Peanut Butter White Chocolate Muffins + Growing Orchids

Currently, there is an orchid sitting on the window sill next to our kitchen table.  No buds on it yet, although this time last year, I counted eight or ten beautiful purple flowers.

Yesterday, I finally noticed that there weren't any buds.  I worried for a moment, although the rest of the plant looks healthy, that maybe it had finally decided to die.   You see, I am kind of a plant nurse.

In a past life, before I had Fox, I worked at a dental office, and we ran through a series of plants that were either killed by inexperienced gardeners, or died from lack of sunlight, and when they were on their way out, I often took them home (I probably brought six or seven plants home over the course of a year).

I love having plants in my home, but they are kind of expensive to buy, so I decided to give these secondhand plants another shot at life, and babied them along.  But one by one, bad things happened to them; one (a gorgeous purple hydrangea) got infested with bugs, a few withered and died, and one or two I gave up on and tossed.

This orchid was the last plant I brought home, and it sat on my window sill for about nine months, almost forgotten.  I would water it when I remembered, usually every week or so, and expected it to fade and die like the others.

Then, one day, I saw a bud appear!  I was completely surprised and thrilled.  I got one flower out of it that time.  The next time it bloomed, I got three.  The next, fourteen.  Each flower was a gift, and I was thrilled every time a new one would appear

We took this plant to Utah last summer, and the long, hot car ride was a little traumatizing for it, I think.  All the petals fell off, and it hasn't bloomed since.

Yesterday, when I caught myself looking at it, I remembered what my gardener mother-in-law said about orchids, "When you want them to bloom, put them in the sunshine."

Now it sits on the windowsill, waiting for the sunshine to help it bloom.  Then my thoughts turned to me.  How often do I fill my life so full of other things that I forget to put myself in the sunshine?  To remember to find the happy in every day, or to appreciate the little things, to find joy in the things I do every day, and to remember that I have been giving so much.

My mom often says that you have to make your own sunshine, and I think I am finally starting to understand.  That doesn't mean the laundry suddenly gets really fun, or that I will ever love doing dishes, but maybe I can take a breather and enjoy the morning on the balcony with Fox.  Be present at the park.  Get down and play trains on the floor, and enjoy the wonder, the smiles and the new words of my little boy.  Take a break from social media and really listen to my husband.

Not every moment is sunshine, but there are sunshine moments to be had every day, so look for them, and you will see them.  I am starting to see them, too.

Peanut Butter White Chocolate Muffins: 
slightly adapted from the Blendtec Cookbook
Serves 12

1 cup milk
2 large eggs
2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs baking powder
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 - 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a large glass (or microwave safe bowl), melt the peanut butter slightly, until it is runny.  Add the sugar, then the eggs, then the milk and beat until combined.  Then add the flour, salt, baking powder and flour all at once, and mix until just combined.  Add white chocolate and mix briefly/gently until evenly distributed.

Grease a muffin tin, and scoop the batter into the tins.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are beginning to brown, and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, and turn out onto a wire cooling rack.  Best if eaten immediately.

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Carrot Blueberry Rye Muffins

When I think of blueberry muffins, the image my mind conjures up is a squishy muffin that you can buy in crinkly plastic from a convenience store.  They are always mushy, and have blueberry sink holes all over.  Not delicious.  In the past, I would always pick whatever other kind of muffin was being served before a blueberry muffin.  

Then a few weeks ago, I bought a giant bag of blueberries from Sam's club.  We use them in shakes, mostly, and Fox enjoys eating a small bowlful sometimes (they make a huge difference as he has been teething).  One day I was trying to come up with a fun new muffin type, and I thought of adding blueberries.  

I have had success baking with blueberries in the past, particularly when I grind them up in the food processor before adding them (I still can't get past the sink-holes).  This time I added them to a fun, refined sugar-free muffin that is a winner in every sense of the word.  Incredibly pretty, delicious and totally kid-friendly.  You should probably add them to your dinner menu this week!  

Carrot Blueberry Rye Muffins
Makes 12 Muffins

3/4 cup rye flour (you can also use whole-wheat flour)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp all-spice
3/4 cup honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 medium eggs
6 oz grated carrot (about 2 medium, shredded)
3/4 cup frozen blueberries, partially ground in a food processor)
1 Tbs all-purpose flour

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix your flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and all-spice.

