Meyer Lemon Earl Grey Tea Muffins

These Meyer Lemon Earl Grey Tea Muffins are soft, lemony, and irresistible.

Clementine Tea Loaf

It’s clementine season!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Chai Buttercream Frosting, Made More Delicious

I finally upped my pumpkin cheesecake game and arrived at perfection.

Spiced Apple Cider Muffins

These muffins were so popular that I ended up making them three times in a week.

Busy, but baking!

I am still baking every few days, but where are the updates? The photos? The posts? What happened? I confess, I’ve been relying mostly on old favorites, choosing recipes from here that are tried and true. I just made my Honey Tea Bread to bring to a party, along with an extra loaf for everyone […]

Peanut Butter Cocoa Oat Muffins

Easy to whip together and perfect for breakfast.

Banana Yogurt Muffins, once forgotten

My very first original recipe, and still a classic.

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

Light orange, sweet chocolate, and a splash of vanilla make for a breakfast you can look forward to.

More on the way …

I’ve been baking! I promise! Muffins and cookie and loaves, oh my! I’ve been writing other things but this week will come back to the blog, I made some amazing muffins that everybody needs to know about. In the meantime, I’ve also been revisiting certain favorites. Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies Blood Orange Crinkle Cookies […]

Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins

These pumpkin-gingerbread muffins make winter almost bearable.

Whole Wheat Banana Oat Muffins (with Chocolate Chips)

Banana redemption is mine.

Blood Orange Crinkle Cookies

Crispy, tangy, sweet, addictive: these Blood Orange Crinkle Cookies are not to be missed. (But we miss them already, because we ate them.)

Cinnamon-Coconut Cookies with Orchidea Chips: Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap of 2104 inspired these Cinnamon-Coconut Cookies with Orchidea Chips. Plus cookies! In the mail!

Round-up: A Quartet of Pumpkin Recipes

It’s a pumpkin round-up! Muffins, cupcakes, cookies, and the perfect Thanksgiving cheesecake.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These banana chocolate chip muffins were worth the oven confusion.

Cinnamon Apple Cider Muffins

Lightly spiced, definitely tasting more of cider than pure apple, and perfectly sweetened. Another winner.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These gems popped into my Facebook feed on just the right day.

Molasses Bran Spice Muffins

Who ever heard of kids asking for more bran muffins? (I did! Today!)

The Perils of Bloggery, and a Recipe Round-up

Apologies galore, and a recipe round-up to make up for lost time.

Golden Oatmeal Spice Muffins in Silicone Baking Cups: my first product review

I got my very first request for a product review on my blog, right before we left for a family vacation to London & Paris. Exciting! I was asked to review silicone baking cups by Rizzi from The New York Baking Company, and told to be completely honest in my review.

Maple Zucchini Muffins and the Window of Opportunity

These Maple Zucchini Muffins had a very short and specific shelf life. By day 3 they were no good anymore, but for two perfect days, they were glorious.

Chewy Oatmeal Yogurt Bars

Chewy Oatmeal Yogurt Bars with mini cinnamon chips, sweet and substantial, delicious for breakfast or a perfect snack.

You Know You’ve Got A Baking Reputation When Your Friend Sends You This…

Sent to me by Jana Uhrich, the incredibly talented designer behind this very blog.

Mini Banana Maple Muffins

LIttle banana bites with a touch of maple flavor, lovely for guilt-free eating and apparently perfect for trading on the 5th grade snack market.

Vanilla Crunch Muffins

jump to recipe I have been wanting to make these Vanilla Crunch Muffins for ages! I don’t know why I wanted so long. They are sweet, if somewhat sticky, with a lovely coconut crunch on top, and smooth vanilla flavor. A little different from my usual fare. I started by scraping the vanilla bean. Lucky […]

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffins (without Pecans)

jump to recipe These were supposed to have pecans in them, originally, but circumstances forced me to rename them Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffins (without Pecans). The recipe I based them on was called “Pumpkin Pecan Muffins,” but mysteriously,  there weren’t any pecans listed in the ingredients or in the directions. I posted so in the […]

Vanilla Bean Blood Orange Mini Loaves

jump to recipe This recipe for Vanilla Bean Blood Orange Mini Loaves turned into The Great Ingredient Improvisation Experiment. I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I had to wing it a little, and once I was winging it, I started adding in some things too. The results were incontrovertible: a perfect soft crumb, and […]

Sweet Potato Quick Bread

This Sweet Potato Quick Bread made me brave. I am not a fan of sweet potatoes, to put it mildly. Not in a casserole, not by themselves, not mashed, not even fried; I just don’t like them. But when challenged, I was forced to admit that I also don’t like pumpkin, not even pumpkin pie, […]

White House Honey-Oat Muffins

jump to recipe It’s okay to alter a recipe from the White House if you’re Canadian, right? I pinned these White House Honey-Oat Muffins ages ago. I was intrigued by the use of coriander in the recipe; it’s not an ingredient I’ve used before. I gave the jar of coriander a sniff and decided to […]

Fluffy Corn Muffins

Some homemade chicken soup inspired these fluffy corn muffins. Dave spent the whole day making soup, and when we got back from the movies, I decided I’d better whip together something to go with it.

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

These blood orange poppy seed muffins are just a lovely variation on the Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins I’ve been perfecting. The texture, the flavor, everything translates perfectly to the flavor of the blood orange. I don’t really know which is better, just that both are sublime.

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I am unnaturally excited about these Meyer lemon poppy seed muffins.

I’m always looking for a good recipe for such things, and I’m always inundated by recipes that call for a full cup of butter and ridiculous amounts of sugar. Conversely, there are a slew of recipes out there that are “low fat” and “heatlhy” and come out heavy, dense, and stick to the muffin papers. But now, I have found it. THE PERFECT LEMON POPPY MUFFINS! They are here! In my house!

