Memaw's Pumpkin Muffins

Three years ago I went to my very first seminary wives' Bible study group.  "SWING groups" we call them... Seminary Wives in Nurturing Groups.

Our husbands meet a lot of people in class, but we student wives have to work a little harder at meeting people here sometimes.  SWING groups give us a fun and meaningful way to make friends, and connect, and grow together.

As I was preparing this past week for my new small group, I kept thinking back to my very first SWING experience...and all the wonderful friends I made...and all the things we learned together. 

And I also kept thinking about Memaw's delicious pumpkin muffins.  :)

Because at that first SWING meeting during my first semester in Dallas, a dear friend named Chelsey welcomed us all into her apartment with a warm batch of her Memaw's pumpkin muffins. 

They were delicious. 

(I've had the pleasure of meeting Memaw, by the way.  Not only does she make amazing muffins...she is precious!)

This morning I got to celebrate, with a very special group of women, the start of a new small group and a new semester and new friends.   

And we did so, appropriately, with Memaw's Pumpkin Muffins. ♥

Memaw's Pumpkin Muffins

Combine dry ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup flax seed
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger

Add remaining ingredients:
2/3 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 can or 2 cups pumpkin

Mix until well combined.  Pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or till toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Doughnut Muffins

We just had another exciting week with visitors here in Dallas.  The day after my sister and brother-in-law left us, Josh's parents arrived to meet Baby Eli and hang out with Knox, too.  

We have LOVED all the time we've been able to spend with our families this summer...it doesn't always work out like this for us.  It has been a special summer.

 

While Josh's parents were here, I made my newest favorite muffin recipe...these doughnut muffins. 

I think I love them because they remind me of the homemade donuts the older ladies in my town always made for us when I was growing up.  These muffins are reminiscent of old fashioned homemade donuts...only much faster and easier to make.  I found the recipe on the King Arthur baking blog.

 

The only problem I have with this recipe is that my favorite part is the top half, the half dipped in the melted butter and cinnamon sugar.  It just melts in your mouth!  I wish that every muffin could have TWO top halves.  :) 

But I did discover a remedy to this problem...just mix up a little extra cinnamon sugar and sprinkle it on the bottom half of your muffin before you eat it...with a little butter, if you're feeling especially indulgent.

 

 

  

Doughnut Muffins

Batter:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 2/3 cups flour 
• 1 cup milk

Topping:

• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar

Batter

• 2 ounces butter
• 1 3/4 ounces vegetable oil
• 3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 ounces brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 11 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 8 ounces milk

Topping

• 1 1/2 ounces melted butter
• 1 3/8 ounces Cinnamon-Sugar Plus or cinnamon sugar

Directions:

 

1) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin. Or line with 12 paper muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray; this will ensure that they peel off the muffins nicely.

2) In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.

3) Add the eggs, beating to combine.

4) Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.

5) Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

6) Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.

7) Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they're a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.

8) Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes, or until you can handle them. While they're cooling, melt the butter for the topping (this is easily done in the microwave).

9) Use a pastry brush to paint the top of each muffin with the butter, then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar. Or simply dip the tops of muffins into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar...that's what I did.

10) Serve warm.

Yield: 12 muffins.

Not-Too-Branny Bran Muffins

I LOVE bran muffins.

But not the kind you get at Dunkin Donuts.

Usually bran muffins are way too heavy on the bran for me.  They're dark and dense and just too...branny.  At restaurants or coffee shops I only order them when I have to; like, when it's the only kind left.  

Ding ding ding!  Enter my Aunt Monica's bran muffin recipe.  

These muffins squash every preconceived notion anyone has ever had about a bran muffin.  

They're soft, they're light, they're fluffy.  And they have just enough bran in them to make them bran muffins without being too branny.

I have never been able to tell if eating a lot of muffins is an American thing or a Vermont thing or a just-my-family thing.  (I'd welcome any insights into that question...did anyone else grow up believing muffins are the extra food group they forgot to teach you about at school?)  All I know is that muffins go with everything.  They round out almost any meal.

Especially these muffins.  

Soup.  Salad.  Macaroni and Cheese.  Pot Roast.  Casseroles.  Scrambled Eggs.  Coffee.  Tea.  Coke. :)  You name it, I've had it with one of these bran muffins.  

They're delicious.

Another thing I love about this recipe is that it makes a huge batch...enough for 24 muffins...and the batter can be refrigerated.  So you can bake one batch, refrigerate the leftover batter, and have another batch ready to go with dinner a week later...or for a snack when unexpected guests drop by.  

Or, as my sister and I did growing up, you can mix up a big batch and then bake one mega muffin in a Pyrex custard cup every morning for breakfast until the batter runs out. :)

Yum.

Not-Too-Branny Bran Muffins

3 cups bran flakes
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup shortening or oil
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups buttermilk

Heat oven to 400.  In large bowl combine cereal and boiling water.  Stir in oil and eggs.  Add remaining ingredients, blend well.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 3/4 full. 

(Remaining batter may be stored in tightly covered container in refrigerator for two weeks.)

Bake at 400 for 18-22 minutes or just until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

The Healthy Muffins that are Really (no, really!) Good

Who says that just because you give up sugar for a while you have to give up baking? I made these muffins today for two reasons. #1, I thought Josh and I needed a fun afternoon snack; and #2, as Plan B for dinner tonight.

Plan A is "123Tiffin."

What is 123Tiffin, you ask?

I am not really sure. All I know is that last week one day I got a text message from Josh saying, "Do you want Indian Food tonight? It's a slick deal." And I texted back, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" because I love it when Josh finds fun slick deals, I love Indian food and I love it when I don't have to cook dinner. (A "slick deal" is any deal Josh finds on his favorite website, www.slickdeals.com, which I will doubtless blog more about in the future.)

So anyway we waited for two hours that night for 123Tiffin to deliver our $5 meal for two and it never showed up. We had to go to Jersey Mike's and get subs instead. Tonight 123Tiffin is supposed to redeem themselves and send us another meal. This time around I'm a little less excited and a lot more skeptical. So I'm prepared. If they don't show...or if the food looks too scary to try...we're having Progresso soup and these muffins for dinner, instead. :)

The muffins are really yummy. The recipe came from my mother-in-law, Marlene, and I think she got it from the Whole Foods website. She baked these for me when Knox was about two weeks old and they've become a family favorite.

They're healthy, too! This isn't one of those tricks where someone tries to convince you that something healthy tastes good when it really doesn't. I wouldn't do that to you. On second thought, maybe I would. But you can trust Mom P!! She never makes anything that isn't 100% delicious. :)

Blueberry Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar*
2 T. canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 375.

Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray (or line with muffin papers). In a large bowl combine flour, oats, powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir just until moist. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake 16-18 minutes.

*Or, if you told the whole world yesterday that you're giving up refined sugar for 60 days, you can use 1/4 cup (or more) honey as I did today and it comes out almost as good. :)




Knox couldn't have a muffin but he did enjoy a little oatmeal & applesauce too: