elvenjaneite

Now that we have an additional freezer, I'm attempting to do some more batch cooking / baking, starting with breakfast standards. First up: muffins!

* Gingerbread Muffins from Home Baked by Yvette Van Boven: these are not super gingerbready and mostly have a nice taste/aroma of spices that goes really well with the season. They were the batch I left out for us to eat last week and they are all gone!

* Whole Wheat Apple Muffins from The Kitchen Sink (defunct recipe blog): these are not my platonic ideal apple muffin, but since those involve significantly more time investment, I made these. I added some lemon zest to the original recipe & served them last night at R's board game night / birthday party. Everyone seemed to enjoy them!

* Marmalade Muffins from Crabtree & Evelyn: I've made this recipe a number of times, usually not with actual marmalade. This time, I used the last of a jar of homemade apple blackberry jam.

* Cranberry Sauce Muffins made up / adapted from several recipes: notes below, but the corner I nibbled was very good.

The cranberry sauce I made this year had port and ginger in it, so I worked around those flavors. I think the muffin recipe would work with most sweet cranberry sauces, though.

240g flour (I did 50g whole wheat, 190 all purpose)
1/2t baking soda
1t baking powder
1/3c cinnamon sugar
1/2t cardamom
2/3c yogurt
1/3c neutral oil or melted butter
1 egg
1/4c port (could use cranberry juice or milk instead)
1/3c cranberry sauce + more for the assembly

Whisk together flour, baking soda & powder, most of the cinnamon sugar, and the cardamom. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, egg, port, and 1/3c cranberry sauce. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

These made 12 standard muffins, with muffin liners. I filled them about 1/2 full, dolloped 1/2t of additional cranberry sauce in the middle, and filled them with the remaining batter. Sprinkled with the remaining cinnamon sugar and baked at 400*F for about 20 minutes. I lost track slightly and my oven seems to bake cool anyway, so 18-22 minutes should be a reasonable timeframe.