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

jump to recipe I thought I’d run out of variations on a banana theme, but these Whole Wheat Banana Muffins took me by surprise. They taste like the best banana bread, but slightly softer and fluffier as befitting a muffin.  Don’t skimp on the bananas when you make these! This isn’t one of those recipes […]

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies

Here’s what needs to be said about these Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies: if you make these, and give them to people, don’t expect the people to leave unless you send the cookies with them. These cookies are delicious, and addictive, and of course they are, because they are full of brown sugar and butter and will haunt your dreams. They’re soft, chewy, sweet, and utterly delightful. These are fantasy cookies.

Chocolate Cupcake-Muffins

Why are these called Chocolate Cupcake-Muffins? Because they are muffins, and they are cupcakes, and they are delicious. They can be eaten for breakfast or for dessert. They can be eaten plain, or with peanut butter, or with whipped cream frosting. They are made with healthy ingredients like quinoa flour and yogurt, but also required the melting of butter and the adding of cocoa powder. Hence: cupcake-muffins.

Blood Orange Spice Muffins

It took three batches to get these Blood Orange Spice Muffins right. It was a true exploration into the world of muffindom. What makes them tender? What makes them sweet? How can you bring out flavor and play with texture to create something wonderful, and still keep it healthy? Big questions, indeed, and with a good solid year and a half of muffin-making behind me, I decided it was time to be bold and venture where no muffin in my kitchen had gone before: an original recipe from scratch.

Cheddar Herb Bread

I’ve had this Cheddar Herb bread on my Pinterest board for over a year, believe it or not. Worth the wait? Sure. But why wait? This bread is easy to whip together, and wonderfully flavorful, a nice savory treat for a change. It paired perfectly with Dave’s homemade chicken soup.

Mini Chocolate Doughnut Muffins

Mini Chocolate Doughnut Muffins for a snow day, that’s what these were. The kids went back to school on January 2nd, and by the 3rd they already had a day off, thanks to an insane amount of snow. We seized the moment, slept in, and then it was time for breakfast. I decided to skip the glaze so these not-unhealthy treats wouldn’t venture into dessert territory.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Bread

I devoured this loaf greedily, mostly because the soft crumb made it among the nicest baked goods ever to come out of my kitchen. It’s a little taste of what pumpkin bread heaven must be like. To quote Dale Cooper, “This must be where pies go when they die.” Trade in the pie for some cinnamon pumpkin bread and I’m right on the same page.

Healthy Banana Oat Muffins

I really have to pick up the pace on my blogging. I made these Healthy Banana Oat Muffins weeks ago, and they are SO delicious and breakfasty and good to eat that I feel like a jerk for not making them available to you sooner. A jerk, I am! But maybe this is better, a little post-Christmas healthy baked good to rescue you from cookie overdose.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies

I am usually all about healthy baking, but the truth must be faced, and embraced: it’s Cookie Season. It’s cold outside, the kids have a lot of time off, and on a fall-that-feels-like-winter afternoon, these Big Soft Ginger Cookies seem wonderfully inevitable.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Mini Muffins

They’re funny-looking little things, aren’t they? Don’t be deceived. These Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Mini Muffins are deliciously addictive, supplying decadence to the tastebuds without contributing to your food guilt.

Molasses-Orange Cookies with Espresso Glaze

I invented a cookie!

Grandma’s Molasses was having a recipe contest, and since I’ve never created my very own cookie recipe before, I seized the moment, thought about flavors, and then inspired by my previous experiment with Orange Mocha Muffins, I created these Molasses-Orange Cookies with Espresso Glaze. Why not?

Chocolate Coconut Espresso Cookies (with Cappuccino Chips)

These weren’t JUST particularly spectacular cookies.

Yes, being Chocolate Coconut Espresso Cookies, they were destined to be delicious, and when I swapped out the chocolate chips for cappuccino chips they went all the way to sublime. But these were special cookies — not in an afterschool special kind of way — because I made them for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Carrot Cake Muffins

Usually when I see a recipe for Carrot Cake Muffins, there’s a lot more emphasis on the cake than the carrots, which means it’s more about dessert than breakfast. (Yes, most carrot cake is so good because it’s filled with butter and sugar!) But these were also called “Healthy Applesauce Carrot Muffins”, and I knew with some slight adjustments I could do something interesting with them. And so I did. They came out great. Flavorful, fluffy, and worthy of the carrot cake name without the carrot cake decadence. The spices are balanced perfectly and these muffins make breakfast worth celebrating.

Round-up: Unfortunate Loaves, Cinnamon Snails, and a fun Bread Baking Class

I had fun, despite my type A team member, and I stuffed myself with bread and packed up the leftovers. The teacher, who was wonderful, seemed to think he was doing us a favor by ending the class early, but I would have happily stayed another hour or two to bake more. I don’t feel ready to take on bread-baking at home, exactly, but I got a handle on kneading, which is a good start. And I tested two new quick bread recipes that weren’t very good, and I am ready to teach Advanced Cinnamon Snails. I celebrate my accomplishments where I can.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Pumpkin Bread, and guest bakers!

It was a beautiful, perfect, delicious bread, and a perfectly wonderful baking day. I had guest bakers! Meet Tracy and Antonia. Left to my own devices, I would have reduced or eliminated the chocolate chips, but Antonia & Tracy are huge chocolate fans and I wanted them to leave with their taste buds singing.

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins (with a kick)

I had to try making these. The minute I saw this recipe and its combination of pumpkin, sharp cheddar cheese, and cayenne and black pepper, I was caught in its spell and was just counting the days until I could sink my baking teeth into it.

My eating teeth, too. These muffins turned out great. They’re completely different from anything I’ve made before. The combination of the sweet pumpkin, the sharp cheddar, and the kick from the pepper that comes in as you’re finishing each bite is unique and irresistible. It’s like the gum that Violet Beauregarde steals from Willy Wonka’s factory: it’s almost a complete meal.

