Rosemary Muffins - #MuffinMonday

I had a long list of things to bake for Christmas. But somewhere along the way, I hit a wall. I'm not sure if it was the annual deep cleaning that did me in. Or maybe I just had lingering lethargy from a bout of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. My first time! Thank you, Baby Nephew, for bringing your daycare germs over to Aunty!

I ditched the baking list but didn't want to miss Muffin Monday. I just knew that it couldn't be sweet. My brain kept screaming CHEESE. But I think I've hit cheese overload as well so rosemary won. Rosemary isn't very popular in Jamaica so I'm excited to have my own plant to snip whenever I please. I had basil too but a couple weeks of heavy rain left my basil mildewed. I'll replant it soon.

How were your holidays? Are you still in celebration mode or is it time for recovery?

Be sure to scroll down to see what the other muffin bakers made for today.

Rosemary Muffins

Ingredients

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease a 6 cup muffin pan.

Whisk flours, rosemary, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
In a small bowl whisk egg, milk, and oil.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Notes
I found this recipe on Epicurious. I decreased the sugar - as is they tasted a tad sweet to me, increased the salt and the rosemary. I still think it needs more rosemary. I think I'll infuse the milk in my next batch.

• Blueberry Banana Oat Breakfast Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Lemon Crumb Muffins from Making Miracles
• Mandarin Orange Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Rosemary Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Rum Glazed Colada Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet Potato Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Stout Gingerbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

I had to miss last month's Muffin Monday and it really distressed me. I don't bake much anymore and so I really look forward to this once a month bake. It's easier to do than my other groups because I'm not restricted to ingredients that are difficult to get in my area. Plus, baking muffins takes very little time and I am really bad at time management these days. I want to rant about the class that is taking up all my time and the poor administration that never communicates but let's focus on the muffins.

This stout gingerbread muffin is wonderful. These are not sweet muffins - add more sugar if you want it sweet. The stout flavour isn't subtle but it isn't overwhelming. Look, the only gingerbread I've had were some cookies that I made 3 years ago so I'm not a gingerbread expert. But authentic or not, this stuff is good and worthy of several repeats in my kitchen. I just need to pick up some more molasses.

Stout Gingerbread Muffins

Yield 10 - 12 muffins

Ingredients 
1/3 cup stout
1/2 cup molasses (not Blackstrap)
2 tablespoons grated ginger
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger 
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 425 F and line a muffin tin with liners.
Heat the molasses and stout until bubbling. Turn off and stir in the grated ginger. Set aside to cool.
In a small bowl whisk egg, oil, and sugar.
In a separate bowl whisk flour, ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves and salt.
When the molasses is cool, whisk in the egg mixture.
Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
Bake the muffins for 5 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 350 F. Bake another 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
Cool and enjoy.

Notes
I used Guinness Foreign Extra Stout but next time I'll use Dragon Stout's Spitfire. It's a bit sweeter and has a higher alcohol content.

• Carrot Ginger Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Garlic Bread Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Making Miracles
• Sausage Honey Cornbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Stout Gingerbread Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Banana Muffins with Peanut Streusel

I love seeing muffins that have streusel but for some reason I rarely make them. I think there may have been a streusel mishap back in the day that kept me from doing it more often. Or maybe I kept telling myself - unnecessary calories. I can be a killjoy.

I absolutely adore the streusel on these muffins and excitedly watched as they rose in the oven.

Scroll down to see the other muffins in this month's line up!

Banana Muffins with Peanut Streusel

Ingredients
Streusel
1/2 cup peanuts
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash or 2 of cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Muffins
190 grams flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly ground 
1 1/2 cups mashed banana
2/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons milk or water
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method

Chop the peanuts, toss with flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Pour in the melted butter. The mixture should be clumpy. If it's too wet, add a little more flour. 

Line a muffin pan. Preheat oven to 425 F. 

Mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Set aside. Mix banana, sugar, oil, and milk or water. Add in the egg and vanilla. 

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just incorporated and there are no more streaks of flour. 

Divide the batter among 11 to 12 muffin wells. Top with streusel. 

Bake for 5 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 350 F. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean. 

• Banana Muffins with Peanut Streusel from Passion Kneaded
• Lemon Zucchini Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Oatmeal Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pizza Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• The Best Banana Muffins from Making Miracles

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.