In a stand mixer, combine your honey, oil, and eggs.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and briefly mix until they just start to come together.  A few streaks of flour are fine.  Add your grated carrot and briefly mix.

Now, combine your partially ground frozen blueberries with the 1 Tbs flour.  It might be easiest to just add the flour to the food processor and mix them briefly with a spoon.  Basically, you just want to absorb some of the wetness of the blueberries.

Add the blueberry/flour mixture to the stand mixer, and VERY briefly mix them into the muffins.  If you mix them too long, you will end up with purple muffins, which don't look delicious to eat.

Bake for 20-22 minutes in your preheated oven and remove them once you can poke them with a toothpick and have it come out clean.

Let them cool for 5 minutes, then carefully turn them out and place them on a cooling rack for another 5 or so minutes.  They are best warm with a little butter.

Enjoy!

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Honey Bran Muffins

I worked in the costume shop for three years at the University I attended.  It really was the best job.  I may not have made the most money a college student could make, but I really enjoyed the work, I worked with incredible people, and I was always doing something creative with my hands.  

It was also the first place that I was introduced to the honey-soaked bran muffin.  Every time a show opened, we had a celebratory lunch, and everyone brought something to contribute.  

Often they were based around the show (maybe a garden party theme, or kid's food, for example), and because the three women who run the costume shop are incredible cooks, the food was always amazing.  Anyway, one time, we were celebrating some show opening, and another seamstress brought in this box of gorgeous bran muffins from a local bakery.  They glistened with a honey glaze, and tasted DIVINE!  It was a life-changing moment in my muffin-eating life.  

Then I discovered that they sold them in a convenience store around the corner from my apartment.  It was a dangerous discovery, but I was too poor to buy them very often, so they were the occasional, delicious treat on my way home.  

A year or so later, I moved to Texas and completely forgot about them. Then, a few weeks ago, I was thinking about some of my best muffins I have eaten and they floated back into my mind.  I decided to try to recreate them, so I scoured the internet for a similar recipe.  I did find a few, but after looking through the recipes, I decided to mix a few techniques and ingredients and create my own.  

It was a glorious day.  They are delicious.  Just look at those honey soaked tops.  I don't think it gets much better than that.  I would say they are a health food, but let's be real;  they are definitely a dessert.  Happy Baking!

*Also, in other news, for those of you who were asking, I have added an email subscription option on the left column above my navigation menu.  

Honey Bran Muffins: 

Heavily adapted from The Lazy Wife's Guide and a friend's grandmother's recipe

serves 18-24 (depending on how much you fill each cup) 

2 cups All-Bran sticks

2 cups boiling water

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

1 cup buttermilk (or fake buttermilk, see post here about how to make it)

1 egg

1/2 cup honey

3/4 cup melted coconut oil

Combine All-Bran and boiling water in a medium sized bowl. Let it cool.  In a large bowl, combine salt, baking soda, and flour.  Add buttermilk, egg, honey and coconut oil and stir to combine.  Add a cooled All-Bran mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine.  Make honey glaze (see below).  

Honey Glaze: 

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 Tbs boiling water 

Combine melted butter, sugars and honey in a medium-sized bowl.  Add the boiling water and stir to combine.  One mixture feels pretty well incorporated, pour a little less than a tablespoon in each muffin well.  Pour the batter into the muffin wells, over the honey glaze, but only fill each well about 1/2 way, because you don't want the muffins to rise over the rim very much.  

Cook in an oven preheated to 375°F for 30 minutes.  Remove when the tops are beginning to crack and look golden.  Immediately flip the pan over onto a sheet of wax paper for easy removal.  Let the muffins sit for a minute to cool, then eat immediately.   

 Honey Bran Muffins

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Orange Crumble Muffins

Muffins are such a comforting food.  They are tiny cakes wrapped up in a healthy label.  No wonder I like them so much!  I usually make them to go with a salad for dinner, to bump up the calorie count in dinner, or just as a snack, or randomly when I am feeling blue.  

If you are feeling down today, you should make these muffins, because I think they are a little sliver of heaven.  Seriously, they are incredible. They are soft, light and fluffy, with a hint of orange flavor, and the crumble takes them to a whole new level of delicious.  Have I convinced you that you need to make them?  Hopefully, because they are worth it.  

