Garam Masala Sweet Potato Muffins

I am not a muffin roll. After I made the garam masala snickerdoodles, I had the craving to use more of the spice mix in my baking. When I stumbled upon the garam masala sweet potato muffins in Whole Grain Vegan Baking, I knew you were just gonna have to deal with the fact that I made two muffin recipes from the same cookbook back to back. These were great. They weren't very sweet, I actually found them to be a little more on the savory side. I feel like I might tweak the recipe to include a little corn meal or corn flour and serve them with chili the next time around.


Time keeps slipping by me. I almost forgot to finish writing this! Next year I really have to get more planned & prepped before MoFo starts. There's just no time to actually bake something several days a week. I feel like I am missing out on a lot of small things in my life, which is definitely not the point of MoFo. I shouldn't let it stress me out so much, but I am obsessive about committing to things 100% once I sign on. Hopefully I will have a little time to catch back up this week!

Blackberry Allspice Muffins

The last seven days have been a little rough. Something really heavy fell on my foot and left me unable to put on a shoe for a few days. And then I got in a minor car accident on my way home from work yesterday. It's weeks like that that help us keep things in perspective. Occasionally my days might be a little boring or tedious, but at least they are generally pretty swell. After all who can complain about lazy, sleepy mornings off with muffins & tea?


Whole Grain Vegan Baking is a cookbook I bought as soon as it was released. It sat on my shelf for a few months before I finally spent some quality time sifting through it. If you haven't picked up a copy yet you definitely should. You can also enter to win a copy on Joni's blog Just the Food if you hurry! My favorite recipe from the book is the speculoos doughnuts, which I made last year. These muffins are my second favorite so far. They make a terrific breakfast. I used fresh blackberries, and I think it was worth the splurge.
Are there any recipes from the book that you have tried yet & would recommend I add to my to-bake list? It's already getting quite long with all the MoFo recipes I have been bookmarking, but what's the harm in building it back up now that I have worked my way through so many recipes this month?!

Pear Muffins with Candied Walnut Streusel

Pear Muffins with a Candied Walnut Streusel
This will make 6 jumbo muffins or a dozen standard size.

1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/3 cup Turbinado
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk
2& 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 large pear, chopped

Streusel topping
1/2 cup candied walnuts*
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbl brown sugar
2 tbl turbinado
2 tbl Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream Earth Balance and sugar. Add applesauce, vanilla, & milk. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder salt, and cinnamon. Add half the dry mixture to the wet, mix to incorporate, and repeat. Fold in the pear. Fill liners 3/4 full with batter.
Chop candied walnuts to very tiny pieces. Combine all dry streusel ingredients. Melt the Earth Balance, drizzle it over the mixture, and blend using a fork and some patience. Sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake for 28-33 minutes or until toothpick comes out cleanly.
*There are tons of recipes for candied nuts, but the one I used was from Vegan Food Gifts

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

When I first went vegan in college I needed to learn how to cook for myself pretty quickly. I had never really been too interested in baking, but was a huge fan of sweets. I realized that my sweet's connections had largely been cut off and so I started baking. I started with muffins. For the first few months those were the only things that I made. That's the first time that this recipe surfaced. I brought it to several potlucks and often shared them with friends. I hadn't made them in years. But when I decided that I would be doing fall sweets for my MoFo topic, my friend Jenna asked if they would be included. So I made a batch from memory. I never wrote down all my original alteration to the recipe, but I think that this is pretty close.



Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins
veganized from here; makes 16 muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tbl ground flax mixed with 3 tbl water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large chopped apple
In bowl combine all dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl combine all wet ingredients. Fold the wet into the dry, then add the chopped apples. Don't over-mix the batter. Scoop into muffin pans, about 3/4 full.

For streusel
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oats
3 tbl flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbl Earth Balance
Combine every except the Earth Balance. Cut the Earth Balance into the mixture using your fingers and sprinkle heavily on top of all of the muffins. You might have a small amount of extra streusel. Just save it for your next pie.
Bake the muffins at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
These muffins might not be the most beautiful thing to look at, but most muffins aren't. But once you take a bite, they will win you over. The pumpkin is much more subtle than with most pumpkin muffins. The apple helps balance the pumpkin out a lot. The sugary streusel gives the top of the muffins a really wonderful crunch too. It might just be because I live with 4 boys, but these muffins disappeared more quickly than something has in quite a long time.

