FFG--Yogurt Muffins

My dear friend Lori hosts Friday Farm Girls at Heart every week;

please click on her button above to visit her blog

and find out how you can participate!

I've been hooked on muffins for several weeks now.  Meaning, once I found a new recipe, tried it, and liked it, I started finding muffin recipes everywhere!  I shared in earlier posts about how I'm trying to keep my recipe binder down to just one binder--why do I need 25 muffin recipes?--and I'm sticking to my guns.

Several versatile recipes are all I need to change things up a bit.  For example, I began with maple crumb muffins.  Then when I didn't have the sour cream needed for those, I searched and found a recipe using cottage cheese.  Yep, you guessed it--I was low on both of those ingredients, but I had some yogurt in the fridge!  The search began, and I found the recipe below.

When I say versatile, I like muffin recipes to which you can add fruit, for example.  I also like changing the flavor by adding lemon or orange peel, a different flavor yogurt, or extra cinnamon and a dash of freshly grated nutmeg.  With these yogurt muffins, I didn't have lemon yogurt--the recipe was billed as "lemon yogurt muffins"--but I did have banana mango yogurt, so I used that.  I made these a second time, and added blueberries to the batter.  Serious yummies.  I also doubled the batch, and, since I have only one muffin tray, I made mini bread loaves with the second batch in my four-loaf mini bread pan.  We're saving those for Sunday morning breakfast when the household is bustling with church service preparations.

As I've written before, make "muffins for breakfast" even easier by prepping the evening before.  Mix together the dry ingredients, cover, and leave on the counter.  Set the butter in the bowl, cover, and leave on the counter to soften overnight.  Pull out the mixer, measuring cup(s), and other tools.  Set the muffin tins out and line them with papers.  It's amazing how quickly breakfast comes together when I do this!

Here's the recipe.  I usually use freshly ground whole-wheat pastry flour in my recipes, which means that the amount of flour listed is a little more than what the recipe called for.  But just a little!

Yogurt Muffins

1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup cane juice crystals (or sugar)
2 eggs
3/4 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
dash freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons (or more) lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line muffin tray with papers.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the yogurt and lemon juice.  Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg; stir into the yogurt mixture until just blended.  Spoon batter into the prepared muffin tin.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly touched.  Allow the muffins to cool for 10-15 minutes before removing them from the tin.

Place the confectioner's sugar in a small bowl.  Stir in the lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until the mixture is drizzling consistency.  Drizzle over cooled muffins, and allow the icing to set before serving.  (NOTE:  I dipped my muffin tops into the drizzle, then turned them upright and placed them on the serving platter.)

Again, please visit Lori's wonderful blog to find out about

Friday Farm Girls at Heart!

Back to life,
Christine

visit my photography blog!
captured by Christine Anne

FFG--Maple Crumb Muffins

My friend Lori is a farm girl at heart.  Click her button to the left to visit her blog and join us on Fridays, because farm girls love company!  :)

Well, it was a good week here on my suburban "farm."  We actually turned on the a/c in the "barn" for a few return-of-summer days!  Number one stallion (Joe) stayed in the "barn" for shelter this week.  Number two stallion (Jacob) studied hard at the "training corral."  Number three stallion (Danny) is getting "saddle-trained" both online and with his older brother.  And number four stallion--well, colt, anyway--has romped rambunctiously around both the "barn" and the "pasture."  (That would be Thomas.)

The big "stud" worked hard all week providing for this "mare" and their herd.  Even though his mane has a touch of gray now, he still has what it takes to round up his herd well.

Since I happen to be on a farm theme, I leave you with a Bible verse, and a yummy recipe.

Know well the condition of your flocks,

And pay attention to your herds;

For riches are not forever,

Nor does a crown endure to all generations.

Proverbs 27:23-24 nasb

Maple crumb muffins

Maple Crumb Muffins

2 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup + 2 T sour cream
1/3 cup maple syrup

Streusel topping (mix together until crumbly)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Using whisk, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Stir in egg, sour cream, and syrup.  Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups. Sprinkle with streusel topping mix.  Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.  Serve warm or hot.  Makes 12 muffins.


