Stephanies Kitchen

Zucchini Muffins

August 1, 2011 By Steph 12 Comments

My garden is exploding with zucchini. If you don’t pick them while they ready, like if you wait 2 extra days like I do a little too often, they end up being as big as a Buick. So we have been having a LOT of zucchini bread in our house lately. But out of everything I have made, these muffins are definitely my favorite. Perfectly moist, perfectly sweet and oh so delicious! They puff up beautifully and you cannot resist them the second they come out of the oven. The tops are my favorite, so if you come to my house, you may see a lot of just muffin bottoms lying around.

Zucchini Muffins
makes 12

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest from 1 small lemon (about a 1/2 tablespoon)
3 cups grated, unpeeled zucchini

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside. Using a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla, lemon zest and butter. Add in Zucchini. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
**This part is super important. Instead of using non stick spray for your muffin tins, melt a little butter and using pastry brush cover the entire surface of the muffin cups. Distribute the batter evenly between the muffin cups. They will be full, and it’s okay! If you are nervous about that, feel free to use another 2 muffin cups, but mine turned out perfect. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through. They will get brown and beautiful. Cool for about 5 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. These will stay good for a couple of days if stored in some tupperware.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, muffins

Apple-Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

January 24, 2011 By Steph 7 Comments

I am a muffin lover. There, I said it. Do they have support groups for that? These are amazing. If you love cinnamon and you love streusel (and come on, who doesn’t?) than you will fall in love with these muffins. Enough said!

Apple-Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
makes about 18

For the batter:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cups whole milk
zest of 1 lemon
2 cups shredded apples (next time i will try dicing the apples and cooking them for a while on the stove with some cinnamon and brown sugar before adding them to the batter)

For the streusel:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp cinnamon
4 tablespoons melted butter

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, granulated sugar and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs and lemon zest until smooth. Whisk in the milk until well combined. Add the apples and than pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix just until combined. Mix the streusel ingredients until well blended. Spray a muffin pan and put one scoop of batter into the muffin cups. On top of each scoop of batter, place 1 tablespoon of streusel and pat down a bit. Place another scoop of the batter on top of the streusel. Place one more tablespoon of streusel on top of that batter and pat down a bit more. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 or until lightly golden.

Enjoy!

Steph
xoxo

Filed Under: apples, muffins

Monkey Bread Muffin Cups

March 12, 2010 By Steph 22 Comments

Monkey Bread. If you have never had this ultra tasty treat before, here are a few keywords to descibe this evil addiction of mine:

addicting
sweet crunchy edges
caramel-y
cinnamon-y
lil’ bit of heaven

These are only a few of many I could probably use to describe these little heavenly buns. It’s like a cinnamon roll you can take a part piece by piece and there is nothing in this world quite like it. Just remember – you’ve been warned. I’m not going to lie that you can eat the entire thing without even blinking an eye.

I decided that because I can eat an entire recipe when I make it using a bundt pan, that I needed to make them in individual portions so that I can ‘somewhat’ control myself. So I used the jumbo muffin tins. It makes 6. Just to make it extra evil I drizzled some icing over the top. They totally don’t need it. They are amazing on their own. Trust me.

Monkey Bread Muffin Cups
makes 6 jumbo muffins

2 tubes of biscuit dough (I like pillsbury) (20 biscuits in total)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar

Spray your muffin tin with non-stick spray. Cut each biscuit into 4ths. So in total you should have 80 little pieces of dough. In a bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Dip each piece of dough into the cinnamon-sugar mixture until totally covered. Divide evenly between the 6 cups. (about 13-14 in each cup) In a saucepan boil the butter and brown sugar. Spoon about a tablespoon of the brown sugar/butter mixture over each muffin cup. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes or until baked through. Best when hot and fresh out of the oven!

Enjoy!

Filed Under: bread, desserts, muffins

The Best Banana Muffins

March 4, 2010 By Steph 7 Comments

I crave banana bread on occasion. This is really strange for me because until I became an adult, I never really liked bread that had even a hint of fruits or vegetables in it…banana bread, zucchini bread, carrot cake, you know what I’m talking about. But now, I crave it. My kids love it. They have no idea what is in it, but they love it. And I can totally justify them eating it because it is awesome when you can feed them something and you secretly know it has some nutritional value (minus the sugar) to it. But anyways, I made these the other day and I have to say it is some of the best banana bread (muffins) that I’ve ever had.

I’m going to let you in on a cool trick too. Maybe you already know it, but I didn’t. I had to google how to ripen bananas quick, because I was craving these so badly. Yes, I’ve heard the whole paper bag with an apple trick, but I was just not feeling that. So I threw them into the freezer overnight and took them out the following morning to thaw out. They were perfectly ripen and I didn’t have to wait around impatiently. I also like my banana bread to have a little banana chunks in it. I use a whisk to get it all smoothed out but I like to leave it just tad chunky. So much better this way in my opinion.

Add some nuts or chocolate chips to it if you like, but I personally like these as just plain ole’ banana muffins. I sprinkle a little turbinaro sugar over the top before I pop them into the oven to add a yummy sweet touch.

Have a great weekend everyone!

xoxo
Steph

Banana Muffins
makes 12

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
3 or 4 ripened bananas (about 1 cup mashed bananas)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
4 tablespoons melted butter

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside. In another mixing bowl, mash the bananas and add the sugars, egg and melted butter. Whisk together until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Don’t over mix. Evenly distribute between 12 muffin cups that have been sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle with sugar if desired. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, fruit, muffins, snacks

Banana Cupcakes With Cinnamon-Vanilla Icing

March 5, 2009 By Steph 18 Comments

Thanks to everyone who watched Studio 5 today. I love the support I receive! It gives me warm fuzzies! I had a blast and I am so surprised with myself on how much I enjoy doing these cooking segments. I’m usually not the type of person who does anything close to this, but I find it invigorating somehow. If you missed it, I will hopefully be able to get a video of it here on my blog soon. Just keep checking back. Anyways, thanks for all the support! Now onto the cupcakes.

Is it a cupcake or a muffin? It originally started out as a Banana Muffin. I had some ripe bananas I needed to use up and thought it sounded especially satisfying at the moment. But then I had the idea to add the Cinnamon-Vanilla Icing and I’m pretty sure that when you add the icing it magically turns into a Cupcake. You can sure correct me if I’m wrong, but either way these are delicious. And you can justify eating more because they are filled with fruit, right? I think that’s how it works. Anyways, give them a try because they are delicious!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. I know I plan to!!

Banana Cupcakes With Cinnamon-Vanilla Icing
makes 18 muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium bananas)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Using a mixer, beat the eggs, sour cream, butter and bananas; slowly add the dry ingredients and blend just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-22 minutes. Top with Cinnamon-Vanilla Icing. Top that with chopped nuts if desired.

Cinnamon-Vanilla Icing

2 ounces softened cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Using a mixer, mix the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until well combined. Add half of the confectioners’ sugar and mix until creamy. Add the milk, cinnamon and the remaining confectioners’ sugar and beat until creamy and smooth.

Filed Under: bread, cupcakes, fruit, muffins