"Splendid" Muffins

I love a good muffin--a fluffy, vanilla-flavored concoction just filled to the brim with blueberries, strawberries, chocolate chips, whatever strikes your fancy. Sometimes, though, in the name of healthy living, we must cut back on the sugar. I know, I know, I'm a baker, I'm not supposed to be anti-calories, and I'm not... but an effort to reduce the calories in an old favorite can never hurt.

Enter Splenda. I've always been a fan of Splenda because it's nice and sweet and because it doesn't have an unpleasant aftertaste. When I was in the store a couple of days ago, I noticed a bag of Splenda "Granular" on the shelf and decided to buy a small bag and give it a try. Although it is very, very different in texture and density to sugar (it looks a bit like snow), it measures cup for cup in recipes. Muffins and quick breads are especially noted on the bag, so I figured that there would be no better way to test Splenda Granular than with a nice blueberry muffin.

I used my regular muffin recipe--after I put the muffins the oven, I noticed a blueberry muffin recipe on the back of the bag, haha!--adding a bit of baking soda (probably unnecessary) and a touch of honey (to help browning). When the muffins came out of the oven, their tops were craggy, almost sconelike, but the interior was very, very nice. Given a sugar-laden muffin, I would not have been able to tell the difference, and I could pronounce my Splenda experiment a success.

Even if you don't have Splenda on hand, this recipe is a great basic muffin, but I would especially recommend it to be made with Splenda if you're watching calories. One muffin here has at most 175 calories, according to my calculations. I'm not one for healthy baking, but this was a nice change of pace!

Splendid Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12.
280 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Splenda Granular sugar substitute (or granulated white sugar)
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey (omit if using sugar)
1/2 cup milk (I used skim)
1 cup blueberries

** Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. **

1. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in blueberries, and set aside.
2. In large bowl, whisk together Splenda (or sugar), butter, eggs, and honey.
3. Whisk in milk until smooth.
4. Gently add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix until just combined.
5. Divide batter among muffin cups and bake for 15 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached.
6. Let cool completely on wire rack before serving.

Banana Muffins: Not Your Average Quick Bread

Okay, so maybe these banana muffins are your average quick bread. But they're still damn tasty! Someone gave my mother this recipe on a recipe card quite some time ago, and I've made the recipe many times. The muffins are moist, with a nice, tender crumb and just the right level of sweetness (perfect for breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack). What's more, the recipe is simple--I'm very careful and still managed to whip up a batch in about five minutes. If you like, you can add some cinnamon to the batter, but the muffins are fine without.

Now, quick breads always confuse me a bit because of the different sizes, baking times, and so on. After a few mishaps (but that story is for a future post), I have found that one 9x5x3 loaf pan equals 24 muffins or two 8x4x2 pans. As for baking times, you want to bake muffins for 15 to 20 minutes and quick bread for 45 minutes to an hour, generally. Of course, it never hurts to check early, nor does it hurt to keep a few toothpicks on hand to test. Quick breads are done when the toothpick comes out almost clean, with maybe a few moist crumbs still clinging. Oh, and one more thing: quick-bread batters are generally a bit lumpy, and that's quite all right. In order not to be tough, they require gentle mixing, and the lumps will smooth out in the oven. I promise.

This recipe makes a small batch--only 12 muffins, or one 8x4x2 in. pan--but it scales well, so feel free to double for more banana bread, as long as you can spare the bananas. ;-)

Banana Muffins
Makes 12 muffins.

245 grams (1 3/4 cups unsifted) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed

** Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. **

1. Grease or line a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar.
3. Stir in vegetable oil, eggs, and bananas.
4. Mix gently until batter is uniform but still lumpy. It will be thick.
5. Divide evenly among muffin cups (about three-quarters full).
6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean.
7. Let cool slightly or completely before enjoying.

An Easter Surprise: Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins

I'm always a little bummed that, because school is quite far away from home, I don't get to go home for Easter (unless it coincides with Spring Break). You can imagine how happy I was, then, that my professor invited me, along with a few other students, to her house for Easter dinner. Needless to say, I volunteered to bring a dessert.

Then the question became that of what in the world I would make. I needed something Easter-y, creative, and (most importantly) tasty. I was surfing around on my food blog haunts and came to one of my favorite blogs, Baking Bites, whose author, Nicole, mentioned Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins. Hmm, I thought. An interesting concept--a little piece of Easter nestled in thick muffin batter can't be all that bad.

The muffins came out beautifully! The muffins had a very pleasant vanilla flavor, sweet enough to satisfy my raging sweet tooth but not so sweet as to overshadow or villainize the sweet egg nestled inside. Now, I deviated from Nicole's approach because I wanted a little something-something to round out the muffin, so I whipped up a chocolate glaze and drizzled it over the top. The combination was perfect, and the muffins were a huge hit!

A quick note: Even if the creme eggs are not available, this is a great all-purpose muffin recipe, and one can mix in blueberries, raspberries, chocolate chips, or anything else. This has gone in my recipe file forever!
Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins
Adapted from Baking Bites.
Makes 12.
280 grams (2 cups unsifted) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
12 mini Cadbury Creme Eggs
1/2 recipe chocolate glaze, below

** Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. **

1. Grease or line one 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla.
4. Whisk in milk until combined.
5. Add dry ingredients to the large bowl and mix until just combined.
6. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about two-thirds full). Place one mini egg in the center of each unbaked muffin and press down almost, but not completely, to bottom. If desired, use a knife to pull a bit of batter over the egg.
7. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until muffins are golden.
8. Cool completely before gobbling.

Chocolate Glaze
Adapted from Allrecipes.com.
Makes enough to glaze 24 muffins or one large Bundt cake.
3/4 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Combine first three ingredients in small, microwave-safe bowl.
2. Microwave on high for 45 seconds; stir.
3. Microwave on high for another 45 seconds; stir.
4. If necessary, continue to heat for 15 seconds at a time. (I didn't have to!)
5. Stir in vanilla.
6. Spread glaze while warm over muffins or cake.