Orange Crumb Muffins: 
Makes 12
muffins adapted from Hint of Honey 
crumb topping from 101 Cookbooks

Muffins:  
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 Tbs orange zest (from one large navel orange or 3 small oranges)
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3 Tbs brown sugar

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Mix until combined.  Add butter, orange zest, juice, buttermilk, eggs and brown sugar and stir until all ingredients are evenly mixed in (about 12 -15 good stirs).    Spoon about 1/3 cup of the muffin batter into each of the muffin tins.  Preheat your oven to 375°F and make your crumble while you're oven heats up.

Orange Crumble: 
2/3 white flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp orange zest

Combine first four ingredients in a medium, small bowl and stir.  Add butter and orange zest and combine until the mixture is clumpy and all the dry ingredients are wet.  With your fingers, pick up about 1 -2 Tbs of the mixture and break it up gently with your fingertips over the each muffin, sprinkling in an evenish layer as you go.  Sprinkle any remaining crumble over the muffins that look a little bare.  Cook in your preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the tops are starting to turn golden.

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Whole Wheat Honey Muffins

This blog really should be called, "How to make lots of tasty things when you don't have all the ingredients".  You have no idea how many times I have asked Adam to help me in the kitchen and I end up giving directions like this:  "I don't have scallions, so just use onions," "We don't have that ingredient, so skip it, it will probably be fine without it",  Or in this case, "make fake buttermilk in replacement for the sour cream..."  Poor guy.  He is so great and always goes with it.

My lovely sister, Janssen, swears by real buttermilk and can give you lots of ideas for using up the leftovers, but I don't think I have purchased it a single time since being married, and I have had lots of baking success without it.  Maybe it makes a huge difference, but I wouldn't know.  If you feel strongly that you need it, then feel free to use it, and let me know how it turns out, but otherwise, you can use my cheater technique and the recipe should turn out just fine.

These muffins are light, fluffy muffin perfection.  I had been looking for a whole wheat muffin recipe a few weeks ago when I ran out of white flour, and came across this one.  I love the fact that there is very little sweetener in them (most of the muffins that I make have upwards of a cup of sugar in them, and I cringe a little every time I make them), but the lack of sweet doesn't affect the delicious factor of these muffins at all. They are mildly sweet, soft and crumbly, but they don't leave you with a sugar hangover.  They are a perfect snack or a great accompaniment to breakfast, lunch or dinner.  You should probably make them immediately.

Whole Wheat Honey Muffins
Adapted from The Kitchn

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1 1/4 cup fake or real buttermilk (See directions for fake buttermilk below)
1/4 honey
1/4 coconut oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat your oven to 375°F.  Spray your muffin tin thoroughly, or line with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.

Measure out about 1 1/8 cups milk into a medium-sized glass bowl.  Add about 1/8 cup white vinegar or lemon juice.  Let sit for 5 minutes until it has thickened.  Add your honey, coconut oil and vanilla.  If your coconut oil is super clumpy, put the bowl in the microwave (if you are using a metal bowl, transfer mixture to a different bowl!) for a few seconds and stir.  If the oil is not melting, put it in for a few more seconds.  You don't want the mixture to get hot, just warm enough to melt the coconut oil to a liquid.  Once the coconut oil is melted, add your egg and vanilla.  Stir to combine.

Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Fill your muffin tins until they are about 2/3 of the way full.  Cook for 15 - 18 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden.  

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Muffin Monday: Orange and Shredded Beet Muffins

I used to be a horrible cook.  Truly, I was terrible.  As a kid, my dad had this lofty goal of keeping 10 loaves of wheat bread in the freezer at all times (I don't think we ever actually achieved this), and Janssen, Merrick and I were responsible for making bread each week to fulfill this goal.  

We were to put all the ingredients in the bread maker and turn it on.  A no-brainer, right?  Wrong.  Apparently you should be older than six and have more skills than my six-year-old self had, because I always got what we coined "volcano bread."  It was not pretty, and not pleasant with a lumpy, inedible texture.  After a few fails, I was relieved of the bread-making duties. 

Fast-forward a few years, and my mom made these delicious green beans pretty often to serve with dinner.  I think they were just canned beans with olive oil, minced garlic and Worcestershire sauce, cooking in a frying pan, but I was a huge fan.  

