Gingerbread-Sour Cream Muffins

I haven't really baked much in the past week, but starting this week I'm going to start baking a lot more. Why? Because I'm in charge of making all the desserts at Thanksgiving and I want to test out a bunch of recipes to see which are best :)

This recipe isn't exactly for Thanksgiving, but it's sort of in season so I wanted to try it out. I saw these in Better homes and gardens and they looked really good. Well.. every recipe in that issue looked delicious! I think I book marked every page. These muffins aren't too sweet, which is probably why I didn't like them as much but my parents loved them! They said they're almost as good as the Zucchini Muffins. Next time, I'll probably add a little less ginger and a little more molasses, but I'll definitely make these again. They were a hit!

Gingerbread-Sour Cream Muffins

recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon allspice or cinnamon (I used allspice)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 8-ounce carton sour cream

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup mild-flavor molasses

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons finely snipped crystallized ginger (I omitted this)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F. Grease the bottoms of twelve 2 1/2 inch muffin cups. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, ginger, baking powder, allspice, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in center of flour mixture.

In another medium bowl, combine egg, sour cream, milk, brown sugar, and molasses. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each nearly full.

In small bowl, combine granulated sugar and crystallized ginger. Sprinkle over muffin batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean. Remove from pan. Serve warm. Makes 12 muffins.

Zucchini Muffins

I love anything that's healthy so i really wanted to try these. And it's getting colder out so i want to go to the farmers market as much as i can. These muffins are incredibly easy to make. The only hard part was grating all the zucchini. They were all done and out of the oven within an hour! I chose to leave out the walnuts, cranberries, and nutmeg in the recipe but I'll definitely add it next time. It would make the muffins even more moist and delicious.

Zucchini Muffins

from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

3 cups grated fresh zucchini

2/3 cup melted unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons baking soda

pinch salt

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup walnuts (optional)

1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the zucchini mixture and mix in. in a separate bowl, mix together the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in the walnuts, raisins or cranberries if using.

Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes.

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

I was really excited about making these. Not only are they healthy, but they taste great too! I saw this recipe in a recent Cooking Light magazine and knew i had to make them. Because of the name, many people think that they're gross because they have oatmeal in them or something. Well they're wrong! The texture is soft and moist and they taste like you wouldn't believe.

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
from Cooking Light

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fat free buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
2 large eggs
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
cooking spray
2 tablespoons granulated sugar.
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place oats in food processor or blender and pulse 5 to 6 times or until oats resemble coarse meal. Place in large bowl.
-Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Add flours and next five ingredients (through salt) to oats in bowl. Still well with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.
-Combine buttermilk, oil, rind, and eggs in small bowl. stir well with a whisk. Add to flour mixture and stir just until moist.
-Toss blueberries with 2 tablespoons flour and gently fold them into the mixture.
-Spoon batter into 16 muffin cups coated with cooking spray and sprinkle batter with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when gently touched. Remove from pan, cool or wire racks, and enjoy!