapted from Jane's Sweets and Baking
1 1/2 cups (recipe called fro 2 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
5 tablesppoons melted butter
4 eggs
1 T vanilla extract
5 cups All-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (I used milk)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (originally sour cream)
2 1/4 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
coarse sugar for topping the muffins

Preheat oven to 425.  Blend oil, butter, sugar together.  Add eggs and vanilla and blend well.  Mix flour, powder, soda together.  Fold into butter mixture.  Blend in buttermilk/milk and yogurt.  This will be thick!

Prepare your muffin pans with cooking spray or liners.  Fill tins 1/3 full of batter.  Then add a layer of berries.  Spoon more batter on top of this.  If you have room, add more berries and a dab more of batter.  Bake for 7 minutes and then turn oven to 350 and bake for 6-8 minutes more.  If using Jumbo tins, bake for twice the time at each temp.  Remove from oven when a toothpick comes out mostly clean and they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger.  Let cool for 5 minutes in pan.  Makes 24 regular muffins and 12 Jumbo.  Enjoy!!!

Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?

Well, I do know this answer as I work in a children's hospital!  Our department chair even has a SpongeBob tie.  However, I would not recommend living in a pineapple, especially under the sea.  But I would recommend using them in muffins!  I used pineapple in my pie but didn't use the entire can.  I bought (I think) a 20 oz. can but only used about 6-10 oz (OBVIOUSLY I didn't measure!) leaving me with a half a can of pineapple to use for something else. 

Well, I had promised my co-resident in nursery that I would bring muffins one day, so I set out to make a pineapple muffin.  These turned out perfectly if I do say so myself!  Not overly sweet but with enough sweetness from the pineapple.  I did use some sugar but you MIGHT could get away with not adding any (or a little less) if you used more pineapple and included some juice as pineapple is a sweet fruit on it's own.  The texture was so soft, especially in the center!  My co-resident really liked them and was quite grateful for the breakfast to go along with his coffee.   

Pineapple Muffins
10-14 oz. crushed pineapple, with juice 
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil 
1 egg (I think I used an egg...can't remember!) 
1 2/3 cup self rising flour (I accidentally bougth this the other day and have really loved having it!) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a bowl mix together pineapple and sugar.  Add oil and egg.  Stir in flour.  Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.  Fill each muffin holder 2/3 full.  Bake for 17-20 minutes (once again...I didn't time it...BAD, BAD baker!) or until soft but firm in center and golden but not browned.  I got 12-13 muffins.  Enjoy!

When You Don't Have Time

My time in the kitchen has been limited recently. Some of that because I'm lazy and some of it true lack of time. I know that a lot of people have this "issue" as well. However, all of us like a good homemade cinnamon roll from time to time. A while back I found a great looking recipe for cinnamon roll muffins that claimed to have the taste of cinnamon rolls but made much more quickly than those delectable treats. I decided to take these one day last month for call instead of cookies...I had been reprimanded for bringing cookies because apparently some residents don't have much self control. I figured that muffins would be less harmful as there are less per batch and you can tell how many have been eaten. :-) These muffins were very good and did have a cinnamon roll taste about them, but the texture is obviously different. Part of that may be due to the fact that I did have to modify the recipe slightly...I didn't have any yeast; so, these were your traditional muffin. The original recipe may be more like a cinnamon roll than the muffins I ended up with. Try for yourself!Easy Cinnamon Roll Muffins from Joy the Baker

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp active dry or rapid rise yeast (I didn't have any...it works without but would be good with)
2/3 cup warm milk (100-110F; low fat is fine)
3 tbsp vegetable oil (I think I reduced this...not for sure)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg

Filling/Topping

2 tbsp butter, room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk or cream

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Stir milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and egg into the flour mixture. Mix well, until very smooth. Pour into prepared pan and let rest for 15 minutes.
While the dough rests, mix together butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl using a fork (or fingers) until all the butter has been incorporated into the sugar and mixture is crumbly. Divide the batter between 12 greased muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly on top of rested dough and press the mixture down into the dough with your fingertips (or swirl in with a spatula.)
Place pan into a cold oven, then set the oven temperature to 350F.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until bread is lightly browned at the edges and the center of the bread springs back when lightly pressed. Some of the sugar mixture on top may still be bubbling.
Cool for at least 30 minutes before whisking the powdered sugar and milk together to form an icing and drizzling it onto the bread.

Summer Muffins

My favorite flowers, unfortunately, are tulips! I say unfortunately because I can't seem to get fresh tulips to last longer than two days, which makes me sad. Anyway, when I was in Hobby Lobby several months back I found a tulip cookie cutter that I thought was too cute...so I bought it! I haven't made any cookies with it, but a few weeks after that I found this muffin recipe at Jenny's site. It sounded good to me but I wanted to do something different. Hmmm...so instead to making muffins, I cooked this in two 8X8 pans and cut them out with my tulip cookie cutter. They turned out cute and VERY tasty! They are nice and moist without being mushy. They are the perfect summer muffins because of the berries...which are pretty inexpensive (at least in MS) right now. Jenny put a glaze on hers, which I know would be delicious...what isn't good with a glaze!? Peanut Butter and Berry Flowers adapted from Picky Palate
1/2 Cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup all purpose flour
1/2 Cup oatmeal
1/4 Cup granulated sugar
1/4 Cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 mashed banana
1/2 Cup peanut butter
1 Cup buttermilk
2 Tablespoons melted butter
6 oz berries - I used blackberries and strawberries (be careful with strawberries because they will add extra moisture)

Glaze (optional)
1 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place both flours, oatmeal, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the banana, peanut butter, buttermilk and butter until smooth. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined. Slowly stir in berries. Spoon batter into greased 8X8 pans (2) or muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from center (be sure to check...I'm unsure of the actual time I cooked these). Let cool completely. Remove from pans and use whatever cookie cutter you want to use (or just cut into squares) to cut into individual pieces. If making glaze, whisk powdered sugar and heavy cream until smooth. Dip each piece into glaze and let dry.