2011 Milk Calendar: Sweet Cornmeal Surprise Muffins

I like baking on Sunday mornings.  I love cornmeal muffins.  I was really happy to try out this recipe.

Check out the recipe here:  Sweet Cornmeal Surprise Muffins

My notes: I love how you soak the cornmeal while you are prepping the rest of the ingredients.  It softens it up and takes away from the grittiness that corn muffins can sometimes have.  You don't soak it so long that you lose the lovely crunch that a corn muffin has.  I used Smuckers Double Fruit Strawberry Jam for the filling, but I am sure anything you have in your pantry would work well since the flavour of the muffin is so mild.  I might add a dash of cinnamon next time I make them.  I think cinnamon adds a nice flavour to almost any baked dish.  I also think lining your muffin tin with cupcake liners instead of just spraying with nonstick spray is a must since you run the risk of jam leakage and sticking with this sort of baked good.

I must make small muffins since I got 15 instead of the 12 the recipe specified.

The Verdict:  The muffin is moist, with a bit of crunch and the jam is a nice addition.  You definitely don't need butter with these.  Charlotte and Matthew gobbled theirs up.

Grandma Jean's Date-Orange Muffins

I tried these at my Grandma's last week. They were so good I asked for the recipe. She said they came from an old community cookbook from her hometown. The muffins are really moist and have an intense orange flavour. I'll bet chocolate chips would be a good substitute if you don't like dates.

Date-Orange Muffins

1 whole orange

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup chopped dates

1 egg

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cupsugar

3/4 tsp salt

Cut orange and remove seeds put in blender with juice and blend until rind is fine. Add dates egg and butter whirl again.Sift flour soda salt baking powder and sugar into a bowl. Pour orange mix over and stir lightly until just mixed.Put in buttered muffin tins.
Bake at 400f for 15 minutes .about 18 or 20 muffins

EDITED TO ADD: I bumped up the protein in this recipe by replacing a half cup of the flour with vanilla protein powder. This did not affect the flavour or texture of the muffins.

Overnight Oatmeal Muffins

This is a recipe I really like from Cooking Light Magazine. By soaking the oats the muffins get a much lighter texture than other oatmeal muffins.

1 cup regular oats (I use quick oats and the muffins turn out fine)
2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup dried blueberries
Cooking spray (butter flavour, preferably)

1. Combine oats and buttermilk in a medium bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Place buttermilk/oat mixture and remaining ingredients, minus the blueberries and cooking spray, in a large bowl, mix well. Fold in blueberries.
4. Spoon approx 1/4 cup batter into each of 24 muffin cups that have been coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in the center. Remove from muffin pans immediately and cool on wire rack.

I have made these with frozen blueberries and they are tasty. Do not thaw before adding to the batter. Chopped apple or mini chocolate chips would be good additions as well as any chopped dried fruit.

Makes 24 muffins
Per muffin: 105 cal; 2.2g fat; 3.1g prot; 19.4g carbs; 1.7g fib;19mg chol; 201g sod
2 points

Low-Fat Chocolate Bran Muffins

Super-Easy Chocolate Bran Muffins

Mix together:
3 cups All-Bran Cereal with 2-1/2 cups water and let stand 5 minutes.
Add in:
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and one package of low-fat brownie mix.
Add in some mini chocolate chips, raisins, dried cranberries or cherries, nuts, if desired.
Blend well and pour into greased muffin tins (or line with paper...you know the drill.)
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

Edited to add: One of my friends said she made these and poured boiling water over the cereal instead of cold and it broke the cereal down a lot better. It greatly improved the texture of the muffins. I tried it and she is right. One more thing...you can add All-bran in this way to increase the fiber and decrease the points of other low-fat baking mixes as well. Try it with other muffin mixes, and let me know how they turn out.

If you are counting points: 2 points each if you make 18 muffins, 1.5 points if you make 24 (these will be pretty small)