Raspberry Mini Muffins #MuffinMonday

When you have fresh raspberries that are past their best, mash 'em and make raspberry mini muffins. Sweet raspberries mean not a lot of sugar is needed in these little beauties so they are perfect as a snack or breakfast.

This month I'm in Jersey, Channel Islands so I've been reveling in homegrown or at least locally grown produce. I buy fresh from the markets plus I have a big collection of what my daughters call "pity jam" in the cupboard. You know, from the little old ladies who take a table at markets and donate their proceeds to charity. Yes, I can make my own jam and often do but they look so sweet behind their small stalls, jars all neatly arranged with cloth squares tied to the top and handmade labels. And even if the proceeds don't go to charity, I just can't help myself.

We were at a carboot sale the other weekend and one lady, not so old this time, had baskets of local raspberries and strawberries for sale. I bought two baskets of the raspberries, which we ate with homemade meringues and whipped cream but as they started turning a bit soft, making muffins seemed like the ideal way to use them. And indeed it was.

Ingredients - for 2 dozen mini muffins
1 cup or 125g flour
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 110g mashed raspberries plus more for decoration, if you've got some
1 medium egg
1/4 cup or 75g Greek yogurt
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
2 tablespoons canola or other light oil

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your mini muffin pans by lining them with little paper muffin cups, buttering or spraying with non-stick baking spray.

In large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.

In smaller bowl, whisk together the raspberries, egg, yogurt, milk and oil.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient and fold until just combined.

Divide the batter between your muffin cups. Add a decorative raspberry to each muffin, if desired. I only had 12 nice ones so one pan got raspberries, one pan was plain.

Bake in the preheated oven about 12-15 minutes or until the muffins are browned and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. They turned an interesting blue in places but were most delicious.

Enjoy!

As almost always with Muffin Monday, we don’t have a theme so our bakers make whatever inspires them each month. We hope some of them will inspire you to bake muffins!

• Apple Blackberry Muffins by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Cappuccino Chip Muffins by Palatable Pastime
• Cheesy Chile Corn Muffins (Gluten Free) by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Cinnamon Swirled Muffins by Passion Kneaded
• Fresh Peach Muffins by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Lemon Meringue Muffins by Making Miracles
• Phase 3 Muffins by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Raspberry Mini Muffins by Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Sweet Corn Muffins #MuffinMonday

Just a little cornmeal adds a lovely flavor to these tender sweet muffins, without making them as heavy as cornbread could be. It’s all a manner of ratios, more flour to less cornmeal. 

It’s Muffin Monday time again! Somehow the last Monday of the month always seems to sneak up on me but I am delighted to say that my Muffin Monday bakers are clearly more organized than I am and are turning out in force this month. We’ve got seven wonderfully creative muffins for you and my rather normal sweet corn muffins. That said, sometimes normal can be terrific.

My younger daughter is home for a visit so I let her choose the muffin I’d make this month. After all, she’d probably be the one eating most of them. She told me of a sweet corn muffin they used to serve when she was still in school. It was sweet, but not too sweet, with a subtle corn flavor. It did not have any actual corn in it. In fact, when I asked that question, she looked horrified. You might remember my discussing her assertion that everybody likes plain things. Anyway, if there wasn’t actual corn, I had to presume that it was made with cornmeal. Last but not least, it was light in texture, not heavy like cornbread.

So, here you go. I think this muffin fulfills all of her requirements: A tender, light, fluffy, sweet corn muffin. Perfect for breakfast or snack time. As a bonus, the muffin top edges are almost crunchy from the cornmeal. She's still sleeping as I post this so I'll have to report back later on her verdict.

Update: She says the muffins are very good but the ones at school had more corn flavor. Next time I'm going to up the ratio of cornmeal to flour a little.

Make sure you scroll down to see the link list of the other more creative muffins!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190ml flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/2 cup or 85g yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 or 300ml cups milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Grease or paper-line your 12-cup muffin pan.

Whisk together your flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together your milk, oil and eggs, until fully combined.

Fold your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients, until just combined.

Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. They are going to be pretty full but you can manage to fit it all in.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown around the edges and a toothpick stuck in the middle of one comes out clean. Cool in the pan for a few minutes then remove the muffins to a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Check out all the great muffins we have for you this month!

• Banana Bread and Chocolate Muffins from Making Miracles
• Chocolate Chip Blood Orange Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Grilled Cherry Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Jamaican Me Hungry Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Margarita Sour Cream Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pancake Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sweet Corn Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page

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Roasted Peach and Bacon Muffins #MuffinMonday

Roasted peach and bacon muffins are sort of sweet and sort of savory, really the best of both worlds. 

It’s Muffin Monday again! And also Memorial Day in the United States, which is the day we remember and honor those who have died in active service in any branch of the United States military. Many families take advantage of the three-day weekend to gather for reunions or to hold family celebrations. And, of course, this time of year is also all about graduations and graduation parties. So many opportunities to bake and share muffins with your friends and loved ones!

If you are a fan of sweet and salty treats, you are going to love these roasted peach and bacon muffins. Don’t forget to scroll down to see all the other bacon and peach wonderfulness that my fellow Muffin Monday bakers are sharing. We didn’t plan the theme but after everyone else had added their titles to our group, I was motivated to create a muffin that would fit in.

Ingredients
6 slices thick cut streaky bacon
2 peaches – just ripe but not soft
Pinch flakey sea salt
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
1/3 cup or 66g brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180 ml milk
1/3 cup or 80ml bacon fat (rendered from frying the bacon) plus extra for greasing pan (or use butter or oil)
2 large eggs

Method
Fry the bacon slices until crispy and remove from the pan and drain on paper towels. Leave the bacon fat in the pan to cool.

