*junk muffins*

yup...junk muffins.  how could i resist?

this week's recipe is found in our family cookbook.  several years ago my mom gathered up all of the old extended family favorites like nana's molasses cookies (which were always piled high in the dutch oven stored in her cabinet), aunt hazel's lemon meringue pie (a perfectly-crusted thanksgiving legend), and papa's whiskey sours (wait, why haven't i made these yet?) and put them all in one place.  everyone has a copy!  cool, right?

1/4 cup of melted butter or oil...i chose butter!  after doing a little snooping around, i've discovered that you do have options in this department.  butter, naturally, has amazing flavor.  if used at room temperature and creamed with sugar, the air whipped into the mixture creates a light crumb with a bit more lift...more cake-like in texture.  melted butter allows you to move a bit faster and use the muffin method (combine wet and dry ingredients separately, then throw it all together).  oil gives baked goods a longer shelf life (but sort of an off taste, in my opinion).  apparently it depends on the recipe - so, if anyone out there has a recipe using oil that they are really fond of, let me know.  i'll keep an open mind!

wet ingredients include...
1/3-1/2 c. brown sugar (i used 1/3)
1 egg
1/4 c. melted butter
1/2 t. vanilla
1/4 c. finely diced apple
1/4 c. grated carrot
1/4 c. raisins
1/4 c. crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 c. milk

and dry...
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder

i'm not a milk drinker, but what i do keep around the house is this handy and amazing powdered buttermilk.  yes!  powdered!  i remember seeing this very container in my mom's cupboard growing up, but never had reason to think about what you could do with it.  all you do is mix the powder in with the dry ingredients and then add the appropriate amount of water to the wet.  voila!

i have to say, the little angel on my shoulder was pretty happy to see so much healthy junk in these muffins.  it makes me wonder if i could take this a step further and substitute applesauce for the melted butter next time.

once again we have a pretty thick batter, this time filled with chunks of junk :) next time i'll modify the recipe to make a little more batter.  these muffins looked nice enough, but could stand to be a bit bigger.

this recipe does not include a topping, but they needed a little something...

powdered sugar!  turns out that in addition to boosting the presentation factor, it added just the right amount of sweetness.

this is my assistant.  not to worry...he doesn't actually do any hands-on work.  just moral support.  and if left unattended, tasting.

my official (non-cat) taste-tester enjoyed the fact that these were "full of healthy stuff, but didn't taste like health food."  my verdict...  tasty?  yes.  attractive?  yes.  if i had bought this, would i buy it again?  yes, if they were slightly bigger and chunkier.

i'm getting the muffin thing:  now the challenge is, can i make up my own recipe??  exciiiiiitiiiiiing!!

til next time,
pastrylady xo