Category: breakfast

Blackberry Crumble Muffins

Blackberry Crumble Muffins fresh out of the oven

I first made these muffins 5 or 6 years ago, and at the time I declared them very dessert-like. I didn’t make any modifications to the recipe today, although you could swap in some almond flour or whole wheat flour if you want to make them a bit healthier. But today, I said let’s indulge and make cake-y muffins for breakfast. I’m adding them here because I wasn’t sure if I still remembered the source of the recipe. (This is a fear I live with daily. That and a desire to document my favorite recipes for my daughter are what’s brought me back here after so many years.)

Yield: 14 – 16 muffins

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk (or just a small egg if you have it!)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen blackberries

Crumb Topping:

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 6 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon cardamom

Notes:
If you don’t have almond extract and/or cardamom, you can increase the cinnamon and vanilla extract to match the quantities above. Fresh blackberries work too, but careful not to mash them into the batter or they will stain the batter gray.

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400* and grease or line your muffin pan. (I like silicone cups since they are reusable, or paper liners that you can compost.)
  2. Make crumb topping: in a small bowl mix together sugar, flour, melted butter, cinnamon and cardamom until coarse crumbs form. Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk egg, milk, oil, vanilla and almond extracts.
  4. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
  5. Stir liquids into flour mixture until just combined. Then fold in blackberries gently.
  6. Scoop batter into muffin pan and then top with crumb mixture.
  7. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in muffin pan for several minutes before serving.
  8. Allow to cool completely and then seal in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze for another day.

Enjoy!

Warm muffin served with a pat of butter

Original recipe source: platingsandpairings.com

Sweet Potato Waffles (wheat-free)

IMG_20171202_090623629
Sweet Potato Waffle with toasted pecans and buttery maple syrup and bacon!

These waffles turned out so delicious this morning, that I’m writing this up 12 hours later before I leave for an international flight tomorrow. 😉 I need to make these again next time I have sweet potato on hand, and you need to make them stat!

I happened to have some leftover baked sweet potato on hand, but you can also cut some potato into chunks and steam them pretty quickly and then mash them up. I’ve been trying to take a break from wheat recently, so I made these with a mix of gluten-free flours. I’m sure they’d taste just as great with all purpose flour, or a mix of whole wheat and all purpose.

If you have pecans and real maple syrup, you must toast the nuts and warm the syrup to complete the dream!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup mashed sweet potato
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup (half a stick) of melted unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/4 cup ground flax seed
  • 1/4 cup millet flour
  • 1/4 cup almond meal or flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

Yield: Two large belgian waffles (serves 4 to 6)

Steps:

  1. Mix all of the wet ingredients together in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk all of the dry ingredients together.
  3. Preheat your waffle iron and spray it with vegetable oil.
  4. Gently blend the wet and dry ingredients together. The batter will be fluffy. Use a measuring cup to scoop the batter onto the waffle iron.
  5. When the first waffle is done, place it in a 200 degree oven while you cook the remainder of the waffles.
  6. Serve the waffles with toasted pecans and warm maple syrup. If you dare, put a pat of butter in the maple syrup before you warm it!

IMG_20171202_090519525