Root Beer Layer Cake with Cream Soda Frosting

Happy birthday, Nathaniel! My boy turned ten last week. TEN!

But let’s skip the sentimentality — because once it starts, it won’t stop — and jump right in to the cake. (If you ate, you’d definitely want to jump right into it too.) I asked Nathaniel what sort of cake he wanted, nervously remembering last year’s post-hurricane ginormous Devil’s Food Cake, and he didn’t take long to decide: he wanted the cupcakes his dad got for his birthday, but in layer cake form. So. . .root beer layer cake. With cream soda frosting. Right.

Banana Bran Muffins with Mini Chocolate Chips

These were a lovely surprise.

I hadn’t done a banana-bran combination before. Well, sort of. I’d tried these Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins but that was oat bran instead of wheat bran and they didn’t have real flour in them and while some people liked them, I wouldn’t make them again. So they don’t count.

But I had some brown bananas sitting around, even after making my Chai Spiced Banana Muffins, and I had a hankering for something new. I also had some buttermilk to use up, and liked that this recipe looked pretty healthy but still adaptable, plus it looked like I’d get some mini muffins out of the deal as well, which are always fun.

Chai Spiced Banana Muffins

I made the unfortunate choice of bright yellow muffin papers, which cast a bit of a sickly glow in my photos, but the muffins themselves were delicious. The chai spices combined beautifully with the banana, and the shredded coconut, while it didn’t impact the flavor much, added a soft crunch without detracting from the fluffy, moist texture.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

This edition of Baking Adventure in a Messy Kitchen will heretofore be known as. . . The Flattening.

I don’t know why these mini muffins turned out so flat. The photos on the original recipe look lovely, with tiny, cute puffy little muffins perched on a tea towel. Mine came out flat as pancakes on top, almost as if I wanted them that way. Oh wait! Yeeah, I WANTED them that way. Flat muffins. Who doesn’t want flat muffins?

Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

Sometimes, the kids need cookies.

They are often interested in the muffins or the quick breads, Nathaniel more so than Juliet, and they expect the steady flow of them to keep coming. But then there are just those aha! moments when I realize that they DESERVE cookies. At this point it gets challenging because Juliet doesn’t like chocolate chips, at least not in anything homemade, and if I make peanut butter cookies, which she does love, I will probably eat them all before anybody else is smart enough to hide them. And thus, these Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies stepped in to fulfill the need, more perfectly than I’d hoped.

I made them big, because big cookies are fun, and I only made them a wee bit healthier than the original recipe, just because I can’t help myself.

Gingerbread Muffins

Cakey gingerbread muffins for breakfast? Yes!

I really was sure it was going to be one of those other recipes, and then suddenly I was standing in the kitchen looking at a gingerbread muffins recipe. How it happened, I don’t know exactly. I’m glad it did, though, because they are cakey and delicious and I feel happier when I bite into them than I did the moment before.

Spiced Honey Pumpkin Bread

If you’re looking for a decadent, sugary pumpkin bread for dessert, this isn’t it.

If you’re looking for a gently spiced, not-too-sweet pumpkin bread for breakfast or a snack that warms you up from the inside out, you’ve found it. I like this bread but given the abundance of sugar in most pumpkin-based baked goods, you do have to know before your first bite that this is going to be a little different. On its second or third day it hits a beautiful peak of flavor, when the honey and the spices and the pumpkin coalesce into smooth perfection.

Pumpkin Bran Muffins with Mini Cinnamon Chips

It was time to get back into the healthy swing, after whipping up requested decadent treats like Butterscotch Brownies and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Still on a pumpkin kick, I went digging through my Pinterest board to see what might strike my baking fancy. Sometimes I’m in the market for a great, unique recipe, and sometimes I just want something I can play with. This one fell into the “play with” category, and play with it I did, for the betterment of muffinkind.

Almond Butter Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

My mission: almond butter.

Why? Because my friend (and former co-worker) Tracy wanted something with almond butter, and she waited patiently week after week as I churned out muffin after muffin, loaf after loaf, all almond butter-free. Tracy has been the most loyal of baking fans and makes me feel like everything that comes out of my kitchen is a gift, so when I saw this recipe for Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips, I fought my peanut butter-loving instincts and decided to make the swap and grant my chocolate-and-pumpkin-loving friend her much-deserved wish.

Butterscotch Brownies

These brownies were a great lesson. I now know that if we find ourselves with unexpected company, I can whip together an amazing dessert without a trip to the grocery store or an abundance of time. And this hypothetical company is in luck, because these brownies are absolutely delicious. They’re sweet, fudgy in texture, and bursting with butterscotch flavor, real butterscotch, because it comes from butter and brown sugar instead of a Hershey’s bag.

Espresso Spice Pumpkin Muffins, take two

It’s pumpkin season!

Okay, all the other baking blogs are way ahead of me, but I’m a bit of a late bloomer. I’m okay with that, I’ve had years to get used to it. We won’t even talk about what all the boys used to call me before I got boobs.

Wait, what are we talking about? Muffins! We’re talking about muffins. And these particular muffins are the ultimate breakfast, supplying you with very basic morning nutrition: wheat, fruit, dairy, and caffeine.

Apple Butter Spice Muffins

While my taste buds will never accept a muffin with fruit pieces in it — I remember trying this applesauce cake well over a year ago and not liking it — I took a risk on these apple butter muffins, intrigued.

It was a risk worth taking: the results were lovely. Spiced, flavorful, slightly sticky breakfast muffins. Welcome, fall. Welcome, change.

Maple Vanilla Muffins

I know, I know. It’s fall, and I’m supposed to be baking with pumpkin or apples, and instead I’m pretending it’s spring and making maple treats. But I got lured in by the fact that this recipe called for non-standard ingredients like vanilla bean and coconut oil, and I already had both of them on hand; I’ve come a long way from the days when I had to check to see if I had baking powder before I made anything. Plus the photos on the blog where I found this recipe are inspiringly gorgeous, making the already delicious-sounding combination completely irresistible.

