Recipe #61: Ginger-and-Molasses Muffins

Ginger-and-Molasses Muffins

This recipe in the 201 Muffins book called for ginger, molasses, other spices, graham flour, pecans and raisins. I found a recipe that was similar on the Quaker Oats website: Molasses Spice Oatmeal Muffins. They had lots of ginger and other spices, whole wheat (rather than graham) flour, and molasses. The addition of the oats made them that much better. In keeping with the book's recipe, I included raisins and walnuts (instead of pecans). They came out quite robust, as I told my tasters, which is, I think, a step above hearty. My tasters said they were very good, though. And I agree! They have a nice texture with all the whole grain ingredients, but were pretty sweet, too, thanks to the applesauce (lowering the fat content), molasses, and brown sugar. The Quaker recipe included an orange glaze, but I chose to top them with a nice crunch topping. Orange didn't seem to go with molasses, in my opinion.

This recipe was a good one. I'll keep an eye out for more Quaker recipes in the future.

I rate these muffins 5 out of 5.

Next: Gingerbread Muffins

Recipe #60: German Muffins

German Muffins

German muffins are apparently a particular type of muffin. When I looked for a recipe for these muffins, I found several that had nearly identical ingredients. I ended up with one from the website Genius Kitchen, called "Old German Muffins." The recipe in 201 Muffins called for hazelnuts, but all the others used almonds, so that's what I used.

The muffins came out good tasting, slightly sweet, but plain. I'm not sure what makes them German muffins, but they remind me somewhat of almond cookies or scones. Are those German influenced? I don't know.

The batter was very thick, so I added about 1/3 cup milk so I could stir in the almonds and raisins. If I ever make these again, I will add the extras into the dry ingredients first.

The recipe called for a tablespoon of rum. Since I didn't have rum and was unwilling to buy a bottle just for a tablespoon, I decided to use Drambuie, which was close to the flavor of rum, I thought. At any rate, such a small amount of any flavor would not have been detectable.

My tasters also thought they were good.

I rate these muffins 4.5 out of 5, mostly because of the lack of enough liquid.