A friend of mine gave me a can of Odense Almond Paste and I was so intrigued by it (I had never heard of almond paste before) and was so excited to use it because I love ANYTHING almond flavored (remember Good Humor almond ice cream bars?  Oh my gosh...).  I found this recipe on the Odense website.  These muffins are incredibly almondy and sweet - and they have the dense consistency of a good wedding cake.  Enjoy! 

You will need:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-7 oz can of almond paste, grated (which is weird because it's kind of mushy)
1 Tbs lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter, melted
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 egg
Course sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Grease or line your muffin tin.  Grate your almond paste and set aside.  Then sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl.   

Add the almond paste and lemon zest to the flour mixture.  Mix by hand until all pieces of almond paste and rind are coated with flour and don't clump together.  

In another bowl beat the butter, yogurt and egg.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid ingredients. Beat until ingredients are just combined.  Use an ice cream scooper to fill your muffin tin and sprinkle tops with sugar, if using.  

Bake muffins for 18 - 20 minutes, or until golden on top and a cake tester comes out clean.  


Enjoy!

These muffins are so great!  Very hearty and filling and...well....MOIST.  I really hate that word but I can't think of another way to describe them!  I feel like morning glory muffins are undermade - and I have no idea why when they are so good!  This recipe is from the King Arthur Flour website, which has a bunch of really great baking recipes.  The picture, surprise surprise, does not market these muffins well.  Maybe one day I will get some lessons in food photography.  Maybe.  But in the meantime I will keep eating my muffins.

1/2 cup raisins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups carrots, peeled and grated
1 large tart apple, peeled, cored, and grated
1/2 cup  sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup  chopped walnuts
1/3 cup  sunflower seeds or wheat germ, optional
3 large eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup  orange juice

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin, or line it with papers and spray the insides of the papers.

In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water, and set them aside to soak while you assemble the rest of the recipe. 

Chop or process your carrots, apple and nuts (chopped or shredded).  I got a food processor for Christmas (thanks big brother!) and have been processing anything I can...it's amazing!

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut, nuts, and sunflower seeds or wheat germ, if using. 

In another bowl, beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and oj. Add to the flour mixture, and stir until combined. Drain the raisins and stir them in. Use an ice cream scoop to load the batter into the muffin tins (I piled my batter in to the top and still had extra for another 6 muffins - or 18 total). 

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then dump out onto the rack to finish cooling.


Enjoy!

We recently had this dessert at Pastis, a well-known French restaurant in the meatpacking district of NYC.  It was so good, so I went home and went thru cookbooks and online to find out how it was made.  This recipe is a collaboration of a couple I found, but mostly comes from a cookbook that advertises cooking with kids, with a couple changes I made according to my taste (salted butter, vanilla, etc).  Although, I must say this recipe is not quick and easy (only because there are a lot of steps, and hot sticky toffee sauce) and I cannot imagine wanting to attempt baking this with my kid: Sticky Toffee Toddler anyone?  But, it IS delicious.... little moist cakes ("puddings") drenched in warm toffee sauce.  Yum...  It's a dessert for a special occasion.  

You'll Need:

Pudding "Cakes":
1 8oz container of Medjool dates, or 1 c. (take the pits out)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
5 TB butter at room temp
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs

Toffee Sauce:
2 1/2 c. heavy cream
2 c. sugar
1/3 c. corn syrup
4 TB butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Vanilla ice cream for serving

To Make Cakes:

Preheat to 350F
Butter a 12 cup muffin tin.

Combine the dates and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.  Simmer until most of the water is evaporated.  In a food processor or blender, puree the mixture until smooth and creamy looking (at least 1-2 minutes).  

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and set aside.

In a mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar for at least 2 minutes.  Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and fully incorporate.  Scrape down the sides as needed.

Add the flour mixture slowly until just incorporated, then add the date puree slowly and mix thoroughly.

Spoon the batter into the buttered muffin cups.  They should be 3/4 full so they don't get too big.  Bake for 20-23 minutes (check with a toothpick).  (and start the toffee sauce while they bake)  Once finished baking, let cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.  

To Make Toffee Sauce:

In a Saucepan over Medium heat, combine 1 1/4 c. of the cream and the rest of the ingredients minus the vanilla. Cook approx 40 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon or whisk often, until the mixture becomes a dark brown caramel color.  You may need to change the heat, I had to keep it Med/Low compared to the original recipe I was following.  It should stay at a constant slow bubble.  