Maple Snickerdoodles

While everyone else has already jumped aboard the pumpkin train, I decided to pay homage to my Canadian roots and make maple snickerdoodles. (For William Shatner! And Dan Aykroyd! None for you, Celine Dion.)

I combed the web looking for recipes, and finally settled on this version, because it made MORE maple snickerdoodles, which seemed more enticing than fewer snickerdoodles. (And I’ve just learned that typing the word snickerdoodle is even more cumbersome than saying it.)

In addition to your regular anycookie sort of ingredients, I assembled some specialty items:

Apple Cider Mini Donuts

Fall is upon us. . .at least in the mornings.

It’s been super cold here in the morning, so it’s jackets and maybe even a scarf when we leave the house, and then the heat kicks in and by afternoon everyone who isn’t in shorts feels like an idiot. So Fall is whispering at us, maybe, and when the kids went gaga over the apple cider donuts at Stew Leonard’s, I decided it was time to for the first treat of the season.

Orange Mocha Muffins

Redemption.

The last two baked goods that came out of my kitchen were substandard, for sure. Not enough flavor, heavy, arduous texture, and especially disappointing because one came right on the heels of the other. But today things turned around at last, courtesy of these lovely. fluffy, flavor-filled orange mocha muffins.

Coconut Oat Muffins

I had high hopes for these.

Coconut is delicious, oats are comforting, and the last recipe I used from this site was the innovative and wonderful Root Beer Cupcakes with Cream Soda Frosting creation I made for Dave’s birthday. Seemed like an automatic win.

Maple Oat Quick Bread

jump to recipe I finally got the chance to use my mini food processor prep thingy! It’s blue. It’s also nice and small, and it doesn’t daunt me the way a full-size food processor does. A real one involves lots of digging in the back of the cupboard, and searching for parts, and wondering how […]

Zucchini Spice Muffins

These muffins are magical.

I don’t know who Kathie is, but I started with her recipe, played with it here and there, and created something exquisite. Everything came together in perfect balance, in both flavor and texture. I’m going to try to recreate these because I have to find out if it was a fluke or if there really is such a thing as muffin perfection.

Healthy Dark Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

This recipe called out to me but it took a while for me to heed the call.

First of all, it was based on a recipe by Marcus Samuelsson, whose memoir Yes, Chef was a recent and engaging, fascinating, inspiring, and delicious read. I’ve never tried any of his recipes before, and I had actually pinned this one a few weeks ago. But then I saw this version of it, which seemed to preserve the general nature of it but healthed it up a bit, finding alternatives to the sugar (which I would simply have reduced) as well as the oil.

Spicy Orange Bran Muffins

I didn’t actually think they were that spicy, to be honest. Maybe they should be called Spiced Orange Bran Muffins instead, because it’s the orange that gives them the zing and then there’s a little pop of the spices to accompany it. I also just discovered (with a mouthful of muffin as I type) that they taste great with a bit of melting peanut butter on them.

Zucchini Chocolate Coconut Muffins

Pretty, they’re not.

Delicious, they are. And then some. They’re bursting with chocolate and coconut with just a touch of cinnamon, and not a whisper of zucchini hits the taste buds. Amazing.

I confess that I was very, very nervous while I was making them. I changed so many elements of this recipe that I had no idea if I was going to be elated by success or depressed by failure, and then have to go hungry as well. But sometimes a baker has to take a few chances.

Skinny Chocolate Fudge Banana Muffins

Ignore the word “skinny”. Really. Because these taste anything but skinny. They taste FAT in the most delightful way. Fat with chocolate flavor. Fat with cakey texture. Fat with desserty joy.

And yet they are skinny too. Low fat, Weight Watchers-friendly, and full of healthy ingredients like wheat germ, yogurt, bananas, and whole wheat white flour. They have chocolate chips too, of course, but that’s okay. It’s all about balance. And deliciousness. These muffins have that in abundance.

Peanut Butter Protein Muffins

I’m always looking for more peanut butter recipes; anything that focuses in on peanut butter without becoming a Weight Watchers points nightmare piques my interest. So even though these were called Peanut Butter Protein Muffins, which meant that something was being prioritized along with flavor, I gave them a shot. Peanut butter does that to me. I would follow it almost anywhere.

Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

jump to recipe Everyone loved these. I thought they were just okay, but everyone I work with went nuts for them and kept coming back to ask if there were any left long after the last one had disappeared. So I’d consider that a hit. And they’re awfully good for you. They started with zucchini. […]

Peachy Keen Muffins (with Poppy Seeds)

I had to try one more time. I want a peach muffin without peach pieces, is that so wrong?

Well, it may not be wrong, but I still haven’t achieved it. Not that these muffins are anything but sweet and delicious and good for you, they’re actually quite wonderful. Fluffy, flavorful, sweet, with a nice little crunch from the poppy seeds, a last-minute addition. And they actually do have a hint, a wee whisper, of peach taste. So while I love them and plan to make them again, they are not the peach muffin I’ve been seeking. (“These aren’t the peach muffins you’re looking for,” said the Jedi master.)

They taste damned good, though.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

I had no idea you could make cookies without flour that aren’t disgusting. Seriously! I see these recipes all the time and they make me suspicious. And I don’t have any health issues with flour or reasons to avoid it; I am more than pro-gluten, I am a gluten advocate. EAT MORE GLUTEN.

But this recipe looked really good, despite the absence of flour, and I don’t like to give up on big ideas until I’ve given them a good go. And I don’t think these cookies are gluten-free anyway, since apparently there can be gluten in oats. Gluten schmuten, these cookies are deliciously satisfying, full of rich peanut butter flavor, and crumbly in a rather delightful way. The mini chocolate chips don’t hurt the cause either. And yet they’re still pretty good for you, or at least not terribly bad for you. That’s what makes them breakfast cookies.

