Busy Cooking: Blood Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

I have been searching for blood oranges since last year, and victory is mine!  Never had or heard of one, well you should!  Last year, when I was horribly ill during my pregnancy with Maeve, I was into the third month of not being able to drink water.  We were at the Osaka airport, heading to New Zealand and I was worried there would be nothing for me to drink on the 14 hour flight.  I somehow could drink OJ, but not water- go figure.  The only OJ I could find at the airport that day was blood orange juice, so I had to give it a try.  At $5 a glass, I ended up drinking 4!!!! It was THAT good.

What are blood oranges?  They look like normal oranges:

But they're slightly different on the inside:

They taste a little sweeter, and have a lot more juice on the inside.

I finally found blood oranges last Friday, so I bought 10.  I brought them home and began to wonder why I had bought so many and what I would do with them.  Of course, I would make some juice, just look at it:

After an extensive search through google, I found some blood orange margaritas for Dave to make for me another time, and then I found these blood orange chocolate chip muffins on White on Rice Couple blog. I have to admit, I was very hesitant to try them, and not sure of how they'd actually taste.  Oh. My. Goodness.  They are delicious!  The only bad thing about them is Dave is out of town, so I'm sitting here eating them all myself and boy are they addictive!

If you can't find blood oranges, I'm sure a regular orange will do just fine.

Blood Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins:


Oven:  400

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt (I used Kosher)
grated zest of 3 blood oranges (I was leary of this, only used 2, next time, I'm def. using 3)
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2/3 c blood orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
6 oz. dark chocolate chunks or semi-sweet chips

Glaze:
1/4 c blood orange juice
1/4 c sugar

1) Preheat oven to 400.  Line muffin pan with paper liners- this yielded 12 large muffins (or 24 mini)

2) In large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and chocolate chips.

3) In small bowl, combine melted butter, blood orange juice, eggs, and vanilla.

4) Slowly add liquid mixture into dry ingredients, mix until just combined, some lumps are ok.

5) Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full.  Bake 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

6) Prepare glaze by whisking together sugar and blood orange juice.  Poke holes in tops of muffins and brush glaze on tops, letting it seep in.  Cool on wire rack.

It almost looks like a chocolate chip cookie, almost.

Busy Cooking: Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Hidden Cream Cheese Filling

I had these muffins bookmarked for quite some time.  I love any type of cake or muffin that involves a filling.  I finally got around to making them a few weeks ago.  My kids DEVOURED them!  I thought they were delicious, but wasn't going to post about them because they involve three steps.  Then, I made them to take to a mom's group one morning.  Several people commented how good they were and then my friend's husband even came up to me at bootcamp and said he really liked them.  With all those comments, how could I not share the recipe because these truly are delicious muffins.  I'm thinking about making a batch for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning.  They would be a great little appetizer on any Thanksgiving table, if you're looking for one more treat to share with your guests.

This recipe was found on Brown Eyed Baker.

Note:  To get the filling to survive baking, it is frozen ahead of time.  It is recommended to freeze it at least 2 hours before baking- I found making it the night before is easy and cuts down on prep time.

Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling:

Oven: 350

Cream Cheese Filling:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

Muffins:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP oil
1/2 tsp vanilla

Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 TBSP unsalted butter, melted

1) In a small bowl, mix together cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla until smooth.  Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap, about 18 inches long.  Pour the cream cheese mixture in a straight line on the plastic wrap, leave room on the ends.  Form into a long skinny log, about 12 inches long, wrap up tightly in the plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least two hours.

2) Toast pecans in oven for 10 minutes.  Let cool, lightly chop.  In a small bowl, lightly mix together pecans, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and butter to make the streusel.  Set aside.

3) In a large bowl, mix together flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

4) In a medium bowl, mix together pumpkin, oil, sugar, vanilla, and eggs.

5) Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients.  Gently mix together until combined.

6) Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare muffin tins with liners (makes 12 large muffins or 24 mini, plus 5 large).  If you make minis, which I always do, you will get a small sinkhole on the top of the muffin from the cream cheese spreading out because they are so small.

7) Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer, remove it from the plastic wrap and place it on a cutting board.  If making full size muffins, cut it into 12 1 inch pieces, if making minis, cut into 1/2" pieces.

8) Scoop a small amount of batter into the bottoms of the muffin cups.  Press one piece of cream cheese into each muffin cup on top of the batter.  Scoop more batter on top of the cream cheese to cover it.

9) Sprinkle tops of batter with streusel and press it down lightly.

10) Bake 18-22 minutes for large muffins and 14 -17 minutes for the minis. Cool and enjoy.

Busy Cooking: Strawberry Chunk Muffins

The way I judge a food blog is by the muffins and cupcakes they have.  I am always on the hunt for muffins because they are quick, easy, and portable for breakfast.  With five kids, I don't have time to sit and eat.  I have always seen links to the blog, Confections of a Foodie Bride, so I finally looked at it and these muffins jumped out at me.  She called them Strawberry Cream Cheese muffins, but some people are turned off by cream cheese (my brother) so I didn't want to scare them off.  I made them two different ways, one with a small amount of cream cheese (it was all I had) and one according to her exact recipe, both turned out equally delicious!

I have recipes for two other strawberry muffins/cupcakes on the blog, here and here, but I have to say, I think these are my favorite ones.

Strawberry Chunk Muffins:


Oven: 350

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
** 8 oz softened cream cheese ( OR substitute 4 oz cream cheese)
** 1/4 cup softened butter  (AND substitute 1/2 cup softened butter)
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (I made my own, 1/2 tsp white vinegar in 1/2 cup milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup strawberries, cut into 1/4" chunks

** Use the red alternate substitutions for both butter and cream cheese if you want to use less cream cheese.  I actually liked these ones a tad bit better.

1) Cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar in mixer with paddle attachment.  Scrape down sides.
2) Add in eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Mix, scrape down sides, mix until just combined.
3) In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, mix until just combined, will be thick batter.
4) Fold in strawberries.
5) Either grease muffin pans, or put liners in pan.  Fill each cup 1/2 to 3/4 full of batter.  Bake for 15-17 minutes for mini muffins, 20 minutes for large muffins.

I made 24 mini muffins and 9 large with this batter.

Fresh out of the oven, they were like hot buttered biscuits with strawberry jam, so DELICIOUS!