Preheat your oven to 425°F or 218°C.

Cut your peaches in half and remove the pits. Slice them in wedges.

Place the wedges on a baking pan. Use a spoon to drizzle some bacon fat over each peach wedge. Sprinkle them with a pinch of flakey sea salt.

Roast in your preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes and then turn the wedges over and roast for a further 5 minutes.

After turning them over.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. They are going to be pretty soft at this point. Use a metal spatula to scrape them up. Reduce heat of the oven to 350°F or 180°C.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.

Chop the peaches and the bacon into pieces, setting aside 12 bits of each for topping the muffins before baking.

Add your chopped peaches to the flour and use a fork to mix them in and separate them from each other, coating them with flour.

In another bowl, whisk together milk, bacon fat and eggs.

Add all the milk mixture to flour mixture.

Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened. There should still be some flour showing. Then fold in your bigger pile of bacon.

Generously grease cups (I used bacon grease but you can use oil or butter) and top of 12-cup muffin pan.

Divide your batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups.  Top each with a piece of the reserved bacon and roasted peaches.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing muffins from pan.

Enjoy!

If you are a fan of bacon or peaches, this is going to be your favorite Muffin Monday so far! Check out all the great combinations we have for you this month.

• Bacon and Caramelized Vidalia Onion Corn Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Bacon and Roquefort Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Fresh Chive and Ricotta Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Roasted Peach and Bacon Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Peach Cobbler Muffins from Making Miracles
• Spicy Zucchini Bacon Cheese Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Chocolate Muffins #MuffinMonday

Chocolatey muffins stuffed with peanut butter cups make a fun surprise for the peanut butter and chocolate lovers in your life.

A couple of weeks ago our weather was poor, by which I mean it was actually raining. It has been so weird here lately and I don't know if it's just a change in the overall world climate or if we have only the cloud seeding that goes on to thank for our abnormally wet weather. Anyway, rain and high winds meant no sailing for us on the weekend so my husband suggested that we venture out to explore a big grocery store that is off our usual route. And before you get all, your husband is the best! yes, he is, but there is also a large hardware store nearby. Alas, unfortunately for him, it is closed on Friday mornings (who knew?) so I guess we'll have to go back.

This particular store advertises that they have the largest stock of imported foods from the United States and the United Kingdom and I don't doubt it. It was just after Easter so I even scored a discounted bag of miniature peanut butter cups, which became the inspiration for these muffins. Because who doesn't like to find a little bit of chocolate covered peanut butter when they bite into a muffin? Nobody, that's who.

Please make sure you scroll on down to see the other lovely muffins that my Muffin Monday bakers have for you today.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour
3/4 cup, firmly packed, or 150g brown sugar
1/4 cup or 20g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup or 125g sour cream
1/3 cup or 80ml canola or another light oil
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup or 150g semisweet chocolate chips
12 miniature peanut butter cups

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it liberally or lining it with paper liners.

Whisk together your flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your eggs, sour cream, oil, milk and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold them together until just combined.

Separate out a small handful of the chocolate chips for popping on top of the muffins and fold the rest into the batter.

Spoon or scoop about two-thirds of the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Unwrap your miniature peanut butter cups and poke one into each cup of the batter.

Top with the remaining batter divided out amongst the cups. Sprinkle on the reserved chocolate chips.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Remove them from the pan and cool them further on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

You look like you could use a muffin today. Might I suggest one of these?

• Apple Carrot Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Blueberry Cornmeal Sourdough Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Cinnamon Molasses Muffins from Passion Kneaded  
• Cranberry White Chocolate Muffins from Making Miracles
• Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Chocolate Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sour Cream and Green Onion Corn Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy and Sweet Hummus Muffins from Kelli’s Kitchen
• Strawberry Vanilla Yogurt Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Yiaourti Me Meli (Greek Yogurt and Honey) Muffins #MuffinMonday

Modeled after the Greek breakfast/snack/dessert of thick yogurt sweetened with honey then topped with walnuts, these muffins have all that, in a tender crumb. 

If you stopped by here yesterday to see my slow-cooked, falling off the bones, lamb shoulder, you’ll know that I’ve had Greek recipes on the brain. Since today is Muffin Monday, the best start to the last week of the month, I decided to take a classic Greek recipe and turn it into muffins as well. May I say that it was an excellent choice. As I mentioned yesterday, I haven’t been to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 but now I have read a few reviews and found them most dispiriting after waiting all this time for a sequel.

Never mind, we have muffins! Make sure you scroll on down and see the other lovelies my Muffin Monday group members have baked up for you too.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 315g flour
1/4 cup or 58g demerara sugar, plus extra for decorating, if desired
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup or 250g Greek yogurt
1/2 cup or 120ml honey
1/4 cup canola or 60ml other light oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup or 100g walnuts

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F and 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with muffin papers.

Measure your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

Separate out 12 good looking walnuts for garnish and then chop the rest coarsely.

Whisk your eggs, yogurt, honey, oil and vanilla together in a small mixing bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined.

Fold in the chopped walnuts.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups in your prepared pan.

Top each with a reserved walnut and sprinkle on some extra demerara sugar, if desired.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the muffins comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Happy Muffin Monday from all the Muffin Monday bakers! Look what we've made for you today!

• Blueberry Streusel Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Cranberry Orange Muffins from Making Miracles
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Butter Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Quiche Lorraine Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Yiaourti Me Meli (Greek Yogurt and Honey) Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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