Pumpkin White Chocolate Muffins

I have a confession to make..... I am not a big fan of anything that is made with pumpkin.  I can't lie I have carved enough of them over the years and saw the lovely ooey gooey insides that it didn't help with my aversion to pumpkin-made things.  So, unless I asked to make them for something I didn't, until recently.

I was discussing with my husband want he wanted me to make for Thanksgiving dinner.  He had this look like he wanted a pumpkin pie, but he knew it would be a waste to make an entire pie just for him.  I told him I would see what I could find on the internet.  I thought I could find something that was a mini version or something similar.  I figured it wouldn't be hard since I have found recipes for mini cheesecakes and individual pineapple upside down cakes.  I didn't search long before I found a recipe for muffins.  I found it originally on Pinterest, then found the original post on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  Here is the direct link to the web page....  http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2012/09/04/pumpkin-white-chocolate-chip-muffins/

If you don't feel like going over the page here is the recipe:

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Muffins

1/2 cup of walnuts, chopped
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
4 oz unsalted butter, melted
6 oz white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla bean paste, pumpkin, and unsalted butter. Add in the chocolate chips and nuts.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix.
5. Scoop batter into greased or paper cup lined muffin cups. Bake for about 20-22 minutes or until puffed and springy to the touch. Cool then remove from cups. Makes 12 muffins.

I only made a few slight adjustments to fit my needs.  First was I didn't add the walnuts.  Truth, I just don't care for baked goods with nuts in them.  The second item I changed was the vanilla bean paste.  I just used pure vanilla extracted.  I did this mainly because I didn't know what vanilla bean paste was or how to make it.  The extract worked just fine in my opinion.  One thing I found out was if you use regular muffin tins, you can get about 18 muffins instead of 12.

This is a picture of one the many batches I made.

Ok, I will admit these muffins have definitely changed my mind about pumpkin.  They were soooo good.  The white chocolate gave them a very nice sweet taste.  They have been something I have made several batches.  They even have made me think of trying some more things with pumpkin.  I guess I need to hit the internet again and see what I can find.

Next time I will talk about a blueberry lemon loaf that I tested out with some very good results.

Until next time...... Happy Baking!

Apple Streusel Muffins - Part II

As some of you may remember I had made apple streusel muffins just a little while ago.  They had turned out overall very well, but I thought I needed to make some improvements.

The biggest thing that I felt needed adjusting was the filling.  I felt there needed to be much more and it needed to be more solid.  Here is what it looked liked the first time.....

Not bad, but could be better.

Now here it the improvement......

Better?  I like to think so.

What I did was use a brownie bite mold from Wilton.  The main purpose of the mold is to make 24 bite size brownies.  I instead froze the apple cinnamon filling in it.  I feel that the mold worked great.  My only fear was getting the filling out of the mold, but because it was silicone I was able to easily pop them out.  The one thing I must remember is to put the mold make in the freezer while a batch of muffins is baking.  Even though I kept the mold in the refrigerator the filling started to soften up a little too much. 

The extra filling I feel added to the taste of the muffin.  Also, with doing it this way I think the kinds of filling are endless.  The basic muffin mix can stay the same, just chance the filling and the topping.  (I think I may of just added another item I can sell.)

I did experiment with Strawberry Muffins, too.  But, that is whole another post.  

Until next time...... Happy Baking!

Apple Streusel Muffins

In the past two weeks I tried two new things.  Both are a little outside my comfort zone.  I was a little hesitated about doing this, but was very excited at the same time.  I decided to try my hand at muffins.  Overall, one was more successful then the other.

The one that had more success was the Apple Streusel Muffins.  I found the recipe on allrecipes.com  several  months ago, but never had the real desire to try it until now.  (I can't lie.  My first thoughts about it was it had too many steps to build the muffin.  I was lazy in the beginning.)  I am very happy that I tried it out.  They tasted really really good.  If you want to check it out here is the link..... http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apple-streusel-muffins-2/detail.aspx .

YUM-YUM!

Everyone that had one thought they were great.  I even have to admit they were good. I had only one complaint..... there needed to be more filling.

See what I mean?

This one wasn't too bad, but some also needed the filling to be more throughout the muffin.  While talking with my husband after each of us taste testing them.  He suggested about freezing the filling before putting them in the muffins.  I thought that was great idea.  Then the wheels really started turning for me. (I was told he could almost see my brain working with a million ideas.)  After talking out loud, saying random things, and not standing still it finally hit me.   I could use a mold to put the filling in until in harden then just drop them in the muffins.  So, the search began for the mold.

My first thought for a mold was a cake pop mold I came across a few weeks ago.  The original mold was only six and much deeper then what I really needed.  I thought this would work, but I ended finding something even better.

Much better!

So, I have already made the filling and put into the mold and in the freezer.  Later today I will be making as many muffins I can.  I promise to let you all know how things turn out.  (Oh no! This might mean two posts in one day!  Who would have thunk it? Ok, to be honest the post will probably be tomorrow after more people taste test them.)

Until next time...... Happy Baking!

Doing things for fun!

I have not had any orders recently which to a part is good because I have been working overnights the few weeks.  But, I did do some things for fun.

I currently work with a small group of people.  We are part of a bigger team, but because we work overnight we tend to miss some of the fun things going on during the day.  So, I decided to be nice and bake some things.

The first thing I did was make my famous chocolate cookies.  I hate to sound egoistical, but they were a hit.  I wanted to try something new.  It needed to be easy to bring in and also easy to divide up.  I thought about it for a bit and realized that I haven't really made any muffins.  I knew that was the answer.  The decision was made Applesauce Muffins it was.  Here is the link to the recipe that I used http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mothers-applesauce-muffins/detail.aspx .

A co-worker also had a birthday recently.  I made him a chocolate two layer cake with chocolate fudge buttercream icing.  The icing came out a little pudding like, but worked very well.  I plan on making a black forest cake for another co-worker.  I think that will be fun since I have never made that before either. I promise I will have pictures of that.

I don't have any details yet for either of them, but I will have an order for my microphone cupcakes and some cookies.  I'll let you know when I know.  If nothing else the cupcakes will make me write another post about how to transport them.

Until next time...... Happy Baking!!

PS... Only 5 days until in is completely legal to sell baked goods made in your home in the state of Texas.