Maple Oatmeal Muffins

I’m back on the healthy muffin train. I was trying to come with something new to try for breakfast when I found this gem hiding at the bottom of one of my Pinterest boards. Being Canadian, I was drawn to this one by forces beyond my control.

It’s hard to believe that all the sweetness in these muffins comes from maple syrup. They’re just sweet and dessert-y and full of flavor and still healthy, without a grain of sugar added. Maple syrup rocks. (Did I mention I’m Canadian?)

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies for Juliet’s birthday

It was Juliet’s 6th birthday last week so I sat her down with my iPad and we went through one of my Pinterest boards so she could pick out something special. She knows what she likes, that’s for sure, and once she saw heart-shaped peanut butter sandwich cookies, the searching stopped. I kept thinking she’d want a cake of some kind, but Juliet didn’t care about that. Like me, she loves her peanut butter.

Honey Tea Bread

I’ve been wanting to try making this recipe for weeks, but first I had to use up the carrots, zucchini, and bananas that were sitting around. Finally I ran out of everything, and felt it was morally okay to proceed. (I hate wasting food, okay?)

I had a feeling this bread was going to be something special and I was right. The texture is soft and perfect, reminding me of that Chai Tea Bread I enjoy so much. And it’s sweetened with honey; not a grain of sugar passed through my hands.

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins, new & improved

I already liked my carrot oatmeal muffins. A lot. But it’s been a while since I made them, and I decided it was time to see if I could make them even better. And I did!

Baked Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donuts

The kids needed donuts. They did! I was just doing what my conscience dictated when I whipped up a batch. I was fulfilling a moral obligation. Really.

Washington DC

We spent four full days in DC, with some good meals and some bad ones, some fun treats in between, and far too many chicken fingers. I didn’t always remember to take pictures of our meals, but I did my best. What can I say? I was on vacation.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread (two misses and a hit)

Finally!

This delicious, satisfying chocolate zucchini bread came on the heels of two very unfortunate baking experiments, and a last-minute mishap to boot.

Failure #1: I tried to make a zucchini bread without chocolate chips or cocoa powder. Now I know that it’s possible to make a good spiced zucchini bread, but the recipe I tried did not generate one.

Peach Poppy Seed Muffins (take 2)

These look better, don’t they?

I’m still on a peach muffin mission, but before I tried a new recipe I wanted to go back to this one and get it right. That meant:

A. using properly ripened peaches
B. mixing peach puree with baking soda to get it foamy
C. not accidentally mish-moshing two recipes together

I succeeded on all three counts. These muffins came out a little fluffier, a little prettier, and a little more delicious, but I have to be honest: I still don’t really taste a whole lotta peach. Still, I’ve had trouble holding on to them, as the kids love them and so does everybody else.

Mocha Banana Bread

Love this twist on a traditional banana bread. Next time I’ll push it even more and up the cocoa powder and the espresso, but even as is it was full of flavor and made for a nice spin on a familiar treat.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

These muffins are wonderful. The amount of chocolate chips was just right, the sweetness balanced beautifully with the spices, the crumb was soft and fluffy, and the zucchini provided moisture and nutrition without ever rearing its ugly head into the flavor. A gem, this one. I feel like these muffins are helping me slowly inch towards a zucchini bread without cocoa powder. Perhaps I am beginning to understand the powers of the humble zucchini

Peach Poppy Seed Muffins (take 1)

I have been on a quest: the quest for a peach muffin. To reiterate what I’ve expressed in this blog multiple times, I do not like pieces of fruit in my baked goods. I don’t make or eat blueberry muffins, apple pies, cobblers, or cookies with raisins in them. But I love the taste of the fruit, so as long as the texture is pure crumb, I am happy.

I also love using seasonal ingredients, when I can. Last winter I specialized in Meyer lemons and blood oranges, and now it’s summer so I’ve been making zucchini chocolate treats and have been trying to do something with peaches. I love peaches! I found some lovely peach-ginger tea that worked well in muffins, but I wanted to try using fresh peaches.

Soft & Thick Snickerdoodle Cookies

jump to recipe When you need to whip together some crowd pleasing cookies, this is a perfect go-to recipe. They’re sweet, cinnamon-y, puffy and soft, satisfyingly filling, and don’t have any objectionable ingredients. I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like snickerdoodle cookies. Of course I’m not a purist about such things, so when […]

One Banana Banana Bread (made with two bananas)

And then I remembered the recipe I’d seen a while back for One Banana Banana Bread. Yes! Since Pinterest finally allows you to search your own pins, it was easy enough to find the recipe, and reassure myself that all was going to go well in bananaland.

Peach Muffins

These didn’t turn out quite the way I’d hoped. I’ve been wanting to make peach muffins for a while, a muffin that would be all crumb but would be full of flavor from pureed fresh peaches. So I started with a Strawberry Mini Muffins recipe I’d made not that long ago and adapted as I […]

Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Cake

It’s zucchini season! And that means it’s chocolate season too. (It’s not wabbit season, though.)

I’ve had my eye on this healthy chocolate zucchini cake recipe for a while because it has cardamom in it, which piqued my interest. So I gave it a go.

Peach Ginger Tea Muffins with Lemon

A few weeks ago, I picked up some peach-ginger tea at an interesting little spice store in Sayville. We were on our way to Fire Island, but had some time to kill before the ferry came, so we stopped in town to get some coffee (for us) and some treats (for the kids) and when I spotted the gourmet store next to it, I couldn’t resist. I’ve had it in my mind to bake with that tea for the last few weeks, but I couldn’t decide exactly how. And then I remembered my Lemon-Ginger Tea Muffins, and thought I could use that as my base.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

What to make, what to make…I really wanted to try something new with the 3 revoltingly overripe bananas in my kitchen. And I was in a hurry because I picked up a new laptop this morning so I could blog more portably, so I wanted something simple. I struck banana gold with this one, because it IS simple, and straightforward, and delicious. Perfect amount of oats, flour, and buttermilk to create a soft but solid texture, bursting with banana flavor.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Flower muffin! I was out of breakfast muffins and needed to whip something together that looked easy and quick, and this fit the bill: Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins. The chocolate chips came from me. First I had to soak the oats in buttermilk for half an hour, which gave me enough time to clear some more […]

Carrot Tea Cake with Oat Crumb Topping

This tea cake is so delicious that I made another one three days after making the first one, and the only reason I waited so long is because we were away for the weekend.

