These muffins are seriously yummy. I ate about 8 of them, and could’ve just kept going and going and going; I`m sorry I didn’t double the recipe and put a dozen in the freezer for a rainy day!

And what’s not to love? These muffins are packed with banana flavor, better than any banana bread or muffin that I’ve ever had in that regard. There is no doubt that you’re eating banana with these babies! What else do I love? The big chunks of dark, dark chocolate, balancing out the sweetness of the banana and the bits of toffee I had tossed in the batter. They are moist, not too heavy and great for breakfast, snack or dessert (I ate about 8 of them, at all points during the day, so I’m pretty sure about that!)

Banana Chocolate Chunk Toffee Muffins
adapted from Food Network

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups mashed bananas (about 2-3 bananas) (I never mash mine to a smooth mash – I like a few banana chunks in my muffins)
1 large egg
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup whole milk
5 ounces coarsely chopped dark chocolate
5 ounces toffee bits, Skor bits, any bits!

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the mashed bananas, egg, melted butter and milk until incorporated.

4. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients just until blended (IMPORTANT! Do not over-mix as it could result in a tough muffin). Stir in the chopped chocolate and toffee bits.

5. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.

6. Bake the muffins until the tops are pale golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out with some melted chocolate attached but no crumbs, about 30 minutes.

7. Transfer the muffins to rack to cool for 15 minutes. Then remove from the muffin tins.

Here’s another savory recipe, this time for the vegetarians among us. I followed Handle the Heat‘s recipe exactly, and these muffins turned out just perfectly. They’re easy, tasty and really visually stunning!

They get a salty kick from all the chunks of feta, and the soft flavour of the roasted red peppers counteracts the saltiness. The basil is quite strong in these muffins, and so the flavour works wonderfully. The muffins themselves are moist, with just a bit of crumb. There is nothing I didn’t like about these muffins. I love savory muffins as a snack in the afternoon; I don’t often crave sweet stuff at 2pm, but I definitely crave the salty, and one of these fits the bill. They’re also great as a bread to serve alongside dinner. I froze half of them, and would pull one out every now and then to bring as part of my lunch, so they definitely freeze well.

Highly, highly recommended!

Feta, Basil, and Roasted Red Pepper Muffins
adapted from Handle the Heat
Yield: 12 muffins

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup jarred roasted red bell pepper, patted dry and chopped into 1/4-inch dice
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk
1/4 cup (2 ounces) olive oil
1 large egg

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and position an oven rack in the center. Lightly coat the muffin tin with melted butter, oil, or high-heat canola-oil spray., or line with paper muffin liners.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the feta cheese, roasted bell pepper, and chopped basil. Set aside. Pour the buttermilk into the measuring cup. Add the olive oil and the egg and whisk together until well blended.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well and stir gently with a spatula. Mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and the batter looks fairly smooth. A few small lumps scattered throughout are fine – they will disappear during baking. Gently fold in the feta cheese mixture until evenly distributed in the batter.

4. Use the large ice cream scoop or 2 soup spoons to divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the tops feel firm and a skewer inserted into the centers comes out clean. Transfer the muffin tin to a rack and let cool for 5 minutes.

5. Gently run a thin knife or spatula around each muffin to free it from the pan, lift out the muffins, and transfer them to a rack to finish cooling. Serve warm or store airtight at room temperature for up to 2 days or frozen for 1 month. Reheat room temperature muffins in oven at 375 for about 8 minutes or in microwave.

You know those muffins you get at the bakery? The ones with the nice, raised tops that have a sugary crunch to them? The ones that are just the right light and fluffy texture inside? The ones that are packed with fat blueberries? Well, these will give those muffins some stiff competition.

There’s not much to say about these muffins other than that they are the best blueberry muffins I’ve made, and any time I have some fresh blueberries (or raspberries or blackberries), they are going into this muffin. I love the slight lemon taste, the sweet crunch along the tops, and the juicy blueberries. Everything about these muffins screams perfection.

This recipe makes a pretty big batch (I got about 16 muffins out of it), but they freeze really well. The crunchy sugary top loses a bit of its crunch as the days go by, but the taste is still there!

Better-than-the-Bakery Blueberry Muffins
adapted from Simply Recipes
Printable Recipe

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 cups blueberries
1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)
Granulated sugar for sprinkling

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel.

4. Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.

5. Use standard 12-muffin muffin tins. Line each muffin cup with a paper liner, or coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil or grapeseed oil using a pastry brush, or with a little butter. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Sprinkle tops with granulated sugar.

6. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick to make sure the centers of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.

I first made these muffins in 2005 (I always write comments on any recipe I make, including the date and who I made the recipe for), and back then, they deemed an “Excellent!” When I realized I had a few scraggly carrots lying around that needed to be used, I decided to revisit these muffins.

They’re called “Spicy Carrot Muffins” in the book, but I can’t taste the “spiciness” of them, so I’ve renamed them. This time around, I also made a few changes. I didn’t include any nuts this time, and upped the amount of raisins to 1 cup. Also, I only used 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup apple sauce – the original wants 3/4 oil – and they’re just as good, if not better.

Next time, I would add even more cinnamon, and use only 1 cup sugar. But even without those alterations, this is a good and simple muffin recipe that you can whip together in no time (if you don’t mind grating all those carrots; am I the only person who consistently grates their thumb when it comes to carrot-grating?). The cinnamon is wonderful, and of course plays well with all that carrot. They’re moist and a good muffin-texture. Just make sure you don’t over-mix – muffins will become sooo tough if you do.

