Dinner Rolls with a Twist - Onion Poppy-seed Muffins

I admit it, I have never known exactly how to relate to savory muffins. When I was growing up, muffins were small cake-like creations, soft and sweet sometime plain, sometime with some kind of dried fruit. But decidedly cake-y. In recent years, a new creature has started to haunt the dinner table, in places normally occupied by soft rolls. These are muffins, that are savory and not sweet. Using herbs or other decidedly un-muffin-y ingredients, like onions and poppy-seed. Aside from the switch required in my head, I must admit, the idea is long overdue. And so, here is my contribution to this ever-growing dinner course - onion poppy-seed muffins. Get past the cake-y idea and I'm sure you'll agree they are truly fabulous.

Here's What You'll Need:

for the 'filling'
2 large onions chopped fairly finely
about 1/4 cup butter for sauteeing
salt and pepper

for the muffins:
2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. mustard powder
1 1/4 cups warm water (or milk)
3 large eggs
1 tsp. salt

Here's What You'll Need to Do:

1. First make the filling. Chop the onions and then, on medium-high heat, saute them with the butter until soft. DO NOT BROWN. They will get plenty brown in the oven when you bake the muffins. Place them aside in a bowl to cool.

2. Now make the muffins. Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C).

3. Mix together all the other ingredients to make a batter the same consistency of pancake batter. Quite runny, but still with a little body.

4. Grease a muffin tin, then place it in the oven for 1 or 2 minutes to preheat the tin. Then fill each muffin about 3/4 full. Place about 1 Tbs. of onion and about 1/2 tsp. of poppy-seed on each muffin. Don't worry if it sinks in. That's actually good since now the topping will become the filling!

5. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown and your house smells wonderfully oniony.

6. Remove to a cooling rack, but wait about 5 minutes before removing it from the muffin tin. It needs to stabilize first. These are great still warm, or at room temperature. Enjoy!

Banana Nut Muffins - Little breads (or cakes?) from America

For a long time the debate has raged: just how to differentiate bread and cake. I mean, they both use mostly the same ingredients, flour, sugar, water, salt etc. And yet they are clearly not the same. The difference I think, lies in the ratio. For example, a typical bread recipe uses let's say 3 cups of flour and a tablespoon of yeast. Maybe a cup and a half of water. Cakes, on the other hand have maybe one and a half cups of flour, and 3 eggs along with a cup of water (or juice). And much more sugar, of course. Then there are muffins, America's contribution to the whole confusing situation. They are kind of like little cakes, but some of them are decidedly 'bready' in their texture. Some sources say Marie Antoinette actually said "let them eat brioche" a kind bread so rich it could conceivably be confused as a cake. Or could it? Whatever you decide, these muffins might be little cakes, or if spread with butter, breakfast breads. Either way they are delicious!

Here's What You'll Need:
a few ripe bananas (the kind that are too soft to eat but not ready to throw out yet)
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. espresso coffee (optional)
a pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup chopped walnuts

Here's What You'll Need To Do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).

2. Mash the bananas in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and mix until well blended.

3. In a small bowl, beat the egg lightly, then add the sugar and the vanilla. Mix well, then add this mixture to the banana mixture and mix thoroughly.

4. Sprinkle the salt and the baking soda over the top and combine with the mixture in the bowl.

5. Add the flour gradually, mixing just until combined. Finally, fold in the walnuts.

6. Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes or until a strand of uncooked spaghetti comes out clean.

8. Yum!!!

Whole Wheat Bran Muffins

I have to admit that I hesitated a while before posting this recipe. After all, there will be some, who claim that muffins are not really bread. And I suppose on some level they are right. But, really, does this matter in the grand scheme of things. In truth, there are different kinds of muffins (just like there are different kinds of biscuits, BTW) and some are breadier, and others are cakier. I don't even know if those are words and I suspect not. Anyway, I have also been thinking for a long time about expanding this scope of this blog to include all baked goods not just bread. I mean I have posted a recipe for a 'quick' brioche, and is brioche bread or cake? I don't know. Some will argue bread, others cake.

And so we come to muffins. Everybody loves them, but they do seem to fall on the cake side of the debate. Even the breadier ones. These muffins are for the health conscious, meaning that although they include sweeteners (brown sugar and molasses) they also include a whole cup and a half of wheat bran, i.e., lots of fiber. I mean lots. They are delicious and not too loaded up with fat (only a small amount of oil).   They can be ready in time for breakfast, or to grab on the way out the door to work. Anyway, enjoy.

Here's What You'll Need for 1 dozen muffins:

1 1/4 cups AP flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
7 Tbs. softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbs. molasses
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup plus 3 Tbs. buttermilk
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 cup raisins

Here's What You'll Need To Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C).
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices) in a medium bowl.
3. Mix thoroughly the wet ingredients (butter or margarine, eggs, vanilla, molasses, sour cream and buttermilk) in a separate bowl. It is important to mix in the order they appear in the ingredient list. So... start with the butter, mixing until it becomes a little fluffy then add the brown sugar and beat until they are light and fluffy. Afterwords, add the eggs, one at a time, then the other ingredients adding each one and incorporating before adding the next.
4. Finally, pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet and beat them together adding a little bit at a time until they are all mixed.
5. Mix in the bran and then the raisins to make the final mixture.
6. Fill the cups of a lightly oiled muffin tin about 2/3 full and bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in one of the muffins comes out clean.
7. Let the baked muffins sit in the muffin pan for about 5 minutes or so before removing them. Then, remove them carefully, and let them cool completely on a rack.

8. Enjoy!!

Time for Breakfast - Cornmeal Muffins

This recipe is a bit of a continuation of the post for banana bread from last week as it, too, uses baking powder to rise the dough instead of yeast. It is a simple recipe that is very quick to put together. It uses the 'muffin method' for quick breads. By that I mean, the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients are mixed separately then mixed together. The muffins are placed immediately in a pre-heated oven to 'pop' and crown. The use of cornmeal is very typically American and makes for a very crumbly (and very tasty) muffin. To avoid the graininess you sometimes get with cornmeal, it is mixed first with hot water and oil, and only afterwards is it added to the other wet ingredients. The addition of dried fruit only adds to the sweetness and makes this a wonderful breakfast bread. You can find a great collection of muffin recipes in The Bread Bible: 300 Favorite Recipes, a cookbook that should be in everyone's collection. Not a typical muffin but well worth trying. Believe me, you'll love it!

Here's What You'll Need:
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup very hot water
3/4 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder

about 1 cup assorted dried fruit chopped coarsely ( I used cranberries and apricots)

Here's What You'll Need to Do:
Pre-heat the oven to 425 F (220 C).

1. Place the cornmeal in a large bowl then add the hot water and the oil and set it aside to soak. It should stand for at least 15 or 20 minutes.

2. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs with the sugar, salt and vanilla extract.

3. In yet a third bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder.

4. Mix the egg and sugar mixture to the cornmeal mixture, mixing to incorporate. Finally, mix this mixture into the flour mixture. Mix only to combine. It is OK if there are a few lumps.
5. Sprinkle the chopped dried fruit over the batter and mix only very slightly to incorporate.
6. Spoon the batter,, getting some fruit in each scoop, into a prepared muffin pan filling almost to the top. By filling to the top, and keeping the sugar content lower, the muffins will 'peak' and not spread too much in the oven.

7. Bake for 5 minutes then lower the temperature to 350 F (170 C) and bake for another 20 minutes or until just brown.

8. Let the muffins sit in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing them from the pan to a rack to cool.

9. Bon appetit!