The cake itself is warm with spices, and the topping adds a crunchy sweetness to every bite. It’s a magical combination. Hard to believe it starts out with something as mundane as a cup of shredded carrots.

Low Fat Coffee Cake Muffins

jump to recipe I was in a state when I made these. It was the evening before a Day of Many Mishaps, and I think these are where it all started. Funny thing is, the muffins actually came out great, but the making of them was fraught with unnecessary difficulty, mood swings, and the lunacy […]

Cinnamon Graham Banana Bread

jump to recipe I know I have a pretty good banana bread recipe, but this one is sublime. And it comes with cinnamon glaze. I’m not surprised it’s so delicious, since I found the recipe on Tutti Dolci, plus it gave me a chance to use more of the graham flour I bought a while […]

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Cookies

It was the 4th of July, and the kids deserved cookies. And when we were in Pennsylvania, I’d picked up something intriguing called “butterscotch peanut butter”, and I thought that would make for an interesting variation. I was right! These are terrific. Sweet, nutty, crunchy, and crumbly.

Strawberry Mini Muffins

Strawberry mini muffins? Please keep in mind that I am known as She Who Hates Fruit In Muffins. Really. I don’t eat blueberry muffins, cranberry muffins, raisin muffins, or any sort of fruit pie or cobbler. I do not like them, Sam I Am.

Pennsylvania: Breakfast Heaven & Hobo Lunch Blues

Every year when school ends, we take a trip to Pennsylvania to stay at the magnificent Mussers’ Bed & Breakfast.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Another win for the peanut butter team! These Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins are delicious, good for you, and hunger-satisfying in the best way.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Muffins

jump to recipe Do you like cinnamon? These are a lovely treat for the cinnamon-lover, and no doubt a nightmare for the cinnamon-hater. Cinnamon muffins with cinnamon chips, and full of healthy ingredients like whole wheat white flour, wheat germ, applesauce, and Greek yogurt. Delicious! It was also a very easy recipe to whip together, […]

Mini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I thought I had the banana muffin market cornered, but these are just as good as mine and come in mini form! The recipe for these mini banana chocolate chip muffins had unusual instructions, and specific directions, and I obeyed all with success. I changed a few things in the recipe, and got great results: a moist, flavorful, fun mini muffin, popular with all who tasted.

Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins

Gluten-free is not for me. I suppose the gluten-free crowd might appreciate these, but only because they’re used to eating muffins made without flour. Me? I’m a gluten-lover. Bring on the wheat! These have good flavor but the texture is a complete disappointment. I thought they’d be interesting, but alas, they are not. The good […]

Honey Orange Oat Bran Muffins

jump to recipe These turned out great! I could have just added some orange zest to one of my existing bran muffin recipes, but I like to keep trying new things, plus it’s been a while since I baked with oat bran instead of wheat bran. The results did not disappoint. This is a tasty […]

Root Beer Cupcakes with Cream Soda Frosting

Happy birthday Dave! Time for root beer cupcakes with cream soda frosting!

The week of his birthday, I sat my lovely husband down and showed up the recipes I’d been pinning for him. He’s a vanilla guy, so I walked him through vanilla layer cakes & pound cakes and something called “fudgy vanilla brownies”. He brought up the 2nd-prize-winning Toffee Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Caramel Sauce and Sea Salt, as well as my mom’s classic recipe for blonde brownies. And then we got to the root beer cupcakes, and the decision-making suddenly got a whole lot easier.

Peanut Butter Muffins

If you love peanut butter, then you love these muffins, whether you know it now or not.

(I love peanut butter.)

They’re not healthy breakfast muffins, though. They’re dessert-y, peanut butter fantasy muffins. And they’re very easy to make.

Espresso Muffins with Peanut Butter Chips

I found a recipe for low fat Mocha Chocolate Chip Muffins, and in a fit of I’m still not sure what, I turned them into Espresso Muffins with Peanut Butter Chips, and they are full of dark espresso cakey goodness.

Baked Apple Cider Donuts

Friday was National Donut Day. So I made donuts. I also needed some baked goods to take to photography class, and I figured we could use some interesting shapes. I had mini muffins and a small loaf, so I decided on donuts to round things out. Round things out! Get it? Sigh. I do have […]

Honey Whole Wheat Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I already have some tried and true bran muffin recipes, but I had the itch to try something new and Nathaniel had the itch to grate nutmeg, so we scratched our itches together. While I toasted the walnuts, he got to work. (This blog doesn’t have the subtitle “in a perpetually messy […]

Peanut Butter and Banana Bread

jump to recipe This was one of those nights when I had a non-specific baking itch. I had no idea how to channel the whisking urge until I spotted the overripe bananas on the counter, then this recipe from Delish leapt out at me. Who was I to argue with a leaping recipe and some […]

Orange Oat Muffins

These muffins are such a nice little surprise!

I’ve been feeling the loss of the great blood oranges of the season, but now I know the joys of a regular (non-blood!) orange muffin too. Phew! These are lovely. Nathaniel says it’s like drinking orange juice while you’re eating a muffin, and I agree. (I think my son would be a great food critic; he told me tonight as we were watching Chopped that he’d be a good judge on that show. Given how specific his reviews of my baking are, I believe he’s right.)

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins (“Skinny”!)