I remember a certain afternoon, at the age of ten or so, standing over our stove making these as a snack, and the pan catching fire.  The flames were a foot high and my mom, who was standing on the other side of the room talking with her mother on the phone, experienced a moment of panic at the rather large fire, and asked her mother how to put them out.  We quickly put out the fire with baking soda, but I was a bit traumatized from the flames (on the plus side, I now know how to put out a stove fire)... 

After that experience, I was afraid of cooking most anything stovetop, and didn't do much cooking at all, beyond cookies.  It wasn't until after my freshman year of college that I started cooking again.  I was home for the summer, working at Anthropologie, and my parents went on a trip, leaving me alone for a few days.  I ate mostly salad and cereal that week, but for some reason decided that I really wanted to make a loaf of bread that I could dip in oil and vinegar.  

I pulled out the Williams-Sonoma bread cookbook that my mom used a lot and made a loaf of focaccia bread.  It turned out perfectly and I got the cooking bug.  With one success under my belt, I gained confidence.  Once I returned to school, we had a dinner rotation in my apartment.  I became known as the one who made the bread, and made it quite often, usually challah bread or foccacia bread.  It was always a big hit, and it gave me confidence to try new things and continue cooking. 

Knowing this history of my cooking experiences might help you better understand the little thrill that enters my heart every time I have a recipe turn out.  Particularly if it is one that I have developed. Beets are not my favorite vegetable, but over the course of 2 or so years, I have tried to find recipes that use them in delicious ways.  This is a delicious way.  The orange mixed with the shredded beets is a lovely combination.  They are light, fluffy and absolutely worth eating.  

I contribute regularly to Creative Green Living, so head on over for the full recipe!  If you make them and take a photo that you post to Instagram, I would love if you tagged me (@measureandwhisk)!  I hope your week is filled with muffins and other lovely fall things!  Happy Monday!

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Crunchy Millet Muffins

Millet is currently one of my favorite add-ins to just about everything. I add it to my morning oatmeal, to muesli, homemade granola bars and to these muffins.  It just feels so natural and has an incredibly satisfying crunch.  You really should try it out, and these muffins are the perfect way to do it!

Millet Muffins
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup raw millet
1 tsp baking powder
1 tps baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1/2 cup barely melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 400°F.  Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick spray. Whisk flour, millet, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  In a medium bowl, whisk buttermilk, eggs, butter, brown sugar and lemon juice.  Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until just combined.  Spoon mixture into muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 the way full.  Bake for 15 minutes, until the tops are beginning to brown.  Let cool for a few minutes, then remove from tin and let cool on a cooling rack.   Enjoy!

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Sugar-Sprinkled Muffins

 Any post that beings with the phrase "sugar sprinkled" is a sure-fire win.  These beauties are no exception. A few days ago I told Adam that I was going to make some muffins this week and did he have a preference on what kind.  Immediately, he replied that these muffins needed to be made this week.  They are super tasty!  There is buttermilk in the recipe, which makes the muffins a little tangy, so the sugar on top is a nice compliment.

Sugar-Sprinkled Muffins:
from William Sonoma

7 tbs softened or room temp butter
2/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup buttermilk (or fill a measuring cup almost to the top with regular milk, leaving about 1/4 cm below the rim exposed.  Fill the remainder of the measuring cup with white vinegar and let sit for 3 minutes).
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In stand mixer, mix butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Add egg and mix until combined.  In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and whisk together.  Add flour mixture in small portions alternated with buttermilk to the butter mixture.  Mix and add vanilla extract.  Once thoroughly mixed, dole out into muffin tins (should fill about 12) and cook in oven at 350 degrees for about 20 -25 minutes until golden brown.  Test them with a toothpick if you are not sure that they are cooked through.  Pull them out when they have cooked all the way, and let them cool for about 10 minutes and prepare the topping (see below).
Topping:
1 stick butter, melted
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tbs cinnamon
Mix cinnamon and sugar in one bowl.  Leave melted butter in separate bowl.

Take your cooled muffins and dip the muffin top in the melted butter.  Then dip the buttered top into the sugar mixture.  Let 'dry' on a cooling rack for 10 minutes and enjoy!

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