Recipe #90: Olive and Cheese Muffins

Olive and Cheese Muffins

The recipe in 201 Muffins called for black olives and cheese in an otherwise flour based muffin. But since I had some polenta left over, I decided to look for a recipe that would use corn meal with green olives and cheese. I found one at Genius Kitchen: Olive Cornbread. This recipe was designed to make mini loaves with olive slices on top. I decided to chop the olives and put them right into the mix and make muffins instead. I didn't have to bake them as long, and I added some sunflower seeds on top for texture.

They came out rather well, I think. They tasted good and were hearty. We ate them with a nice Mexican style chicken soup I made for supper. My tasters liked them very much.

I would definitely make these again if the occasion arose.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Next up: Orange Cranberry Muffins

Recipe #89: Old Fashioned German Muffins

Old Fashioned German Muffins

This recipe is another one of those that is apparently standard. All the websites that had this recipe had the exact same recipe. It was a rather plain muffin, with main ingredients of ground almonds, raisins, and rum. The recipe I used came from RecipeLand.com: Old Fashioned German Muffins.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe except that I didn't have rum so I used peach brandy. There was quite a bit of butter in the mix: 3/4 cup. I used oil instead of butter, which may have been too much and why the muffins seemed a bit greasy. If I made them again, I would probably use some applesauce instead of so much fat.

They were quite good, though, even with only a half cup of sugar. My tasters enjoyed them as well!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (due to oilyness)

Next: Olive and Cheese Muffins

Recipe #88: Oatmeal Muffins

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

The recipe in the book, 201 Muffins, made a rather plain muffin, so I decided to make mine more interesting by adding chocolate chips and cinnamon chips. I found a recipe at a website called Inside BruCrew Life: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins. The fact that the first word of the title is chocolate should give you a clue that there are lots of chocolate chips in the muffin--in fact, one cup of chocolate chips and a half cup of toffee chips. That's a lot for a normal sized recipe. I didn't have toffee chips so I decided to use cinnamon chips. Moreover, the recipe called for quick oats, but I didn't have any. So after researching the substitution of old fashioned oats, I decided that would be okay. The oats made for a nubby texture, however, which I didn't really like all that much. My tasters thought they were good, though, and one even said he liked the texture. Otherwise, they were sweet and chocolatey, so their virtues made up for their less-than-perfect texture. If I were to make these again, I would use quick oats or make quick oats out of old-fashioned. I also left off the coffee glaze, thinking they were sweet enough as they were.

All in all, these were good muffins. I rate them 4 out of 5 (though I was to blame for the deficits).

Next up: Old Fashioned German Muffins

Recipe #87: Oat Bran Muffins

Oat Bran Muffins

For these muffins, I chose a plain oat bran muffin recipe that I got from the Joy of Baking website, Oat Bran Muffins. I decided the recipe didn't have enough oil, so I doubled the 2 T to 1/4 cup. And instead of raisins I added dates and walnuts. Other than those changes, I think I pretty much followed the recipe. I didn't add the recommended oat meal garnish.

I think they came out quite tasty. They were pretty hearty and sweet enough with a strong molasses flavor, which I like. My tasters also thought they were good.

Next recipe also uses oatmeal, but this time I think I will add chocolate chips! Who knew the "Os" would be so much fun!

I rated these muffins 5 out of 5. I know--I'm an easy grader.

'Til next time!

Recipe #86: Oat-and-Jam Muffins

Oat-and-Jam Muffins

The recipe in 201 Muffins made oatmeal-based muffins with brown sugar and buttermilk, with the jam  added as a kind of glaze. The recipe I chose, Oatmeal Raspberry Jam Muffins from the Sweet and Simple Kitchen website, used the jam as a filling, so that was different, and preferable. The recipe also called for drizzling some jam on top, which I did to some of the muffins, but not all.

I added walnuts to the batter, and that may have made it a little bit thick, so I decided to add 1/2 cup applesauce, which thinned it a bit but also made the muffins a little bit chewy, I think. Also, in honor of Valentine's Day, I added some red sugar to the tops which unfortunately looks a bit lurid in the picture.

Nonetheless, they were good tasting, and my tasters enjoyed them as well. I would not rate them as top-notch, however, as they had to be tinkered with a bit and the result was not as good as I usually expect.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Next up: Oat-Bran Muffins 

Recipe #85: Nutmeg Muffins

Nutmeg Muffins

The recipe in 201 Muffins was a little plain--basic muffins with nutmeg seasoning. So I chose a recipe that I could add nuts to: Nutmeg Muffins, from the Taste of Home website. This recipe called for a streusel topping that was taken from the initial butter-flour mixture. I didn't want to do it that way so I mixed all the ingredients together, leaving me with an extra 3/4 cup of butter and flour that was supposed to have been topping. Well, that probably was not the smartest thing to do, but the muffins turned out okay anyway. I used oil instead of butter and a little bit more buttermilk than the recipe called for to compensate for the extra flour. I also added walnuts, and in lieu of the streusel topping, I used a brown sugar-walnut-mini chocolate chip crunch topping. The muffins came out a bit dry (not surprisingly), but they tasted pretty good nonetheless.

I wouldn't use this recipe again and probably would use a recipe that has a more common method of combining ingredients.

My tasters liked the muffins, especially the strong nutmeg flavor (I used 2.5 teaspoons of nutmeg), which I also enjoyed.

I rate these muffins 4 out of 5, just because the method was too complicated and my alterations to it were not completely successful.

Next up: We begin the "O" muffins with Oatmeal-Jam Muffins.

Recipe #84: Nut Bran Muffins

Nut Bran Muffins

The recipe in the 201 Muffins Book called for walnuts, bran and dates. I found a recipe with all those things plus orange flavoring at the Florida Citrus website: Florida Orange Date Nut Bran Muffins. The recipe was a good one, I think. I mostly followed it, except for adding some triple sec for some of the orange juice and 1/2 cup extra sugar, since it seemed they weren't going to be sweet enough.

The muffins came out great. They were moist, hearty and delicious. The bran as well as the dates really made them rich and fibrous. My tasters enjoyed them almost as much as the double chocolate expresso muffins that I made at the same time!

I would definitely make these muffins again. I rate them 5 out of 5.

Next up: Nutmeg muffins.