I have tasted the magnificence that is a “skinny” double chocolate chip muffin, and I’ve personally witnessed all the ingredients that went into them. I alone can vouch for the seemingly impossible truth: these healthy muffins taste like decadent brownies. For real. And I’ve already made them twice, so I know it wasn’t just a fluke.

Baked Vanilla Donuts

The kids needed donuts. We ran out of Eggo waffles a few days ago and I kept saying I’d get to the store to get more but I hadn’t had a chance, so to make it up to them, I offered to make something for for breakfast. “Donuts!” they cried. They wanted the mini donuts, […]

Baking Class: Ratios

I went to a baking class today! The class was based on Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio, and we all got a copy of it to take home. It was called “Baking with Ratios not Recipes” and was a lot of fun. We started with eggs and sugar. Not those eggs. Those are the whites and the […]

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Bread

jump to recipe I had the last blood oranges of the season, and I wanted to make sure that whatever I baked would be worthy of them, so I adapted this wonderful lemon poppy seed bread recipe from amyBITES and hoped for the best. I’d already adapted it VERY slightly to make Meyer Lemon Poppy […]

Golden Oatmeal Spice Muffins

Soft and fluffy muffins, moist without being dense, and full of the beautifully intermingled mix of the spices I’ve used, with a little sweetness from the vanilla.

Peanut Butter Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I wasn’t sure how things were going to go with these.  I got brave and decided to swap out some of the flour for wheat germ (as my current obsession dictates) and I added some vanilla, and what I ended up with, to my delight, was not only a light airy delicious […]

Lemon Yogurt Muffins

I’m blogging these for the sake of…education, I guess. I didn’t love these. The texture lacked that fluffiness I like in a lemon muffin, and the flavor was okay but not really enough to make up for it. Maybe a more seasoned baker can take a look and let me know what I did wrong. […]

Wheat Germ Bread

I know, it doesn’t sound tasty, does it? Wheat Germ Bread. Wheat Germ Bread? How is a person supposed to get excited about that? Well, taste it. Because once you taste it, you’ll get it, and once you find out how easy it is to make, you’ll make it, and once you start eating it, […]

Chocolate and Cinnamon Chip Espresso Oat Muffins

jump to recipe I won’t pretend they’re pretty, but they sure are delicious. This is a grown-up sort of muffin. The espresso flavor is strong, the oats give the muffins a density that makes them nice and filling, and the only real sweetness comes from the chips. So don’t make these for kids and expect […]

Cinnamon Molasses Muffins

jump to recipe If you like molasses, these are the muffins for you. They’re definitely a little intense. You could un-intense them successfully, I think, by substituting half the molasses for honey, but I found that people really liked the depth of flavor i these and I was surprised by how quickly they were gobbled […]

Blood Orange Wheat Germ Muffins

Blood Orange Wheat Germ Muffins. They taste SO good, full of orange flavor, contained in this wonderfully textured, soft, substantial muffiny package.

Blood Orange Tea Muffins (mini)

A while back I made some delicious Meyer Lemon Tea Muffins, only I didn’t realize they were supposed to be mini muffins so I only ended up with 9 of them. Since they were delicious, I decided to give them another shot, this time using blood oranges instead of lemons. And behold: mini muffins. Delicious, soft, fluffy blood orange tea muffins.

Oatmeal Cookie Muffins with Cappuccino Chips

jump to recipe Let’s just say that these live up to their name. They stick to the paper a little bit, but what’s a little paper when you’re devouring a sweet delicious healthy muffin full of cappuccino chips? A minor inconvenience. I made some modifications to the recipe, starting with replacing a little bit of […]

Chai Spiced Vanilla Bean Muffins

Wonderful. A complex, layered flavor, the chai and vanilla. The chai is what lingers on your tongue afterwards, but the vanilla brings sweetness and smoothness to it.

Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Sometimes an ingredient shortage can work in your favor. For want of a few more blood oranges, some Meyer lemons were used, and born out of the uncertainty of that unusual pairing, some poppy seeds were added. Thus, a brand new muffin emerged, and a very delicious one at that.

My intention was simply to make another batch of blood orange muffins, based on my very slight adaptation of a recipe I’ve used before. I started squeezing the blood oranges, noting how much more juice I was getting from each one since I was using a plastic juicer as opposed to just squeezing by hand. But then when I had squeezed the last one out, I looked at my measuring cup and I only had just over 3/4 of a cup. Disaster!

I didn’t want to throw away the juice, or risk having it go bad if I stored it, since I didn’t know when I’d be able to get more blood oranges. So I got creative: I decided to top off it off with Meyer lemon juice. Risky, I know. Bold, even. I am normally neither risky nor bold, but this was a baking emergency. I took out the lemons, and squeezed out enough to make a full cup of juice.

Blood Orange Pound Cake

jump to recipe I finally fixed the white balance on my camera. (Apologies for the previous two non-white-balanced blog entries.) I also found blood oranges at our local grocery store. I celebrated these events by baking with the oranges and taking pictures of the results. I thought it might be fun to take one of […]

Honey Pumpkin Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I still had the white balance settings wrong for this entire batch of photos and it’s annoying me because these muffins were really delicious and you can’t even see their true beauty. Trust me, they looked lovely. I found these in the bottom depths of one of my Pinterest boards. Sometimes I […]

Banutter Bites

jump to recipe I invented these. I had some overripe bananas, which I had to protect with a label or our cleaning lady would have thrown them away: I also had an itch to do something new, a craving for peanut butter (which is really just status quo around here, “around here” being inside my […]

Peanut Butter Cookies

Sometimes, in the middle of all the healthy baking, it’s time to make something for the kids. They put up with the bran stuff and the pumpkin whatnot for a while, but they’ve become pretty blasé about all the (what I think are) goodies coming out of the kitchen. So this past weekend, I asked […]

Pumpkin Muffins, made over and still delicious

jump to recipe I’ve made these before, but I put a spin on them this time: I wanted to know if I could make them healthier without compromising on deliciousness. And the answer: a resounding yes. I’ve been looking for a formula for a long time that would cover how to add flax and wheat […]

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Quick Bread

I made this one night last week, when I wanted something hearty and robust and satisfying but not sweet and dessert-y. I know, that sounds weird. But I was after something that would ground me a little. And thus I made this delightful bread. I started with whole wheat pastry flour, which always makes me […]

Coconut Banana Bread

Coconut banana bread, who knew? I had many doubts about this one as I was making it and AGAIN messed up with something egg-related (see Cocoa Banana Yogurt Muffins for another egg near miss) but but in the end, it turned out great and was also immensely popular.