Once finished, remove from the heat, add vanilla extract, and let cool for 15 minutes.  

Once the sauce is finished and the muffins have cooled, slice off the top of the muffins (just a thin slice so they lay flat when plated upside down).  Then slice each cake thru the middle.  Spoon about 2 Tbs of the sauce in the bottom of each muffin cup.  Return bottom cake layer back to the muffin cup on top of the sauce.  Spoon 2 more Tbs of sauce on top of this, then top with other half of muffin and cover again with more toffee sauce so they are soaked.  Muffin tin will be messy and maybe overflowing with sauce, so I put the tin under a large piece of wax paper for easy clean up.  Repeat until all muffins are returned to tin and covered in toffee sauce.  You can wrap the muffin tin and refrigerate for 3 days.  When ready to serve, you can reheat at 400F for about 10 minutes. 

Pop out the cakes from the muffin tin, inverted onto a plate using a little spatula or a similar utensil, careful not to burn yourself from the hot toffee sauce.  

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

These muffins are so hearty and delicious, pretty healthy, yet really sweet.  Miranda gave me this recipe about a year ago and I have made them SO many times since.  One time she made them and accidentally doubled the sugar, finding out that 1 full cup of brown sugar actually makes the muffins super chewy and even more delicious!


You will need:
1 cup flour
1 cup wheat bran
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas)
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2-1 cups packed brown sugar (1/2 is the original recipe but we prefer 3/4 or 1 full cup)
1 egg

Pre-heat oven to 375F.  Grease or line muffin tin with muffin cups.  

Mix the dry ingredients and nuts in a large bowl.  

In an electric mixer, mix your bananas and butter.  Add sugar and egg and beat until well combined.  

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet into the dry.  Fold in until just incorporated (I was taught once that over mixing/stirring muffin batter makes muffins less fluffy and more dense).

Use an ice cream scoop, if you have one, to fill your cupcake tins.  

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.


Note: Remember you can freeze any uneaten muffins for grilling/toasting later!

One of my favorite breakfasts is a muffin, cut in half and grilled with butter like you would a grilled cheese...so crispy on the outside but soft and cake-like in the center.  I have about 30 pounds of blueberries in my freezer right now so I have been experimenting a lot with different blueberry recipes.  Last week I made a recipe from Real Simple magazine, and they were really good, but the flax seed flavor was a little too overwhelming to become a favorite.  This week I used a Martha Stewart favorite of mine and simply substituted the strawberries for blueberries.  Delicious!

You will need:

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (the original recipe calls for 1.5 cups sliced strawberries)
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar (the 1 Tbls should be course ground decorating sugar)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Toss together blueberries and 1/3 cup sugar. If you are using fresh fruit, lightly mash berries; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a glass 2-quart measuring cup or a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla; whisk to combine.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined. 

Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with remaining sugar.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

As it turns out, I AM crazy because I baked in the middle of a 90 degree summer day!!  The only reason being, I had a sweet tooth and my babies were asleep so I took the chance.  Plus, I had these delicious wild blueberries from the farmers market that were just a tad too mushy to eat plain.  Ok, so a smoothie would have probably been a more refreshing option... but these turned out delish - and then I just jumped in the lake after baking.  Problem solved!  Oh and then after dinner, I had an even worse sweet tooth and added some cream cheese frosting to them.  Yum!!  And just to make us all feel better, these were actually made with 1/2 whole wheat flour and they still turned out really good.

*Recipe and pictures below from King Arthur Flour.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
coarse white sparkling sugar for garnish (optional)

DirectionsPreheat the oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with papers, and grease the papers.In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a hand-held or stand mixer, until light, fluffy, and almost white in color. Start the mixer at low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, then gradually increase speed to medium-high until the desired color and texture are reached.Scrape down the bowl to make sure all the butter is incorporated, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.Add the vanilla and sour cream or yogurt, and mix until incorporated.Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until the batter is smooth. It will be thick.Fold in the berries by hand.Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, using a heaping 1/4-cup for each. Sprinkle with regular granulated or coarse white sugar, if desired.Bake the muffins for 18 to 24 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Remove them from the oven, cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan to finish cooling on a rack.