Apple Speculoos Muffins

Last winter I finally found speculoos spread and sort of went wild. I might have overdosed on it. I couldn’t really look at it for a few months. But now with the mornings and evenings being cool again and the leaves turning colors, I had to break it back out. I found a half empty jar tucked under a few bags of ancient pasta when I was cleaning out my kitchen. I was going out of town for a few days, and I wanted to use as many things as I could before I left, so I found a way to combine speculoos spread and apples into muffins. This might sound like an odd combination to you too, but I thought what the hell, I might as well try it.
I made these muffins the morning I was flying to Nashville. I have learned from experience that it is always a good idea to bring snacks to the airport with me. And it proved to be true yet again. We sat in the airport for just around 4 hours waiting for the flight crew to show up so we could board our plane. We might have also eaten a bag of Sour Patch Kids, but hey, I’m a stress eater. And I probably would have snacked a lot more if we had driven the 12 hours home. So I count it as a win.


Apple Speculoos Muffins
makes five jumbo muffins

1 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup speculoos spread
1 tsp vanilla extract
egg replacer for 1 egg- I used Ener-G but I think flax would be great
1 apple, diced

In medium sized bowl combine all dry ingredients. In small bowl whisk together oil, speculoos, and vanilla. Fold wet into dry with a rubber spatula and then add the diced apples. I didn’t peel mine because I love the texture the skin adds. Fill liners ¾ of the way full. These won’t rise very much. Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes.

These muffins were a wee bit oily. I don’t think it’s anything that most people would notice, but I definitely picked up on it. If I were going to make them again, I would replace half of the oil with applesauce. I would probably also try using a flax egg to add a little extra umph.

Strawberry Corn Muffins

Even though it has been such a warm winter, I'm still really excited that it's starting to feel like spring. I love that it's light out until seven at night already. The daffodils are blooming everywhere, and I'm ready to spend my first official cherry blossom season in DC. I sort of jumped the gun on berry season and bought a quart of strawberries grown in a hot house. I was worried that they would be flavorless reminders of strawberries, but these berries were so juicy and wonderful. I savored them for a few too many days, and the last berries were getting overly ripe. I had bookmarked a recipe for strawberry corn muffins a few months ago and knew it was time to put it to use.
These muffins were light and subtly sweet. They were great for breakfast or lunch. I will definitely be throwing fruit in my cornbread from now on. While I love the portion control that muffins offer, these would definitely work in a pan if you want to make a sheet of cornbread.

Strawberry Corn Muffins
adapted from Eating Out Loud

3/4 cup cornmeal
1 & 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup oil
1 cup almond milk
1 & 1/2 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into a well in the center of the dry. Gently fold the batter until just mixed. Add the chopped berries, and fill liners 3/4 full. Bake for 22-25 minutes.


Do you like sweet cornbreads? I have always been a fan of them. I know a lot of people prefer savory mixes with jalapenos or spices, but I have always preferred sugary things.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

There's been a lot of changes in my life lately. In the past few weeks I took a leave of absence from graduate school and got offered a job as the head baker at a vegan bakery opening this spring. As the bakery is still being renovated, I am temporarily working as a pastry assistant in Great Sage, the vegan restaurant the group also owns. I've been learning a whole lot about baking on commercial equipment, lifting 30 pound boxes of vegan cream cheese onto top shelves of walk in fridges, and adjusting to the quick pace of a kitchen during brunch service.
I've also been adjusting to working weekends and having off on random weekdays. One of those random weekdays was a quiet, dreary Monday. I could feel myself coming down with a cold. So after filling myself with a fruit smoothie and vitamin C pills I walked across the eerily empty street and bought a pint of blueberries. I went home to catch up on silly TV shows, while I baked these muffins and drank a lot of hot tea.


Blueberry Streusel Muffins
This will make 6 jumbo muffins or a dozen standard size.

1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/3 cup Turbinado
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk
2& 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1& 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Streusel topping
1/4 cup Turbinado
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1& 1/2 tbsp cold Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream Earth Balance and sugar. Add applesauce, vanilla, & milk. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder salt, and cinnamon. Add half the dry mixture to the wet, mix to incorporate, and repeat. Fold in the blueberries by hands. Fill liners 3/4 full with batter.
Combine all streusel ingredients. Cut the butter into the sugar and flour using a fork and some patience. Sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake for 28-33 minutes or until toothpick comes out cleanly.


