Muffins: Take Two

During my two-month teaching stint on Cocoa Island, I was persistently hogging the baker every morning during his romantic breakfast with his wife. He told me many things, out of which these two stay:

1. Bake with love.
2. If you are angry, your bread will get angry with you.

How can I argue with that?

Anyway, I really liked the muffins there. Especially the ones with walnuts, and the one with chocolate chips, also that with buttermilk and bran flakes..... I guess I liked them all.... The baker was kind enough to give me his recipe, which I conveniently left behind.... So now I'm determined to explore the BEST muffin recipe. Or at least the one that works for me.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin
When I told my Irish student I "resort to frozen blueberry" because I can't afford the fresh imported ones, she comforted me and told me her baker cousin strongly advocated frozen blueberry for baking. Frozen, NOT thawed, is the key. They will plum up nicely after baking. Well, I can tell that much is true from what little baking I've done.

Ingredients:
(makes 12 standard-sized muffins)
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of yogurt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (not thawed)

1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, combine orange juice, oil, vanilla, yogurt and egg; add to dry ingredients, stirring until just moist. Gently fold in blueberries.
4. Spoon batter into a muffin tray lined with paper muffin liners.
5. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean (about 15-20 min.). Remove muffins from the pan and place on wire rack to cool.

Maple Sour Cream Walnut Muffins

How can you resist a recipe that uses 3/4 cup of maple syrup? Plus, it has a crumb topping, AND sour cream, AND walnuts. I had so much faith and expectation for this recipe, I actually bought a muffin tray. Yes, I did. It was on 20% discount. And I'm so glad I bought the tray. Be it the tray or the recipe. This recipe gets 4 thumbs up from this family. I was going to give away 4 of them; they are so good I decided to keep 2 more after the 2 at breakfast.....

(makes 6 large muffins)

For the batter:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

For the topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 Tbs butter, chopped
Scant 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped small
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Whip butter in an electric mixer. Slowly add maple syrup to combine. Add eggs, one at a time. Add sour cream. Add vanilla extract. Combine dry ingredients (except nuts). Add to butter mixture. Stir to combine. Stir in walnuts. Fill muffin cups approximately half full with batter.
2. Combine ingredients for the topping. Use your fingers to pinch butter and break into pea-sized pieces well-combined into rest of ingredients. Generously spoon topping over muffin batter.
3. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 - 30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.