I decided to make a batch of cornbread the other week. I had a bag of Indian Head old fashion stone ground yellow cornmeal in my pantry. The recipe for cornbread was conveniently posted on the back of the packaging. I looked through the ingredients: yellow corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, shortening, milk, and egg. I realized I didn’t have any shortening, milk, or eggs. I decided to make a few substitutes in the ingredients and make a dairy-free, egg-free cornbread.
Tag Archive for 'muffin'
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cup whole wheat cake flour
- 1/4 cup rice flour
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
- cloves
- allspice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup quinoa, cooked* (detailed directions below)
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 2 oz ricotta cheese
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp sugar
Directions:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, rice flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, salt, baking soda, and 1/2 cup of sugar.
- Add the beaten eggs and the pumpkin puree.
- Stir in the cooked quinoa.
- In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, ricotta cheese, vanilla extract, and 1/2 tsp of sugar.
(So, there’s the muffin mixture and the cheese mixture. I thought about simply mixing the two contents together and baking it in muffin molds. I decided not to mix them together, but instead, layer them so that the cheese mixture is in the middle. Therefore, it would taste like cheesecake inside a pumpkin muffin.)
- Transfer the cheese mixture into a plastic sandwich bag. Make a small slit at one of the corners of the sandwich bag. Twist the open end of the bag.
(Now, I have an icing bag.)
- For each muffin cup, spray PAM baking spray (or your choice of no-stick cooking spray). Put a heaping spoon of pumpkin mixture in the bottom. Squeeze some cheese mixture with the icing bag. Top with a smaller spoon of pumpkin mixture. Repeat.
(I sprinkled some crushed almonds and placed a whole almond on top of each piece, as garnish.
- Bake muffins at 350 degrees for about 20-25 mins, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
Here they are!
These muffins were very tasty and moist. They are lightly sweeten. The cheese mixture is not overwhelming. Using both ricotta cheese and cream cheese made the cheese mixture very creamy and light. The combination of cheesecake and pumpkin muffin is great!
Next time, I might try swirling the cheese and pumpkin mixtures together instead of layering them.
* How to cook quinoa:
Prepare the quinoa:
- Soak the quinoa in cold water for at least 15 to 30 minutes, or overnight if desired. Soaking makes the grain tastier and gives it a nutty, light flavor. Without soaking, the grain may be a bit bitter. Soaking helps loosens the outer coating of bitter-tasting saponins. Many commercial quinoa are pre-washed to remove this coating, but giving it an extra rinse helps remove any excess saponin.
- Rinse the quinoa by stirring it with your hand and draining off the water with a fine mesh strainer.
Cook the quinoa:
- Combine 1 part grain and 2 part water in a saucepan.
- Bring to boil.
- Reduce the heat to simmer and cover.
- One cup of quinoa usually takes about 15-20 minutes to cook.
- Remove the quinoa from heat.
- Let it sit for at least 5 minutes.
- Fluff the quinoa with a fork and serve.
Here’s a recipe for delicious pumpkin oatmeal muffins:
Ingredients:
- 1 (18oz) package of yellow cake mix
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp cloves
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 15 oz can pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup milk
- 6 oz plain yogurt
- 4 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 eggs, beaten
Directions:
- In a mixing bowl, combine the following ingredients: yellow cake mix, ground cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
- In a small food processor, combine the pumpkin puree, milk, yogurt, vegetable oil and eggs. Process well until creamy.
- Combine the pumpkin mixture with the dry ingredient mixture. Add oats.
- Slowly mix with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides of the mixing bowl as needed.
- Mix for a couple of minutes.
- Pour mixture into muffin trays/cups.
- Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.
- Let the muffin cool in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.
This recipe makes about 12 muffins. Since I was using a smaller convection oven, I made two batches.
This was my first time using silicone bakeware. These silicone muffin cups definitely have many benefits compared to the alternatives like metal, ceramic, and glass. They are lightweight, flexible, easy to store and easy to clean. They don’t rust and you always don’t have to worry about breaking or cracking it. They bake just as well as the alternatives. You don’t need to spray oil on them.
These pumpkin muffins were absolutely delicious. They were very moist, thanks to the yogurt. They were flavorful and not at all too sugary. The pumpkin and spices made this treat totally delightful. The recipe is simple and pretty easy to make. I can’t wait to make these again!
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