Back to life,
Christine

visit my photography blog!
captured by Christine Anne

FFG--Cinnamon-Oat Muffins and a Farm Photo :)

To find out about Friday Farm Girls at Heart, click on the link to the left and visit Lori's blog.  Then stay for a visit and chat with us!  We farm girls love company.

A farm wife must love to cook.  That's my impression, anyway.  So I guess this suburbanite can say that she is a farm girl at heart!  I love cooking, baking, and discovering new recipes.

I tend to experience two phases in my kitchen and in my life in general:

1. The search to gather ________
2. The effort to de-clutter ________

I have filled in that blank with many different things:  books, science supplies, hats, shoes, kitchen gadgets...  The word recipes was in that blank for several years, but I have just finished Phase #2 by getting rid of  four or five cookbooks, and combining my recipes--two overflowing binders' worth--into one binder, with space to spare.

I determined that one can have only so many recipes.  I purged several which were similar, and kept only my favorite ones in all categories--breakfasts, main dishes, breads, muffins, cakes, etc.  (Click here to see my post about my recipe binder.)

I recently found some muffin recipes unique enough to try and keep.  I kept only a few, which you'll be seeing in future Farm Girls posts.  Muffins are great--if you find a basic recipe, you can add any sort of fruit to it to change it up a bit.  Or, add some lemon or orange peel for a slightly different flavor.  That's why I'm determined, in the recipe arena, to have just a few.

Cinnamon-oat muffin with a cup of tea

Cinnamon-Oat Muffins

1 cup old fashioned oats (not instant)
1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/3 cup cane juice crystals (or sugar)
1/3 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
1 egg
1 t pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon

cinnamon-sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Combine the oats and buttermilk in a bowl and let stand for ten minutes.  In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, cane juice crystals, sucanat, egg, and vanilla.  Add the oat mixture and stir to blend.  Add the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon and mix well.

Spoon the batter into paper-lined muffin cups (dozen).  Sprinkle each muffin with cinnamon-sugar.  Bake for 20 minutes; let cool for about five minutes before removing muffins to a cooling rack to cool.  Makes one dozen muffins.

Since we're sharing Friday Farm Girls, I leave you with this picture, just for fun.  Yes, I have been on a farm!

Not my back yard  :)

For every beast of the forest is Mine,

The cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird of the mountains,

And everything that moves in the field is Mine.

Psalm 50:10-11 nasb

Back to life,
Christine

visit my photography blog!
captured by Christine Anne

FFG > Cinnamon Cottage Cheese Muffins

To find out about Friday Farm Girls @ Heart, just click on the button to the right to visit Lori's blog and to read what it's all about!

This morning, I wasn't planning on making breakfast.  Due to sewing a quick fix for a blouse, I didn't get downstairs until almost 9am.  Jacob was getting set to leave for college, Thomas was working on an algebra quiz, Joseph was toasting some bread, and Danny was munching out of the fridge.

So when I half-heartedly asked, "Does anyone want me to make breakfast?"  I didn't expect a positive response.  But positive it was, and they agreed on muffins.  I figured if they helped, we could have muffins in the oven in a jiffy.  I grabbed my cookbook to start preparing a recent new favorite--Maple Crumb Muffins--then realized I didn't have enough sour cream.  We had cottage cheese instead.  Hmm.

Let me just say that the internet can be a wonderful thing!  I found a recipe, and altered it a tad for fresh whole wheat flour and for our love of cinnamon.  I licked the bowl scraper, and just knew I had a winner.  I share it with you here!  And of course, you already know I won't have pictures until--Lord willing--TOMORROW!  (Can you tell I'm just a bit excited??)

Cinnamon Cottage Cheese Muffins

1 1/2 C flour (I used whole-wheat, and used slightly more)
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/4 C softened butter
3/4 C sugar (I use cane juice crystals)
1 egg
1 C cottage cheese
1/4 C milk

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a larger bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add egg and mix well.  Add cottage cheese and milk and mix well.  Stir in dry ingredients until moistened.  Pour into paper-lined 12-muffin muffin tin.  I sprinkled a little cinnamon/sugar over the tops.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.  Remove to wire rack to cool.

Since I can't bear to leave without a photo, here's one from my spring garden.

...The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever.

Isaiah 40:8 nasb

Back to life,
Christine

visit my photography blog!
captured by Christine Anne