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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Slow Cooker Cocoa Peanut Butter Oat Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Chewy, crunchy and more-ish, these no bake slow cooker cookies are made with cocoa, peanut butter and whole rolled oats. They will have you reaching for just one more, until they are gone.

Despite my participation in the last Creative Cookie Exchange no-bake challenge in 2014 when I made Kashata Squares from Uganda, I am a neophyte at no bake cookie making.

This time I got my head in the game and hunted high and low with two recipe goals in mind. 1. It should be easy. Some weeks I’m close to in over my head and no bake could not mean complicated. 2. It should be tasty. I was hoping for something with peanut butter. I’m not much of a sweet eater but I do love the sweet and salty combination that peanut butter brings to a cookie.

This recipe on Moms With Crockpots fits both bills. Of course, my slow cooker is not an official Crockpot®, which is a registered trademark, so while changing up the method somewhat, I also changed the name.

These guys couldn’t be easier. Set your slow cooker on high and make a dent in your to-do list.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups or 350g sugar
4 tablespoons baking cocoa
1/2 cup or 120ml milk, warmed slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter – melted and cooled
3 cups or 300g old fashioned rolled oats (Mine are called Scottish jumbo!)
1/2 cup or 140g crunchy peanut butter

Method
In the base of your slow cooker, before you turn it on, mix together the sugar, cocoa, milk, butter and vanilla. I say to warm the milk first (just 20 -30 seconds in the microwave will do) because, in my experience, cold milk makes melted butter seize up again. We don't want that.

Pour oats on top of the chocolatey syrupy mixture. Spoon peanut butter in the middle on top of the oats. Don't mix them in!

Place the lid on your slow cooker and cook on high for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the cocoa mixture reaches a good boil around the edges. Resist opening it to look before your timer buzzes. Lifting the lid releases a lot of heat and it takes a while for your slow cooker to get back up to temperature. The peanut butter isn’t going to sink in (at least mine didn’t) but you do want it to soften in the heat.

You can see that it's bubbling!

Stir well. I mean, really well. You want the peanut butter mixed thoroughly throughout.

Use a cookie scoop to place your cookies on a clean heat resistant surface covered in baking parchment.

I don’t know if my 2-tablespoon scoop is smaller than the original recipe but I got 31 full scoops and one half scoop, way more that the two dozen promised.

Allow cookies to set for a few hours and then store in a sealed container, layers divided by parchment. (Cut up the pieces your cookies cooled on and reuse.) If it’s hot where you live, you might want to chill your cookies. Mine set perfectly but the bottoms were still a little sticky.

Many thanks to Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories and Renee of Magnolia Days for doing our behind-the-scenes organizing this month. It’s much appreciated!

Just in time for the heat of summer, another round of no bake cookies! Forget turning the oven on, we’ve got you covered.

• Coconut Apricot Slice from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Energy Bars from Baking in Pyjamas
• No Bake Almond Joy Bars from 2 Cookin Mamas
• No Bake Apricot Coconut Oatmeal Cookies from A Shaggy Dough Story
• No Bake Cookie Butter S'mores Bites from Live...Bake...Love
• No-Bake Fruit Balls from Magnolia Days
• No Bake Nutella Cookies from flours and frostings
• Slow Cooker Cocoa Peanut Butter Oat Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet and Salty Popcorn Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life). We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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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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Feta Olive Knots #BreadBakers

Feta olive knots are made with salty feta cheese and olives baked in a soft dough, making them the perfect accompaniment to any meal. 

This month our Bread Bakers group is being hosted by Deepti of Baking Yummies. She’s challenged us to bake rolls so make sure you scroll down to see the link list of all the lovely dough, both sweet and savory, that we’ve kneaded, shaped and baked for you today.

In my growing up family, we often had rolls at big family dinners for Thanksgiving or Christmas but they were more than likely those bake and serve ones that come in their own little foil baking pans. Man, I loved those things. All soft and buttery and melt in your mouth. I liked to mash them into small balls so they became almost like dough again and nibble on them.

I’m a grown up now and my tastes have changed. Not that I would reject a soft white roll, but I’m looking for something a little stronger in flavor, something that can stand up to a tasty bowl of soup, for instance. These feta olive knots are perfect! The feta gives the dough a little tang and each bite with an olive delivers a small burst of saltiness.

Ingredients 
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup or 180ml warm water
About 2 3/4 cups or 345g all-purpose flour start with 2 1/2 or 312g
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 oz or 50g feta
1 egg yolk (save white for brushing on rolls)
1/2 cup or 70g pitted, sliced olives (color of your choice)
Olive oil for bowl

For glaze:
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

Method
Put the warm water in a bowl with the yeast and sugar and leave to prove. The yeast should turn foamy if it’s active. If not, go buy some more yeast and start again.

Assuming you’ve got foam in your bowl, add in the 2 1/2 cups or 312g of the flour and the salt. You can knead by hand but this will be easier with a dough hook if you have a stand mixer.

Add in the crumbled feta and keep kneading with the dough hook until it’s incorporated.

Now add the egg yolk and knead again with the dough hook until it is incorporated. It's kind of like adding butter to brioche dough or eggs to choux pastry. These ingredients loosen the dough and it looks like they'll never mix in. Just keep mixing and they do!

Turn your dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a few good turns by hand, adding just a little more of the flour if necessary.

Press the dough out into a rectangle and spread the sliced olives all over it.

Worst rectangle ever. I straightened it out after I took the photo, I promise. 

Fold one third in from the right and then fold the other third in from the left. Turn the dough so it is horizontal to you again, and press it out slightly. Repeat folding it over in thirds.

Make one more turn so it is horizontal to you and press it out again. Repeat folding it over in thirds. In other words, you are going to do the "fold, fold, turn" three times. The olives should be fairly evenly distributed by now.

