Superfood Muffins

I picked up a young coconut at Windmill Farms Produce, our local farmer's market, today. It was completely on a whim and I had no idea what to do with it, but I had been planning to make some sort of oatmeal and cranberry baked good today, and it came to me that fresh coconut might make an interesting addition.

 Cranberries and coconuts are both considered superfoods, though "superfood" is not a term used by dietitians. Still, they're both tasty and have good-for-you properties, and I'd like to image that little muffin up there wearing a tiny cape. Cranberries are a potent antioxidant, with the highest concentration of phenols which are thought to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, stroke, and heart disease. And coconut contains a healthy form of fat, while the water is high in electrolytes (natural Gatorade!). I even read somewhere that the water was used in place of blood plasma during WWII.

Breaking in to the coconut was interesting though. I did a little research online and after five minutes or so of various pounding and thwacking, I finally succeeded. I ended up with about 3/4 cup of coconut meat and 1 cup of coconut water.

Then I pureed the coconut meat with about 2 tablespoons of the water until smooth. I used this coconut puree in place of the butter in my muffins.

Before I had begun trying to figure out how to break into the coconut, I combined the oats and milk in a bowl, so the oats would soften.

 
I combined the coconut puree with sugar, two egg yolks, and the oats and milk. Then I added a mixture of  flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir gently, just until everything is combined. Next add dried cranberries that have been soaked in hot water, then drained and tossed with about a teaspoon of flour, so they don't sink in the batter.

In a very clean bowl I whipped up two egg whites. I wanted to give these muffins some loft since the oats would make them denser. My egg whites appear to be smiling at me, so they must have agreed.

The egg whites are ever-so-gently folded into the rest of the batter.

Then I used an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter to a muffin-cup-lined and greased muffin pan, and I sprinkled the tops with demerera sugar for a little crunch. I baked them for 30 minutes, let them rest for 10, and my superfood muffins were done!

The result is a slightly chewy muffin, courtesy of the oats, with zings of cranberry and a light coconut flavor. These will make an excellent breakfast for the week, perhaps slathered with honey butter or alongside my new favorite thing, Greek yogurt.

Here's my recipe...

Oat, Cranberry, Coconut Muffins

makes 12

1 cup oats

1 cup milk (I used half and half)

1 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup coconut puree (use softened butter if you're omitting the coconut)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup flour

2 eggs, separated

Demerera sugar

Preheat your oven to 400F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners, and grease with cooking spray oil.

Combine the oats and the milk in a bowl and let sit for 20 minutes. In a separate bowl combine the dried cranberries with hot water for about ten minutes, then drain well and toss with a teaspoon of flour.

To make the coconut puree, blend the meat from one coconut with two tablespoons of the coconut water in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl, add the sugar and the two egg yolks, and mix well. Add the oats and milk and mix again.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add this to the wet mixture and gently stir, until just combined. Add the rehydrated cranberries and stir again.

In a very clean, large bowl, beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until soft peaks form. Very gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the muffin batter. Transfer the batter to the muffin pan, filling the cups nearly to the top if you want nice, large muffins. Sprinkle the tops with demerera sugar. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick or tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle of a muffin. Let rest 10 minutes in the pan, and then enjoy!

Related Recipes:

Pumpkin Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Hearty Cherry Muffins

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

More Muffins

I'm starting to think I might have a problem. A problem with pumpkin. And muffins. Combined. Seriously, whenever I think about making muffins the first thing I want to include is pumpkin. I think pumpkin helps make muffins super moist, but I don't have any science to back this up. But I also like the fiber and good stuff that pumpkin lends to a muffin, as well as the taste. Maybe this isn't quite a problem after all.

These muffins have a soft nutty flavor from the buckwheat flour, and are studded with juicy tart-sweet blueberries and melty, gooey chocolate chips.

Pumpkin Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Heavily adapted from a generic muffin recipe

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. buckwheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/3 c. melted butter

2 large eggs
1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. frozen blueberries

1 c. chocolate chips

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin pan with muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, butter, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flours and baking powder mixture until just combined.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full). Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature. I popped all of mine in the freezer, and nuke them real quick when the muffin-urge strikes me.

 I would like to walk down this pink muffin-scented hall

Related recipes:

Hearty Cherry Muffins

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Mexican Mocha Pudding with Pumpkin Cream

Hearty Cherry Muffins

When I was little I loved going to my grandparents' house. It was a big production, since they lived a 7 or 8 hours' drive away and my parents would have to pack up us three kids, as well as a dog or two, into the minivan to make the trip. The minivan was probably a huge blessing for my parents, since us kids didn't fight (or fought less at least) on long drives in it. It was a Ford Aerostar, blue, and there was plenty of room for everyone. Dad usually drove, wearing his straw hat, and I could see his fireman's mustache in the reflection of the rearview mirror. Mom rode in the passenger seat, often with a foot or both propped on the dashboard, peeking out from one of her long sundresses that always made her seem to float rather than walk. My little brother rode in the middle set of seats, and I would watch his head bob up and down to the side as the motion of the van lulled him to sleep. My older sister and I sat in the back, on either side of the van with an empty seat in between where we would seatbelt in our Cabbage Patch Kids. One Christmas we each received one of the dolls that could talk, and sometimes they would talk to each other, which was fun and eerie at the same time.

