Sweet Potato Brown Sugar Muffins #MuffinMonday

Mashed, buttered sweet potatoes add flavor, natural sweetness and moisture to these delicious muffins.  The hint of vanilla and cinnamon, along with the brown sugar, make these perfect for breakfast or a midmorning snack.

As this recipe goes live, I will be flying back to Dubai after enjoying more than three weeks of fun and family in Rhode Island.  What a beautiful state, truly.  When our elder daughter first mentioned Rhode Island School of Design, back in spring of 2008, and we visited the school that summer, I had no idea what a precious part of our lives this place would become.  That was further cemented when her little sister was accepted at RISD two years later.  It has been our pleasure to explore New England from our little rented home in Tiverton in the south, to as far east as Plymouth and west to Newport, with a little Providence and Boston thrown in for good measure.

If you haven’t visited New England before, I highly recommend it, especially Rhode Island, even in the wintertime.

Ingredients
1 whole sweet potato (about 5-6 oz or 140-170g)
1/4 cup or 60g room temperature butter
2 cups or 250g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup or 130g dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup or 240ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Scrub your sweet potato and poke it all over with the tip of a sharp knife.  Microwave on high for three minutes, turning it over halfway through.  Give it a gentle squeeze to see if it feels soft.  Microwave for another minute on the first side if necessary.  Remove the peel and mash the inside with a fork.

Add in the butter and stir it around so it melts.  Set aside and allow to cool.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it or lining it paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.

In another bowl, whisk together the cooled, mashed sweet potato, milk, eggs and vanilla.

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

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

Enjoy!

For those who are interested, I leave you with some random shots from our fabulous three weeks in New England.

Tiverton House - highly recommended  - hosts are wonderful.  Link here.
And, no, I have not been compensated in any way for saying this!

Christmas parade in Newport - complete with Santas riding Harleys

Newport Harbor

Quaint shops in Newport.

Roasting marshmallows at home

Every sunset seemed to outdo the next

Sailboats on the river by our house

The purported Plymouth Rock.  We've been told since that the real rock is underneath this one.

Mayflower II.  This is a reproduction of the Mayflower, built in England and sailed across in 1957.
If you come in the summer, you can climb aboard and imagine the voyage.

Fancy columns commemorating Plymouth Rock

The First Baptist Church in all of the United States, Providence, RI (1638)

Playing in the snow!

Turkey Camembert Cranberry Muffins #MuffinMonday

Turkey and cranberry jelly come together with Camembert to create the perfect use of Thanksgiving or Christmas leftovers in a savory muffin.  

Just when I think I’m so smart to come up with a great combination of ingredients that not only uses up leftovers but is a classic favorite mixture, I do a web search and realize that I am not the only bright bulb on the chandelier.   There are a bunch of turkey cranberry muffins out there, as it turns out.  But these are mine.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil
2 eggs
1 cup chopped turkey  (Sorry, I don’t have a scale here to weigh it as well.)
1/2 cup or 120ml cranberry jelly or jam
4 oz or 115g chopped Camembert (I leave the rind on but you can cut it off if it offends you.)

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it or lining it paper muffin cups.  The cheese will stick as it melts out of the muffin tops, so grease the top of the muffin pan as well.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add in your chopped Camembert pieces and divide them with your fingers, coating them with the flour mixture so they don’t stick together again.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil and eggs.

Cut the cranberry jelly into cubes.

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

Add in the turkey and cranberry jelly and fold gently, trying to keep the cranberry jam pieces whole.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

Enjoy!

We are staying in a delightful home, filled with eclectic decorations.  I was struggling to find a horizontal space to place the muffins for a photograph.  Here's the whole wonderful shelf.

Cinnamon Yogurt Muffins with Cinnamon Crumble #MuffinMonday

Yogurt adds subtle fruity flavor to this cinnamon muffin and the generous crumble is the perfect topping. 

Happy Little Christmas Eve!  And, no, that is not a holiday I just made up.  Many years ago, we were living in Balikpapan, Indonesia and our neighbor was a lovely Norwegian lady named Turid.  She was a career diplomat and had been working most recently in the embassy in Jakarta so her Indonesian was superb.  It’s not a hard language to master for everyday “market” conversation but at a business and diplomatic level, it gets much more complicated.  She had retired young to raise her daughter and had moved to Balikpapan with her husband who was working there.  Turid kindly offered to give me Indonesian lessons and, under her tutelage, I got pretty good too.  But the best part was that I also made a friend.

On December 23, she invited our family over for Lille Julaften or Little Christmas Eve, a special Norwegian celebration.  I don’t  remember the names of all the traditional cookies and cakes and dishes but everything was homemade and wonderful.  And I do recall that there was a lot of wine and beer involved.  And aquavit.  That stuff is trouble.  My advice for today is just say no to the aquavit but have a very happy Little Christmas Eve!  And perhaps bake some cinnamon yogurt muffins.

Ingredients
For the muffin batter:
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
3/4 cup or 185g fruit yogurt of your choice (I used raspberry.)
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 large egg

For the crumble:
1/4 cup or 60g butter
1/2 cup or 100g dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup or 30g flour
Pinch salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it or lining it paper muffin cups.

Start by making your crumble.  Put all of your crumble ingredients into a small bowl and use a pastry blender to cut them into each other until you have a sort of lumpy sandy mixture.  Set aside.

You should still have some small bits of butter visible. 

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, the sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

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

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

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and top each with a generous helping of the crumble.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

Enjoy!   And since this will likely be my last post before Christmas Day, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Dark Chocolate Gingerbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

Nothing says Christmas like the delightful aroma of gingerbread baking.  Nothing.  These muffins combine gingerbread batter with melted semi-sweet chocolate for an even richer muffin.  

These past couple of days have been hectic but I can happily report that I am back in the States for the holidays and both of my girls are with me.   I flew into New York, just as the storm hit and managed to get one of the last flights out to Boston on Saturday.  Then yesterday, my younger daughter and I drove back to New York to pick up my elder daughter and all of her worldly possessions.  I am thrilled to say that she has accepted a job offer in Boston and will be moving there in the new year.   1. Her dream job and 2. Only 50 minutes train ride from her sister in Providence.  Both things make this mother very happy!

I knew I’d be on the road so I actually baked these muffins before leaving  Dubai, but I was definitely channeling snow and cold and winter and Christmas.  Make you some!  The whole house smells cozy.

Ingredients
1/2 cup or 110g sugar
2 1/4 cups or 280g flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4  cup or 150g semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup or 120g butter
1/2 cup or 120ml molasses or treacle
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing with butter or non-stick spray or lining it with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger and cinnamon and stir well.

Set aside a generous handful of chocolate chips to use for decoration later.  Put your butter and the rest of the chocolate chips into a microwaveable bowl and zap for 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted.  Allow to cool slightly.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and molasses.

Pour your melted chocolate/butter into the milk/egg mixture and stir well.

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

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.  Top each with some of the reserved  chocolate chips.

Bake in your preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!