Oil your mixing bowl and put the ball of dough in. Turn it over to coat with oil. Set aside in warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a floured surface.

Cut it in quarters and then cut each quarter in three equal pieces to make 12 rolls. Roll each piece out until it’s about 8 inches or 21cm long. Cross the ends of each piece and tuck one end through the loop.

Place the knots on baking pan lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Whisk the egg white with the water and use a pastry brush to glaze the knots.

Leave in a warm place to rest for about 15-20 minutes and preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Bake in your preheated oven 18-22 minutes or until they are puffy and lightly browned all over.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little before serving.

Enjoy!

Such beautiful rolls, we've baked for you this month!

• Anadama Rolls from Passion Kneaded
• Bulochki (Russian Sweet Yeast Rolls) from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Cinnamon Rolls from Bakingyummies
• Crescent Rolls from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Feta Olive Knots from Food Lust People Love
• Flax Oat Wheat Dinner Rolls from Cook's Hideout
• Einkorn Parmesan and Garlic Rolls from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls from A Baker's House
• Hokkaido Milk Rolls from Baking in Pyjamas
• Kahvalti – Turkish-style Breakfast Buns from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Masala Bread Rolls from Sneha's Recipes
• Mini Cheddar Bialys from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Oatmeal Dinner Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pesto Rolls from Veg Nation
• Raspberry Sweet Rolls from Kylee Cooks
• Savory Cheddar Rolls from Magnolia Days
• Stuffed Vegatable Masala Buns from Spill the Spices
• Twisted Knotted Mint Garlic Rolls from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Wholewheat Low Fat Stuffed Cinnamon Rolls from Sizzling Tastebuds

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Bacon Honey Mustard Biscuits #FoodieExtravaganza

Super full of bacon with a good hit of sweetness from the honey, these bacon honey mustard biscuits will be a favorite on your breakfast or brunch table. 

This month our host for Foodie Extravaganza is Kathleen at Fearlessly Creative Mammas and she has exhorted us to help her celebrate her southern roots by baking buttermilk biscuits. Apparently it's Buttermilk Biscuit Day on May 14th. Who knew? Being from the southern United States myself, I have several biscuit recipes already in my repertoire, like these make ahead biscuits that are frozen and can be baked as you need them which is very handy! I could also have shared my aunt’s made from scratch biscuits, the ones I make most often, but she got the recipe from her mother-in-law and it includes instructions that are hard to quantify, like “add just enough milk.” How much is just enough? Ah, therein lies the secret of Mrs. Davis’ fluffy biscuits.

I was trolling the internet and came across a recipe for maple syrup biscuits with bacon which sounded fabulous. The addition of bacon to any recipe is a good thing. All those from maple syrup producing regions, please cover your eyes for this next admission: At our house, Aunt Jemima Butter Lite syrup is our maple syrup substitute. We love that stuff. It's a bit thin though so I wasn't sure how it would behave in biscuit dough.

You know what also goes with bacon?  Honey and mustard – think Christmas ham. Mine always has a honey mustard glaze!

Serve these guys warm and they will be gone in no time.

Ingredients for 12 biscuits
1 pound or 450g streaky bacon, cut into 1/2-inch or 1cm pieces
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour, plus extra for the work surface
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 115g chilled butter
1/3 cup or 80ml honey
2 teaspoons whole grain mustard
1/3-1/2 cup or 80-120ml cold buttermilk – just enough till it hangs together like a dough

Method
Fry your bacon pieces in a large pan until they are nicely browned but not too hard. Drain them on some paper towels. I use some newspaper from the recycling bin and put a piece of clean paper towel on top so the bacon isn’t touching the newsprint. Works like a charm and saves on paper towels.

Sift together your flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Cut the chilled butter into 1/2 in or 1cm cubes. Use a pastry blender to cut them into the flour mixture, until the little butter pieces are tiny and covered in flour.

Add in the bacon and stir to coat the bacon with the flour mixture.

Add in your honey, mustard and about 1/3 cup or 80ml of the buttermilk. Start folding the ingredients together, adding the rest of the buttermilk if it seems too dry.

Flour your clean work surface and scrape the dough out onto it.

Flour your hands liberally and knead the dough two or three turns. Press the dough out till it’s about and 1 in or 2.5cm thick.

Flour your biscuit cutter or a large glass and cut the biscuits out and put them on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Pop the whole pan into the freezer to chill while you preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

When the oven is preheated, bake the biscuits for 18-22 minutes or until they are nicely browned.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving warm.

My original plan was to brush these with melted butter and honey when they came out of the oven but I can assure you that they don’t need it. They are chock full of bacon and just sweet enough from the honey already inside! They go ever so nicely with a sunny-side-up egg.

Enjoy!

How do you like your biscuits? We've really kicked them up a notch this month!

• Bacon Honey Mustard Biscuits by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls with Chopped Pecans by Elaine from Cookin and Craftin
• Buttermilk Biscuit Mixed Berry Shortcake by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Buttermilk Lemon Biscuits by Kathya from Basic N Delicious
• Cacio e Pepe Biscuits by Laura at Baking in Pajamas
• Cinnamon Buttermilk Biscuits by Lauren at From Gate to Plate
• French Toast Biscuits by Teri from The Freshman Cook
• Maple and Bacon Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits by Rebekah at Making Miracles
• Savory Buttermilk Butter Biscuits by Kathleen at Fearlessly Creative Mammas
• Southern Buttermilk Biscuits by Georgina from G'Gina's Kitchenette
• Southern Buttermilk Biscuits by Sneha from Sneha's Recipes
• Tarragon Sweet Potato Biscuits by Caroline at Caroline's Cooking

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.

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