muffins Archives • New Nostalgia

RECIPES/ Sweets

Streusel Topped Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

My girls come home from their Grandma’s raving about Grandma’s blueberry muffins and begging me to make them. Grandma’s muffins are from a mix, so I’ve had it in the back of my brain to find a hearty, healthy blueberry muffin that my kids will love just as much as they love Grandma’s blueberry muffins.

Well, guess what?

I found one!

We had 2 snow days last week, and having my girls home from school with snow falling outside always puts me in the mood to bake. I scoured the web and my bread/muffins pinterest board for a healthy, hearty blueberry muffin recipe and found this one from Heavenly Homemakers.

I kept the recipe pretty close to the original, but I used oatmeal instead of nuts for the streusel topping. My youngest girl does not like nuts.

These muffins were really delicious. They are moist and filling. They do not have too much sugar, and the streusel topping gives it just enough sweetness. I doubled the recipe and they were still gone within 2 days!

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Blueberry Streusel Muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar (or coconut palm sugar, or sucanat, or honey)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg (or chia egg substitute)
1/4 cup melted butter (I used coconut oil)
3/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)
3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Mix dry ingredients together well. Add egg, butter and milk, stirring until all ingredients are mixed. Gently stir in blueberries. Scoop batter into 12 paper lined muffin tins. Sprinkle with Streusel Topping and bake in a 400° for 20 minutes.

Streusel Topping:

3 T. brown sugar (or coconut palm sugar, or sucanat, or honey)
1 T. butter, softened (or coconut oil)
2 T. oats (or chopped nuts)

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To learn more about coconut oil, click here.
To learn more about coconut palm sugar, click here.
To learn more about sucanat click here.

Brunch/ RECIPES

Banana Pumpkin Muffins

Like I mentioned in this post, we are having an ‘eat from the pantry’ week to save some $. I like the challenge of only buying the basics-bread, milk, peanut butter–and using as much as possible from what we already have in our cupboards, pantry and freezer.

I think muffins are great to have sitting around. They make a great after school snack, or are a nice addition to a green smoothie for breakfast. They keep my girls from saying the most dreaded “Mom, I can’t find anything to eat.”

I made Brownie Bites which uses pumpkin as a secret ingredient that helps keep the muffins moist. The problem was it only used 1/2 a can of pumpkin, and since I am in a ‘use-what-we-have’ mindset this week, I went on a search for another muffin that uses pumpkin.

I didn’t have to search very long. One of my favorite sites, Happy Herbivore, had an awesome looking recipe for Banana-Pumpkin Muffins. I knew I had a freezer full of frozen bananas, a jar of unsweetened applesauce in the pantry, and of course, my 1/2 can of pumpkin. I was set!

I was surprised my girls preferred these Banana-Pumpkin Muffins over the Chocolate Bites. Well, surprised until I tasted one. They are YUMMY! They are moist, have just the right amount of cinnamon spice, and the chocolate chips I added made me very happy. I did have one daughter ask if I could leave the chocolate chips out next time. I had to agree with her, they would be just as good without them!

I made these the same time I whipped up Brownie Bites. Brownie Bites cook at 330 degrees, and when I put both types of muffins in the pan, I was a little nervous that they would not get done at the same time, but they did just fine.

I don’t have a finished muffin photo for you, but take my word for it, they are pretty and super yummy!

Banana-Pumpkin Muffins
11/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I just used plain whole wheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 whole bananas
1 cup pumpkin ( I was not exact, I used whatever was left in the can after making Brownie Bites)
3/4 cup brown sugar (I used 1/2 cup pure cane sugar, it was all I had on hand)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup non-dairy milk (or dairy, whatever you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins to prevent sticking. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice together. Then whisk in sugar and set aside.

In a bowl, mash bananas, ripe ones are best. Add applesauce and pumpkin & milk. Stir.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir just until combined. If you want to add chocolate chips or nuts (1/2 cup) add after a few strokes.

Spoon into muffin tins, 3/4 full and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. I used mini muffin pans, so mine took about 8-10 minutes. Regular size muffins will take about 18-25 minutes.

Brunch/ RECIPES/ Sides

Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

***This is a re-post from last fall. Enjoy!

I found this great recipe at Kitchen Stewardship.

