Pepper jack zucchini muffins

Oh the summer. Love it, hate it. Depends on the day. I can't seem to decide. I've definitely always been in love with summer fruit. Peaches, watermelons, cherries, loquats. I've been drooling over the idea of fresh picked fruit from my parents' fields. Getting out of Barcelona, going down to Castellon and waking up early in the morning to go pick fruit with my dad. Priceless.

I have to train myself to bake with veggies. We've always had fruit trees. That's what my grandparents made a living of and most of the trees still survive. In winter, juicy oranges and tangerines are waiting for us to pick them. In summer, loquats, apricots and cherries are my go to fruits. But, now we have veggies too!

Ever since my parents retired last summer, they've been massively planting all sorts of veggies, trying to figure out what would grow in the mediterranean climate. They've already eaten tomatoes and fava beans. Peppers of all colors are in progress. Zucchini and yellow squash are already growing, waiting for me to pick them and turn them into some baked goods. So obviously I had to practice!

I love zucchini bread, but lately I've been all into savory baking. These muffins are perfection. Corn meal combined with flour. Lots of zucchini and oozing pepper jack cheese. They were part of my 4th of july menu and they didn't last long at all. Not a fan of spicy cheese? Use some cheddar, mix cheeses, you can't go wrong with these.

Pepper jack zucchini muffins
Makes 12

Print this recipe

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large eggs
1 cup grated zucchini (1 medium)
6 oz Pepper jack cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 375 F

In a bowl, mix together corn meal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a smaller bowl whisk together the eggs, yogurt and oil. Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the zucchini and cheese and mix just until combine. Pour the batter into the muffin cups. Bake the muffins for about 20 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don't worry if you hear 'weird' noises, that's your cheese oozing out of your muffins!

Wait wait! don't close the window yet. I wanna share with you one of the prettiest things that the summer brings to this city. I'm definitely in love with dahlias...

Accidentally healthy strawberry muffins

Life's some sort of huge irony sometimes. For real. Picture me 10 years ago. I was the kind of bookworm 

who'd get perfect grades in class. Except for gymnastics. That one I passed with a C.

I admit I didn't make any kind of effort to make my teacher like me just a hint. The guy was a misogynist, I was a rebellious teenager (sort of). And quite honestly, I didn't get the point of running when nobody's chasing you.

Now look at me... hitting the gym 4 times a week, just starting with my running program. (Nothing fancy, just trying to do some cardio). And more importantly, craving healthy food.

Don't get me wrong! I love chocolate, ice cream and gummy bears, but I must confess I find myself enjoying those 'healthy' things most of my friends run away from. Read 'cardboard' high fiber cereal, celery sticks and giant amounts of fruit. And of course, I'm a big fan of whole wheat.

My friend S is more of the opinion that if you make things healthy, they are for sure not gonna taste as good as if you smothered them in butter. These muffins though, might have made her change her mind.

I had 2 kg of strawberries in the fridge. No kidding, 2 kg bought for ridiculously 4$. And even in my fruit craving peak, there was no way I was gonna eat them all. So I made muffins. Half way through the process I realized I didn't have enough all purpose flour. Then the health accident happened, I added whole wheat flour to them. Oh yeah, and switched milk for buttermilk. And granulated sugar for brown.

And this happened...

I didn't tell S about the 'healthy' component until she'd eaten one of them. Her exact words were:  'wow, they don't taste healthy at all'. That's what I call: Score!

So whether  you are of the healthy kind or not, just make them! Enjoy that tangy taste of buttermilk and the fresh strawberry softness and forget about the fact that the might actually be good for you.

Fresh strawberry muffins

Printable recipe

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Gently fold in strawberries. Spoon batter into muffin pans. Bake for about 20 min or until a toothpick inserted in the muffins comes out clean. 

Best ever lemon poppy seed muffins

Put together lemon, poppy seeds and buttermilk. Bake it. Get muffin perfection. All in less than an hour and with only one bowl. What else can you ask for?

Remember that delicious apple walnut bread I made a couple weeks ago? I had some buttermilk left from the recipe and I was certainly not gonna throw it away. Thank goodness Joy had this recipe waiting for me. 

