Show of hands...who else feels like there are not enough hours in the day? I know I'm not the only person. In fact, I'm sure there are people out there who think I have it easy. All I know is that I was never this busy when I had the 9-5 (er...7:30-3:30) desk job. But I also wasn't this happy, and that's what really counts. However, being busy equals boring photos because I don't have the time to pull in various props and pretty colors. So hopefully the food can speak for itself.

So today I took the afternoon off. It was 65 degrees and sunny today, and I sat out on my front porch and read a book. It was sublime. I didn't sit inside on the computer (although I had plenty of work to justify that). I sat outside and took a moment to smell the roses. Or the melting snow and the crocus. It was exactly what I needed. Refreshing.

Sidebar...did you guys know that there's a TV show on now that has both Charles in Charge and Hanging with Mr. Cooper? My head exploded when I saw this. I have no idea if it's any good because I spent time reliving Charles, Buddy, Mark Cooper, Vanessa, and my golden years. Back when I thought life was complicated and busy. Ha!

Oh...the muffins. They're incredible. They're juicy and full of blueberries. There's a crunchy topping of cinnamon sugar that somehow pulls everything together and makes it the perfect breakfast, lunch, snack, or dessert. I feel like I say a lot that things are perfect, but at least you guys know that I enjoy eating the recipes that are posted on here.

Blueberry Muffins with a Crunchy Cinnamon Sugar Topping
Makes 15-16
Print this recipe

Note: If you’re making these at high altitude, simply adjust the baking powder to use the * amount.

For the muffins:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons (*1 3/4 teaspoons*) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For the topping:
Heaping 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons cold butter

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar using the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the vanilla, baking powder, and salt and mix on low until combined. Mix in half of the flour with the mixer on low, pour in the milk and let it mix, and then add in the rest of the flour. Once combined, stop the mixer and fold in the blueberries by hand. If you're using frozen blueberries, do not thaw them first.

Separate the batter into muffin liners, placing about 1/4 cup batter in each cup. Make the topping by mixing together the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter using a fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the muffins.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove from the pan to finish cooling.

Barely adapted from Taste of Home

You may also like:

I love pumpkin, but I never really started using it for more than pumpkin pie until a few years ago. In fact, I never really knew the amazing-ness that is pumpkin bread until I went to a work meeting in Chicago about five years ago in the month of October. There was a Starbucks in the hotel, and I needed some breakfast. I had never really gone to Starbucks before because I am not a lover of coffee, so I checked out their pastry case and chose a piece of pumpkin bread. And then I fell in love. In a big way. When I got home from my meeting, I researched recipes for pumpkin spice bread and haven't turned back since. Let's face it, I cannot pay $4 for a piece of the bread. So now I can get my fix whenever I want it.

Another beauty of this recipe is that it's a one bowl, mix by hand recipe. It's so easy...maybe a little too easy.

This is a recipe that I do not adjust for high altitude. It works great as is. This recipe makes two loaves so you can make two and eat both or freeze one (they do freeze well), or you could make a loaf and muffins or cupcakes. I'll show you the cupcake variation next week. Because really, what could go wrong when you add some frosting?

Pumpkin Spice Bread and Muffins Recipe
Makes two loaves or 36 muffins or a combination
Print this recipe

2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 eggs
15 ounce can of pumpkin
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the first nine ingredients. Form a well in the dry ingredients, and add the eggs, pumpkin, buttermilk, applesauce, and oil into the middle. Mix those ingredients together, and then stir everything together until just incorporated. If you're making loaves of bread, divide the batter between two greased 9-inch loaf pans. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

If you're making muffins, line 36 muffin tins with liners. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into the liners or until they're about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before eating.
 
Source: Taste of Home 

Since today's Friday (yay!), I thought I would give you something to spice up your weekend. I wish I was going to be eating these this weekend, but Saturday morning I'm doing a color run. I realize I should be looking forward to this and excited about it, but I'm kind of not. I'm not too excited about getting dirty. Pathetic, right? Oh well. It's close to my house, and I'm sure it will be more fun than I'm expecting. After that, it's home to work on some baking recipes. I'm definitely looking forward to that!

Anyway, this is another muffin recipe from a great cookbook I got for my birthday. And this recipe is another win. It's a muffin with a great crumb that is studded with apple chunks. There's wonderful cinnamon flavor, and it has a brown sugar/cinnamon crunch on top. The brown sugar gets a little caramelized while it bakes, which is pretty unique. I would not skip the brown sugar on top because they don't have much sugar in them otherwise. While I don't want to eat a cupcake disguised as a muffin for breakfast, it does need to be a little sweet. This is that muffin. I hope they make your mornings warm and cozy!
 
Apple Cinnamon Muffin Recipe
Makes 6-7 muffins
Print this recipe

For the muffins:
1 egg
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored, and chopped

For the topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line your muffin tin with paper cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, milk, and melted/cooled butter. Add in the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and stir to combine. Stir in the flour until just incorporated. Fold in the chopped apples. Spoon the mixture into the paper cups. Note: It's a pretty thick batter. I filled the cups almost full and put about 1/4 cup of the batter in the cups.

To make the topping, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle it on top of the batter.

Bake the muffins for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove from the pan to cool.

Source: Best-Ever Book of Cupcakes & Muffins

A few weeks ago, I noticed that there were no muffin recipes on the blog. I'm not a big muffin person, but I wanted to have at least a couple! Then I got a great birthday present: the Best-Ever Book of Cupcakes & Muffins. It's a great cookbook with beautiful pictures of every recipe and great variety. I can't wait to work my way through the book. Another beauty of the book is that it's from the UK, so it has international measurements. Score for my international friends! Since I am loving peach season in Colorado right now, I decided to make the peach almond muffins.

These are great muffins. They rise nicely, they're moist (sorry if you hate that word), have a great crumb that's dense without being too dense, and they're just sweet enough. The pops of juicy peach throughout the muffin give great texture and flavor, as do the almonds. This truly is a muffin--not a cupcake without frosting that we'll call a muffin to make it legit to eat it at breakfast (but no one actually does that, right?). I was a little worried while I was making them because the batter was extremely thick, but they came out wonderfully. I'll definitely be adding these to the rotation. If you're at high altitude, see the note below. The only change is to decrease the baking powder.

By the way, the recipe says it makes 8 muffins. I got 11 out of it. I'm not sure if the baking cups in the UK are bigger than US muffin tins. If you're in the UK, you may only get 8 muffins.

Peach Almond Muffins Recipe
Makes 10-11 muffins
Print this recipe

*Note: If you live at high altitude, decrease the baking powder to 2 1/4 teaspoons and keep everything else the same.

2 large ripe peaches
2 cups (225 g) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon (15 ml) baking powder*
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons (150 g) sugar
1/4 cup + 4 teaspoons (40 g) ground almonds
2 eggs
6 tablespoons (75 g) butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup (50 ml) canola oil
4 teaspoons (20 ml) sour cream
1 tablespoon (15 ml) sliced almonds (for the garnish)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cut one peach into small pieces for inside the muffins. Cut the other peach into crescent slices for the top and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and ground almonds. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, melted and cooled butter, oil, and sour cream. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Partly fold in, add the chopped peaches, and continue to fold in until just combined. 

Spoon the batter into a paper-lined muffin tin until the cups are 3/4 full (I put four tablespoons of batter into each cup). Arrange the peach slices on top of the muffins and sprinkle the sliced almonds on top. Bake for 27-29 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let stand in the pan for a few minutes and then remove to cool. 

Source: Best Ever Book of Cupcakes & Muffins by Carol Pastor