I have made it TWICE this week and I really love it. It is a “dump all ingredients into one bowl in no certain order and stir” recipe, so it takes minutes to whip up. It is super moist, makes the house smell like fall, and fills up little tummy’s when they need a snack. Another great thing about this recipe is that it has a few different options to make the original recipe healthier. Love that!

Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

1 ½ c. sugar ½ t. cinnamon

2 eggs ½ t. nutmeg

¼ t. baking powder 1 2/3 c. flour

1 t. baking soda ½ c. oil

¾ t. salt ½ c. cold water

½ t. cloves 1 c. pumpkin (about half a 15 oz can)

Mix all ingredients together. Put in greased loaf pan or muffin tin. Bake at 325 degrees.

Bread (one loaf) = 75-90 minutes
12 Muffins = 45 minutes
24 Mini muffins = 25 minutes

Cost: about $1.50 !!!

Get this…I was at my neighborhood natural market this weekend and they were selling freshly baked pumpkin bread for $7.99 a loaf! That’s just craziness!! They were skimpy little loaves, too. I walked away smiling to myself, thinking about how I can go home and whip up a generous loaf of my own pumpkin bread that would be just as healthy as theirs!

To make my loaves healthier, I cut the sugar down to a cup, and used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2/3 cup unbleached white flour. Next time I will try honey instead of sugar and applesauce instead of oil. I also want to add some dried cranberries (got that idea from those crazy $7.00 loaves at my market:))

Easy Ways to Make It Healthy:

Level one: decrease the sugar by 1/4 or even 1/2 cup (1 c. sugar total)
Level two: use half whole wheat flour
Level three: make the “oil” melted butter or applesauce

One Bowl Pumpkin Muffins Healthy Remake

3/4 cup honey ½ t. cinnamon

2 eggs ½ t. nutmeg

¼ t. baking powder 1 2/3 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. baking soda ½ c. melted butter or coconut oil

¾ t. salt 1/4 c. cold water

½ t. cloves 1 c. pumpkin (about half a 15 oz can)

1 Tbs molasses

Baking Change:Only bake muffins for 30 minutes – honey browns faster!

Both recipes call for only a half a can of pumpkin. I wondered what to do with the other half, until I saw how quickly my family ate up the first loaf. I made a second loaf the very next day. You could double the recipe and freeze a loaf. I knew we would be home quite a bit this weekend and I love to have something yummy baking in the oven, so I made the loaves on separate days.

Oh, one more thing…make sure your spices are not dated and tired. I could not believe the difference in my 2 loaves, the first one I made with spices I know have been in my cupboard since last fall, and although the texture was awesome, I wondered, “if the spices were happy, would taste any different?” For the second loaf, I went to my market where they sell spices in bulk (you can help yourself to whatever amount you need and they charge you by weight). DO THIS IF YOU CAN, the second loaf was AMAZING! I love the buy spices in bulk option. Lately, I have been buying a small amount for whatever recipes I am going to make in the next week or two. I did this for 2 recipes that I make all the time, chili and chicken curry, and both recipes tasted like they had a makeover, when all I did was buy super fresh spices. It is very economical, and so very worth it!

Brunch/ RECIPES

Whole Wheat Honey Banana Muffins

These muffins are GOOD! They are moist, have great texture and are 100% healthy, with no refined flour or sugars. To make the muffins lower in fat, replace half of the oil with unsweetened applesauce. I used whole wheat pastry flour, which is ground more fine and makes for a lighter, fluffier muffin.
The recipe was originally posted on Recipezaar, and given to me by my friend Joy (who is also responsible for passing on the waffle recipe on my blog–she knows how to find the good ones!)
This recipe makes a lot of muffins, which I love, but can be halved easily. The recipe states that it makes 24 regular sized muffins. I was able to get 4 mini loaves and 120 mini muffins out of one recipe. The muffins freeze well, and are great for breakfast or a quick snack. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Honey Banana Muffins
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp wheat germ (optional)
2/3 cup olive oil (I’d like to try coconut oil)
1 cup honey
4 eggs
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I used 6)
1/2 cup hot water

1. Stir together dry ingredients
2. Beat oil and honey together; add eggs and beat well.
3. Add bananas and beat to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with hot water; mix well after each addition.
5. Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups; bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and test done.
6. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

{*thanks, Joy!}