Blueberry Cranberry Crumble Muffins

It seems as though muffins have become the most requested comfort food choice lately. You can understand why, easy snacking, grab and go and delicious. These muffins do not disappoint and the blueberry cranberry combination is tartly and the crumble topping adds a wonderful moreish sweet crunch. 

Blueberry Cranberry Crumble Muffins

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makes 12 muffins

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup light olive oil

1 large egg

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground flax seed 

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

2/3 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

Crumble Topping:

1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons firm butter

Mix flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter and blend together until crumbly. Set aside until ready to use. 

Heat oven to 400ºF. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin or line with baking papers.

Make the crumble topping and set aside.

In a large bowl beat the milk, oil and egg together with a whisk. 

In another bowl blend together the flour, ground flax seed, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the blueberries and cranberries to the flour mixture and gently stir, to coat the berries. Create a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour the milk mixture into it. Stir until just moistened; the batter will be lumpy and that's fine.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon of the prepared crumble topping. 

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Notes: if baked in greased muffin tin allow to stand for 5 minutes in the tin, then remove from tin to a wire rack; if baked in paper baking cups immediately remove from tin to wire rack.      

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. - JD 

Wheat Germ Muffins

Quite simply these are a basic muffin with substance and the apple wedges on top dresses up these otherwise plain muffins. However under the radar these muffins may be they are a healthy alternative and one that will be enjoyed with just about anything. 

Wheat Germ Muffins

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1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat Germ

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

2 tablespoons coconut sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten 

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled

apple wedges, thinly sliced 

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a muffin tin with paper baking cups or reusable silicone baking cup liners. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, wheat germ, cornmeal, ground flax seed, coconut sugar, ground cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. 

In another bowl combine together the egg, milk and melted butter; add all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened; the batter should be a bit lumpy.    

Fill the lined muffin cups with batter and place a few thinly sliced apple wedges into the tops of each muffin and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until muffins are lightly brown. Serve warm with a little bit butter. 

Notes: you could add grated apple to the muffin batter. 


Hope everyone had a nice weekend. - JD 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are absolutely delicious and vegan! They were so easy to make that I whipped up another batch. This is a great basic recipe, which ingredients may be substituted for others depending on your tastes or food requirements. It is hard to believe these are vegan! 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 coconut sugar

1/3 cup soy milk

1/3 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup oat flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 tablespoon flax seed

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup vegan semi sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 400ºF. Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment paper. Set aside. It is a must to line the baking tray to prevent the cookies from sticking to the tray.

In a large bowl whisk together the sugars, soy milk, peanut butter, oil, and vanilla extract until completely smooth.

In another bowl, mix together the oat flour, oats, flax seeds, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and the chocolate chips in a separate bowl; add to the peanut butter mixture and stir to combine. 

Drop the cookie dough by large spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake cookies in the preheated oven until the edges are browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before removing them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes: I made a second batch however I used 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour, instead of the oat flour, and added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. All other ingredients remained the same. This batch did not spread like the first batch did and were more compact. Regardless, both batches were great. I slight flatten... tapped the centre of each cookie with my fingers before baking the second batch (with all purpose flour and chopped walnuts.) 

The first batch was more crispy and chewy with a more pronounced  peanut butter taste and the second batch was dense and crunchy with a slight peanut butter taste that was then over taken by a walnut flavour due to the added chopped walnuts. Below is a photo of the second batch I made... 

Plenty of sunshine this weekend and for the coming week. Hope you had a lovely weekend too. - JD 

Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Usually I like measuring and mixing about the list of ingredients of a recipe, makes me feel like a scientist, however I have heard about these simple 3 ingredient recipes and wanted to give one try. Upon my search I found  many similar recipes for peanut butter cookies, like this one, however they were all just slightly different somehow. Offering different measurements for ingredients and baking temperature and times varied as well. I made two batches because I wanted to tweak the recipe here and there. I added ground flax seed and lessened the sugar. I let the taste testers decide and my modified version got the most thumbs up. This is a great recipe if you are pressed for time and low on certain ingredients. Also this recipe is gluten free! 

The original Peanut Butter Cookie recipe:

Mix together:

225 grams of peanut butter

225 grams of casters sugar

1 beaten egg

Mould into "blobs", flatten on a baking tray with a fork then bake in a 225ºC oven for 12 minutes.

Here is my modified version of this recipe: 

Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

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Mix together:

225 grams of natural no salt peanut butter, room temperature

110 grams of casters sugar

1/3 cup ground flax seed

1 beaten egg

Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF. 

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside. 

I spooned the dough with a dessert teaspoon and then moulded the dough into rounds... no smaller than a walnut however no larger than a golf ball. Gently flattened the rounds with the back of the teaspoon. Bake in the pre-heated 375ºF oven for 9 minutes. 
Remove from oven and gently press the top of each baked cookie with the back of the spatula or fork, this makes the cookies more compact and chewy on the inside when completely cooled. Let the cookies set on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Notes: I baked the first batch for 12 minutes, as the original recipe suggested, and the bottoms burnt therefore I reduced the baking time to 9 minutes and they turned out nicely. Next time, I would like to add some shredded coconut, dried cranberries, dates, apricots, sunflower seeds or oatmeal into the mix. You could refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes before baking, if you prefer. I didn't have to convert the peanut butter and sugar into cups because my lovely husband bought me a great multi weight scale; however in my research I found that 225g approximately equals 8 ounces, 1 cup and 110g approximately equals 4 ounces, 1/2 cup. 

My eye is doing much better. Have a good weekend everyone! - JD