Recipe #122: Vanilla Date Walnut Muffins

Vanilla Date Walnut Muffins

Well, I'm in the "V" muffins now! These muffins were made from a recipe I found on the internet, "Vanilla Crumb Muffins," at a website called Bake or Break. I made a few alterations: the recipe called for sour cream, for which I substituted plain Greek yogurt. And I didn't do the crumb topping, adding a brown sugar and walnut topping instead. And I added dates and walnuts as well.

The muffins came out pretty good, although they were a bit dry. The fact that there didn't seem to be enough liquid made it so I had to stir much longer than is good for the batter. I think I would use buttermilk in the future if I were to make these again as that would add more liquid. Oil would also be a better choice since it is a more liquid fat. 

They tasted a lot like coffee cake, especially with the brown sugar topping. That was fine, but not what I like in a muffin. They had a nice strong vanilla flavor (from 3 t vanilla extract), though, which is what you want in a vanilla muffin, after all. I rate these at 4 out of 5.

Recipe #109: Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins

For these muffins, I looked for a recipe that combines pumpkin with dried cranberries, since I have those on hand and I think they go well with pumpkin (shades of Thanksgiving!). It turns out there were a lot to choose from on the internet! The one I chose, Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins, came from the website, My Recipes, which is a part of the website, AllRecipes.

The recipe was pretty good all by itself, so I made very few changes. I exchanged 1/2 cup all-purpose flour for 1/2 cup graham flour, and I increased the amount of brown sugar relative to the white sugar by 1/4 cup (3/4 c white, 1/2 c brown vs 1 c white, 1/4 c brown). And as always, I added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

The muffins were wonderful! They were moist, sweet, hearty and delicious! I would definitely make these again. My tasters were very pleased.

Rating: 5+ out of 5

Next: Poppyseed Muffins

Recipe #108: Plum Muffins

Plum Chocolate Chip Muffins

For the next "P" muffins, Plum, I chose a recipe from the website, Cafe Baker, a New Zealand site, called Plum and White Chocolate Muffins. This was an interesting recipe. I had not considered combining those two ingredients  nor had I even thought of making plum muffins before now!

I made some changes to the recipe, of course. Since I didn't have any white chocolate (and don't really like it since it doesn't have any real chocolate in it), I decided to use dark chocolate chips. Other substitutions I made were similar to ones I'd made in other recipes: I used buttermilk in place of milk, and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour in place of all-purpose. The recipe called for a specific type of canned plums (available in NZ, perhaps), but since I didn't have those, I used plain old Libby plums with the lightly sweetened juice that came with them. I also added walnuts (as I do with most of my muffins).

These came out really well. They were tasty--the plums were a bit tart and the chocolate chips were a nice surprise. The texture was hearty as should be with muffins. My tasters enjoyed them. I would definitely make these again.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Next: Pumpkin Muffins

Recipe #107: Pineapple Muffins

Pineapple Muffins

For pineapple muffins I used a recipe from the website, My Recipes.  It had a large yield, so I ended up with almost two dozen muffins, but that was okay as I am planning to give some away. I substituted some whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour, and some brown sugar for the sugar. I also used buttermilk in place of milk to go with the pineapple juice. And I added 1/2 cup pecans.

These muffins were very good, although once again, I couldn't really taste the pineapple so much. My tasters enjoyed them--they were moist, not too sweet, and hearty-ish. (Is that a thing?)

If I make these again, however, I will make the pineapple in larger chunks and add it last so that the pineapple will be more visible and therefore more taste-able.

I rate these muffins 5 out of 5.

Next:  Plum Muffins

Recipe #106: Pomegranate Muffins

Pomegranate Muffins

For the next "P" muffin on my list, pomegranate muffins, I chose a recipe that used pomegranate juice only. Apparently, people do eat pomegranate seeds (oddly), but that prospect did not appeal to me, so I decided juice would have to do. I chose the recipe Cranberry Pomegranate Muffins from the website Kirbie's Cravings. Though the first ingredient is cranberry, pomegranate juice (2/3 cup) is also prominently featured, despite its being a pomegranate-cranberry mixture. The recipe uses 1 cup of dried cranberries, but I decided that was going to be too sour (the pomegranate juice itself is pretty tart), so I added a half cup of dates and reduced the cranberries to 1/2 cup. I also added 1/2 cup of walnuts and used oil in place of butter. For the flour, I used one cup of white whole wheat flour and one cup of all-purpose flour.

The muffins turned out moist, sweet and hearty. We all thought they were delicious! The only comment I have on the flavor is that I really couldn't taste the pomegranate, which makes me wonder whether pomegranate has a distinctive flavor. Though drinking pomegranate juice seems to be a fad at the moment, it must be for reasons other than taste. Considering how expensive it is, I probably won't be buying any more of the juice, though I might make additional batches of pomegranate muffins in the future, at least until the juice I have runs out.

I rate these muffins 5 out of 5.

Next: Pineapple Muffins

Recipe #105: Pistachio Muffins

Pistachio Muffins

For the next "P" muffin on the list, I chose to make Pistachio Muffins from the recipe, Healthier Pistachio Muffins, from a website called Cook Nourish Bliss. These muffins were a little complicated to make, mostly because I had to shell all the pistachios and then chop them up in my mini chopper. This took a while. And they were kind of hard, so didn't chop all that fine. But I used them as they were. There were a lot of them, though. I like pistachios, so that was a good thing for me!

For the recipe, I pretty much stuck to the ingredients except that I used regular plain yogurt instead of Greek yogurt, and I used some agave sweetener and honey in place of the maple syrup, since I didn't have any maple syrup and didn't want to buy it (it's kind of expensive). I also added some pistachio extract, since I happened to have a little bottle of that on hand. It was great to finally find a use for it!

The muffins tasted good, though they were not very sweet. I think I've gotten used to extra sweet muffins and so they were a little disappointing for that reason. But I don't really need to eat such sweet muffins and so it's all good.

Anyway, I probably wouldn't make these again because it was too much work, but maybe I'd use pistachios in other recipes. However, unsalted pistachios are very expensive, so I might not buy them again once my current package is empty.

I rate these 5 out of 5 as they were tasty and had nice texture and seemed healthy, as advertised.

Next: Pineapple Muffins

Recipe #104: Pine Nut Muffins

Pine Nut Muffins

Pine nuts were another type of food I'd never tried, but they tasted okay (maybe a little bit bitter), so I thought they'd make some nice muffins. I chose a recipe called Honey Date Pine Nut Muffins from the website, Food Lust People Love. The recipe was adapted from a plain honey muffin recipe that the author, Stacy Rushton, found on the Taste of Home website.

Stacy lives in Dubai, and so was interested in creating muffins for her Muslim friends to eat during Ramadan. Dates are an important food during that time, as is yogurt. Pine nuts go nicely with honey and dates, I think. These muffins came out sweet and hearty (perhaps because I used white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour). I also used oil instead of butter, but otherwise followed the recipe. Unfortunately, as with Stacy's recipe, my muffins didn't rise very high either. That was okay, though, because they tasted good.

I found that most of the pine nut recipes I encountered call for the nuts to be ground up before putting them together with the flour. They seemed to be meant to take the place of flour. And because pine nut "flour" has no gluten, I'm guessing that's the reason the muffins didn't rise very much. I guess that was fine, though the flavor of the muffins reminded me, in a way, of German muffins that have ground nuts, although in that case they're almonds. Interesting.

My tasters liked them, as did I, and so they were a success. I probably wouldn't make them again, however, as the pine nuts were a little hard to obtain.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5, because they didn't rise very high.

Next: Pistachio Muffins