Cocoa Banana Yogurt Muffins (a Laurie original)

jump to recipe Yesterday, I played with my tried-and-true banana yogurt muffin recipe to see if I could add in some cocoa powder without ruining it. I’ve also been playing with my camera. My photography class started yesterday, and I got cocky and started shooting on manual, which turned out to be something of a […]

Maple Pumpkin Mini Muffins

These have been on my to-try list for months. I’m so glad I finally made them! They taste far too delicious to be as healthy as they are, too. And the timing is good, I’m back on Weight Watchers and these puppies are only ONE P+ each. And they are treats you can have for […]

Malted Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I’ve made these before — they’re Dave’s favorites. But I made them again, with some small alterations, because the kids have both just had ear infections and they felt these would help. And why not? The tricky part, though, is that Juliet doesn’t really like chocolate chips. She likes chocolate kisses, or chocolate that comes […]

Meyer Lemon Yogurt Muffins

These were…meh. The flavor came through nicely after the muffins had been sitting for a day, and the texture settled a little, but spectacular they were not. I was going to make mini muffins as the recipe suggested, but I had these beautiful, spring-themed muffin papers that Marcie bought for me and I thought lemon […]

Oatmeal Muffins

jump to recipe These are delightful. I took a very basic, healthy recipe that I found on food.com, read the reviews, made it mine, and created deliciousness. If I achieve nothing else over the weekend, at least there’s that. I kept very little of the original, but I started out exactly as directed, by letting […]

I Miss My Yoga Teacher Muffins — Honey Sage Corn Muffins

Not only are these pretty tasty, they were made in honor of one of my yoga teachers, Nancy, who I have been missing terribly since they changed things up at the studio I go to and she doesn’t teach there anymore. I loved her class, and I miss her teaching as well as her company. […]

Peanut Butter Pound Cake

This was my birthday cake. This was one of the most decadent things I’ve ever made. This was also the best cake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I may have to make it again next year. It started with two sticks of butter. Then, the first two cups of sugar. (The first two, […]

Salted Espresso Oatmeal Cookies

I’ve made these before, but this time I added a twist. I made them at Christmas, and instead of using regular chocolate chips I used Christmas-colored red & green chips, but this time I really took these to another level flavor-wise by substituting half of the chocolate chips for cappuccino chips, freshly arrived from the […]

Carrot Bran Muffins

jump to recipe These muffins. These muffins! The fact that they are so healthy and good for you makes no sense with how delicious they taste. And I took a risk with these, changing the recipe mid-process, on a whim. A crazy, carrot- bran whim! I never knew there was such a thing. Once the […]

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

I’ve decided that there’s a property peculiar to baked goods with blood oranges in them: it’s all about the second bite. Just like the Blood Orange Muffins I’ve made before, the first bite is a little confusing to the palate, but the second one rolls in all the flavor and goodness the muffin has to […]

Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies

I know, there’s been a lot of citrus lately. I feel desperate to play with Meyer lemons and blood oranges while they’re still around, plus it helps remind me that spring is coming, despite the really weird snowfall we had yesterday. Full confession: before I made these, I tried to make some kind of low […]

Pumpkin Espresso Bread

Another home run. Make this bread right now. I mean it. It couldn’t be easier and your taste buds will thank you, as will anyone else who gets a bite. I brought some of this to work with me and had someone come back for thirds. Who says you have to wait for fall to bake with pumpkin?

And the topping…to think I almost didn’t include it. How dumb that would have been. The bread is a wonder unto itself but the topping adds a bit of crunchy magic. I made a few changes to the recipe, but the credit really belongs to a beautiful blog called Pastry Affair that gave me reason #85279 to love Pinterest and the internet.

Greek Yogurt and Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins

jump to recipe These are insane. Now they’re not crazily low fat or anything, but they’re not anywhere near as decadent as they taste, and the flavor combination in these muffins is absolutely exquisite. Semi-sweet chocolate, turbinado sugar, espresso powder, and a hint of orange come together to create some sort of flavor perfection that […]

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Oatmeal Muffins

These muffins surprised me. The batter didn’t seem as thick as it should be, and the night I made them, I tried one and it stuck so much to the paper that it wasn’t worth the effort of prying it loose. But then I tried one the next morning for breakfast, and it was actually […]

Mini Meyer Lemon Bundt Cakes

These are tiny sweet lemony bites from heaven. Oh my. I didn’t even know I owned a mini bundt pan until about a month ago. I’m not 100% sure where I got it, but my money’s on it being a freebie from my friend Scratchy’s days at the Martha Stewart show. And what a way […]

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bars (fail)

I’m a little sad about these. There are so many other delicious things I could have done with those three overripe bananas. Instead I made these lame oatmeal squares. They were perfect, too, in an ideal state for baking. They mashed up beautifully. In a separate bowl, I put together the oats, brown sugar, baking […]

Carrot Spice Mini Muffins

I make these carrot spice muffins pretty regularly. They’re freakishly healthy, and I say freakishly because they are just ridiculously delicious. The spices are a perfect blend with the carrot base, the texture is moist but fluffy, the turbinado sugar on top gives them an extra bite of crunchy sweetness, and they’re full of good-for-you […]