These muffins are really, really dense. If you want a light, airy muffin this is not for you. This was a first attempt at this recipe, so I have a few changes that I suggest. Next time I might add even more blueberries, as the flavor was not quite as strong as I would like. I would probably add additional cinnamon. I might even attempt to throw in a handful of oats next time around to add a bit more texture.
If you are going to use frozen blueberries, make sure you keep them in the freeze until you are putting the batter into the muffin liners. Otherwise your berries will start to melt and ooze and turn the batter all purple, unless you are into that kind of thing.


Has anyone else had any wild life changes recently? It is both terrifying and exciting.

Cake Mix Muffins

I was back in Tennessee for a week. There was lots of snuggling cats, catching up on sleep, and TV watching. It was nice to see that the small town grocery store had expanded their selection of vegan foods. They even carry Daiya and Tofutti cream cheese now! An even bigger shock was that I got home to find a dozen muffins waiting for me!
My mom had seen this recipe on a show called Hungry Girl. You just mix a box cake with 16oz of canned pumpkin and bake. The pictures you see are from a spice cake mix, but the original ones she made were using a chocolate cake mix. The chocolate was definitely my favorite. I’m going to refer to it as a muffin, but it straddles that muffin-cupcake boundary that is so vague. It’s sweet like a packaged muffin, but with a little frosting could easily be passed off as a cupcake as well. If you threw in a handful of mini chocolate chips, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and the Otis Spunkmeyer muffins I remember eating out of the vending machines during high school. The spice cake had a pretty subtle flavor even though she sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the tops before baking, so I would recommend adding additional spices to the batter. To make them more muffin-like I would also throw in a handful of nuts and dried fruit. To make the crust crisper, you could also sprinkle Turbinado or another large crystal sugar on top.
Making cakes from scratch is easy enough that I don’t ever think of buying a mix, but it’s convenient if you aren’t in your own kitchen or are out of a few ingredients. There are a few other routes for boxed cake veganizing as well. A can of soda gives variable results, but can work out. Apple sauce normally works pretty well too. Just make sure that you read the labels on the mixes! There’s not a consistent approach to what brands/flavors are dairy & egg free.


One of my other stand-by mix recipes is for brownies. Combine a package of brownie mix and a pureed can of black beans (liquid included) and bake according to the box. The best box mix to use is the Ghiradelli double chocolate mix. The resulting brownies are really fudgy, so if you like firm brownies this might not be your best option. I use to make that recipe a lot for film screenings for my animal rights’ group when I was an undergraduate. People never suspected that they were eating beans, and the brownies have added protein and nutrients compared to when made with oil and eggs. Using beans in baked goods might sound a little odd at first, but Chocolate Covered Katie does it too!
On a complete unrelated note, here are the cuties that I cuddled with while I wasn't sharing my kitchen antics with you!




Do you take any baking shortcuts when you are super busy or out of town? I love freezing an extra batch of cookie dough and thawing it when I want to make more.

Kitchen Sink Muffins

Finals week is a rough time, no matter how prepared you think you are. You eat terribly and sleep sporadically. You search for tasks that you can do instead of studying for an exam or writing the last page of a paper nearing its deadline. These are the times when I decide that it's appropriate to clean out the fridge finally. In doing so, I need to find a use for the small portions of food piling up in assorted tupperware containers and mason jars. The perfect recipe for that are these muffins from Bake & Destroy.
These bad boys may not be beautiful, but they were warm and (some what) nutritious. I used a mixture of whole wheat and spelt flours, turbinado, coconut milk, shredded coconut, cranberries, dried blueberries, and granola. I thought about throwing in some chia seeds, but since I had already eaten those in my morning oatmeal I just stuck with the ground flax seed.


In order to further delay the writing of my last paper I did three loads of laundry, took out the recycling, washed all the dishes I could find strewn around the house, went to the gym, and then used leftover chocolate from the cookie bars to make this rolling pin. I really don't use my chocolate molds enough. This one is from Bake It Pretty, a great shop for molds and cupcake liners and what not!


Does anyone else play this game when they have an approaching deadline? I try to tell myself that it's ok because it teaches me how to work well under pressure.