My grandparents lived in Southern California, in a big mobile home on a huge (to me, at least) lot. Grandma always had a batch of her Monster Cookies for us, giant cookies with M&Ms in them, made from a batter so stiff she'd have Grandpa stir it for her. When I was a bit older we all had our own rooms there: I had the room my Aunt Peggy (Aunt Pegasus) used to live in; my parents had Aunt Ruth's old room, where I used to sit with her on the bed and do word-search puzzles; my sister had the office with the fold-out bed where Grandma kept her two doll-babies. Gee, where did my brother sleep? Maybe it was the living room. He was just a little kid and didn't care I suppose. Or maybe he still did the camp-out in my grandparents' room, in a sleeping bag or blankets next to their bed and reading The Giving Tree before going to sleep. There was a concrete path from the house all the way to the garage at the back of the lot, which sat on a large concrete pad and provided hours of entertainment for roller skating or running around. And they also had a good-sized garden, with orange and grapefruit bushes on one side of the path, apricot and almond trees behind the garage, and vegetables in neat rows to the side. And along the fence was a mass of thorny raspberry bushes. We had to be careful picking those, but it was wonderful eating the foods sun-warm and straight from the plants...

I've been buying frozen berries lately. They're great in drinks since they don't water them down as melting ice does, and they're a good sources of antioxidants. I bought a big bag of frozen blueberries that has lasted me forever, and I've been using them in cookies, pancakes/waffles, oatmeal, and on my cereal and yogurt. Last week I bought a bag of frozen dark sweet cherries, and boy are they good! They are huge, plump, juicy, and meaty. I think I'll always have a bag or two of some frozen berry, and perhaps other fruits, on hand.

The cherries were just calling out to be made into muffins. I wanted something hearty, but still with a light crumb. Since I have a bag of polenta kicking around now I decided to toss it in as well, though I would suggest using cornmeal instead since the polenta stayed fairly firm and chewy. Then again, extra chewing might equal extra satiation, so who knows? Whipping the egg whites and folding them in at the end gives a lighter texture to these muffins, though you can certainly skip it to save time and an extra bowl. Whatever you do, only mix the batter until it is combined; overmixing will give you tough muffins. And if you like it sweet, add more sugar.

Hearty Cherry Muffins

adapted from Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian"

Makes 12 regular muffins, plus a few mini muffins

3 Tbsp. melted butter

 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. cornmeal or polenta

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 eggs, separated

1 c. milk

1 1/2 c. frozen cherries

(chopped in quarters if yours are huge like mine were)

1 tsp. lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin tin or line it with muffin cups.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Beat together the egg yolks, milk, and melted butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Stir and fold until just combined. Gently stir in the cherries and lemon zest.In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff, then very gently fold into the muffin batter.

Spoon the batter into the greased/lined tins; an ice cream scoop works very well for this. Pour 1/4 c. water into any empty cups. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until browned and a tester or toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let rest for 5 minutes in the tin, then remove. These are very good served warm, with butter. Mmmm....

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

I was craving a breakfast muffin. One that I could take to work with me on those days... most days... when I just cannot drag myself out of bed early enough to be able to get dressed, take care of the dogs, and actually eat a proper breakfast at home.

I adapted this recipe, adding soy flour to up the protein content for breakfast; cutting back on the sugar; increasing the pumpkin; and using almond milk in place of dairy milk. I also tossed the chopped cranberries with some granulated sugar to cut back on the tart factor.

Overall the muffins are tasty. They were gorgeous straight out of the oven, but the soy flour and additional pumpkin caused them to fall as they cooled. However, they are not too sweet, have a good pumpkin flavor, and are a nice morning treat with my usual cup of tea. And they freeze well so I can grab one on my way out the door and then give it a quick re-heat once I get to my office.

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Makes 12 regular muffins plus 6 mini muffins

1-2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup soy flour
2/3 cup demerara can sugar (I used Florida Crystals brand)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 15oz. can pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (you could use regular, soy, or dairy too)
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped and tossed with a teaspoon of sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a muffin pan with cooking spray or use muffin cups.

In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a smaller bowl combine the pumpkin puree, egg, oil, and milk. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the pumpkin mixture. Gently stir until just combined; over-mixing will make your muffins tough. Fold in the cranberries. Fill muffin cups; an ice cream scoop makes this easy, but I unfortunately don't remember where I recently read this tip. Sprinkle tops with a little more demerara sugar and bake for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester or skewer comes out clean.

Don't you just want to climb right in there?

Related recipes:
Apple Pumpkin Muffins
Mexican Mocha Pudding with Pumpkin Cream
Harvest Cookies

Muffins!

Whatever you think might be a novel idea... isn't. I suddenly thought up "apple pumpkin muffins" the other day, but a quick Google search let me know that I'm far from the first person to put together apples and pumpkin puree in a muffin batter. Ah, well...

I went with this recipe over at All Recipes. With a 5-star rating and 150 reviews, how could I go wrong? I made a few changes, which are reflected in my recipe below: less sugar, more pumpkin, no liners. These muffins are very moist flavorful. Next time I think I'd cut back the sugar to 3/4 cup, and use Granny Smith apples, which are more tart. I took half of the batch in to work and my coworkers were searching me down to let me know how much they enjoyed these.

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
15 oz. (1 can) pumpkin puree
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 c. chopped peeled apples

Streusel Topping
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tsp. cold butter or margarine

In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients. In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apples. Fill greased muffin cups mostly to the top. In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

I made a dozen muffins and 8 or 10 mini muffins. If you make mini muffins be sure to take them out of the oven earlier, around 15-20 minutes should do it. You can check the muffins with a cake tester, toothpick, or, in my case, metal skewer. You should only have a tiny bit of muffin sticking to your tester after you insert it in the middle of a muffin.

By the way, these make the house smell delicious...

* * * * *

The animals have all been very snuggly lately, probably due to the colder weather and the fact that we keep windows at least cracked open in our home most of the time since we like fresh air. All week the dogs have been hanging out on the couch with us of an evening, and the cat has taken to sleeping on top of Ayla.

Paws

Kitty no like flash photography!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving, and curl up with the one you love!