These muffins are soft and moist and tender and crunchy and perfect. The lemon flavor is not overpowering and the poppy seeds add that special something. And once more buttermilk proves to be the secret ingredient that brings this recipe together in greatness. 

Before I give you the recipe though... I have a little announcement! I've just decided to include printable recipes in each post so it's easier for you to print the recipe in a nice format without pictures. I hope you enjoy the new feature! I'll update old recipes with the printable recipe as soon as I can (the two  previous ones already have it).

 

Printable recipe

(adapted from Joy the Baker)

2/3 cup granulated sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Preheat your oven to 350 F

In a bowl beat together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract, butter, sugar and lemon juice. Do not freak out! it will look kind of like it curdled but it's ok, it will come out just fine!

Stir in the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix with a spatula until combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the poppy seeds.

Note: don't forget the baking soda! the combination of buttermilk (acidic) and baking soda, makes this muffins extra fluffy and tender.

Divide batter into muffin cups. (I used souffle cups, they sort of overflowed but that created nice muffin tops). Bake for about 30 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Doughnut muffins with a surprise

I was into making nice breakfast for my friend J and I, but I thought I'd be too hungry on Sunday morning to take the patience to bake... So I made this yummy treats ahead on Saturday night and they kept moist and delicious!

I could've made plain doughnut muffins but I have this fabulous blackberry jam that I'd spread even into a piece of wood... (yes, it's that good), so filled muffins it is!

3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
jam for the filling

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar, egg and oil until fluffy. In a different bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and combine. Pour in milk and vanilla extract.
Divide batter evenly into muffin cups.  Bake for 15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool.
Make a hole into the muffin in such a way that you remove part of it. I did it with a decorating tip

 

Fill a piping or plastic bag with the jelly/jam of your choice. Fill the holes of the cupcakes with it. Store at room temp or in the fridge for 2 days. If stored in the fridge, warm up before eating... the jam tastes so much more delicious!  

Muffins

Pumpkin muffins

I was talking to my friend Amanda, who is right now in Prague, under water. She was saying how appropriate it would be to eat a piece of pumpkin something. Very seasonal. Turns out I had canned pumpkin at home, a little spare time and the craving to make myself some real good breakfast for tomorrow. The result are these pumpkin muffins topped with dried cranberries. Very tasty, very yummy... very very, extraordinary.


Oh, did I mention they are super easy to make?

1 cup of pumpkin
1 jumbo egg*
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon**
A pinch of nutmeg

*I ran out of eggs and my roommate only had those, you can substitute for 2 eggs
**yes, I know, it's a lot of cinnamon. Pumpkin has a very mild flavor and usually it´s not the same in every can you open, so just adjust the spices to your taste.

Preheat the oven at 375 F

In a bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar and oil mixing with a spatula. In another container beat the egg. Add the egg to the pumpkin-sugar mix. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg and give it a taste. Correct spices if needed. Slowly add the flour and fold it into the mixture. Do not overmix!. Place the batter in a muffin tin or baking cups. (I only filled 7, very full ones). Bake for 11-15 min until a toothpick comes out clean.

I promise what's gonna get cleaned out is the plate where you put them...

Coconut-kiwi muffins

I love kiwis, I had a whole bunch of them in the fridge and I started wondering if I could make muffins with them... I found a recipe a the Food Blogga page. Her recipe included coconut milk. Now, I like coconut milk but it is extremely sweet and I was afraid it would kill the sour punching taste of the kiwi. I addapted the recipe and this is the result...
Yummy, moist, crunchy, sweet and sour... the best muffins I've ever made, for real... the coconut gives them a crunch, the kiwi gives some tangyness...

2 regular sized kiwis or 3 small kiwis diced small
2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup regular milk (I use skim)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg and 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup shredded coconut



Preheat oven to 375 F.


Peel kiwis and dice the kiwis and set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the butter with the eggs and add the milk, honey and vanilla extract.  Add to the flour mixture, and stir quickly until well combined. Don't overmix! You need to mix just well enough so things are combined.  Add the coconut and kiwis and mix with a spatula. Spoon the batter evenly into 12 muffin molds. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.



Contemplate the beauties you just made and... yum...

Coconut-Kiwi Muffins