Carrot Raisin Muffins
adapted from Robin Hood’s Home Baking

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup raisins
1/2 chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, optional)
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups grated carrots (peeled first)
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and grease muffin pan lightly.

1. Combine flour, sugar, raisins, nuts, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Stir well.

2. Beat carrots, eggs and oil. Add to dry ingredients all at once, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan.

3. Bake for 25-27 minutes until tops spring back when lightly touched.

It’s raspberry season here in Quebec! While strawberries tend to be my favourite berry, for the two-week period that is raspberry season, raspberries do take top place. Full of juicy sweetness, I can easily eat a whole crate of them (sometimes with a bit of vanilla ice cream, sometimes with a splash of cream, sometimes with nothing at all).

I had frozen a few cups of these in-season fruits, and was looking for a fun and easy dessert to make with them. I finally settled on this recipe, which does call for raspberries and strawberries, but given the success of these cookies, I decided to use just raspberries.

My muffins did not turn out quite like the original. Perhaps because I threw in a few more berries. Perhaps because they had been frozen. Or perhaps because I didn’t use self-raising flour, and instead added some baking powder and salt to my regular flour. But even if they didn’t turn out the same, I’m pretty positive they were just as delicious.

Mine muffins were quite dense, and almost rich in their texture. Definitely not something I’m complaining about, though! They’re not a spongy, cakey muffin, but more like a super-moist and thick muffin, packed with the creamy sweetness of white chocolate and the tartness of raspberries. I really enjoyed both the texture and the flavours…I’m a fan of dense, heavy cakes, and these did not disappoint. Raspberries and white chocolate are a perfect combination, and these can be served as a dessert or as a special breakfast treat.

Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffins
adapted from Exclusively Food
Printable Recipe

2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups self-raising flour (I didn’t have this, so I used two cups flour and 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt)
2/3 cups sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks
1 1/4 cups raspberries (you can use fresh or frozen, but if they’re frozen, don’t thaw them before mixing them in.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper cups.

2. Whisk lemon juice, milk, oil and egg in a medium bowl until well combined.

3. Mix together flour, sugar and white chocolate (and baking powder and salt, if you’re not using self-raising flour) in a large bowl.

4. Add the berries to the dry ingredients and stir gently to combine.

5. Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stop stirring once the ingredients are combined. (The original recipe claims the batter should be quite wet. However, mine was not wet, and looked like normal muffin batter).

6. Divide the mixture evenly between the muffins cups. Bake for about 22 minutes, or until the muffin springs back after being lightly touched. No batter should stick to a knife inserted in the middle of the muffin.

Oh, and a new element has been added to montcarte…now you can get yourself a printable recipe version! The link will appear right before the recipe.

If you like this, you might also like:

White Chocolate & Raspberry Cookies
Lemon Raspberry Muffins
Raspberry Chocolate Layer Cake

It was my turn to bring the Friday snack to work, which I look forward to, as it gets me into the kitchen. I had a few bananas ripening up on the counter, so I figured I should use them in whatever I decided to bring. When searching for something tasty to make, I came across these on Miss.Cupcake Face. They sounded wonderfully appealing to me, they became my choice.

I’m so happy I made these! They have a lot of flavour, a great cakey (and sooo moist) texture (more like cake than muffins), and the frosting is incredible. I changed the recipe a bit, using equal quantities of banana and pineapple, and I think it was a wise choice. I found the pineapple flavour to be very noticeable, especially given the juicy chunks of crushed pineapple that are scattered throughout each cupcake. The banana does play a predominant role, but that’s something I’m okay with. I wanted a banana flavour, with just hints of others. The toasted pecans are a necessity, adding a great crunch to the cupcakes and that oh-so-wonderful nutty flavour. I also fortunately upped the cinnamon.

And the frosting? Droooooooool. Again, I upped the cinnamon, and thankfully so. I reduced the amounts of all the ingredients too. I don’t know how much frosting people take on their cupcakes, but even with my reduced recipe and a heavily iced cupcake, I still have at least a cup of this stuff sitting in my freezer right now (which I will of course eat from sporadically with a spoon and nothing else). It’s definitely a cream cheese frosting, and the cinnamon is very noticeable.

These are excellent and versatile cupcakes (I’m thinking next time of adding coconut and using a white chocolate frosting), and good enough to serve at any type of occasion.

Is this what a hummingbird cake would likely taste like?

Pineapple Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Miss.Cupcake Face
Printable Recipe

CUPCAKES
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 medium sized bananas)
1/2 cups crushed pineapple (juice not included)
1 cup pecans, toasted & coarsely chopped

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour, salt, baking soda & cinnamon. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Whisk until everything is combined. Slowly add the sugar mixture into the flour mixture. Add the bananas, pineapple & pecans. Mix until incorporated. Divide batter between the cups. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.

FROSTING
3/4 cup butter, slightly softened
8 oz cream cheese
5 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
Half and half cream, enough to get the consistency you like

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until everything is combined. Add the vanilla and the cinnamon.

If you like this, you might also like:

Banana Bread with Hazelnuts
Banana Gumdrop Loaf
Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Baked goods with citrus are my favourite, so I’m surprised it took me this long to make Dorie Greenspan’s lemon muffins. But I’ve finally done it, and I’m happy I did.

I’m not a fan of poppy seeds, so I omitted them. I took her suggestion and put dollops of raspberry jam in the middle…a lot of it leaked out (okay, I may have been a bit generous with my dollops), but it still added a nice additional flavour to a very lemony muffin.

The drizzle of icing became more of a complete covering, and that was a good thing. I wouldn’t omit this icing, it emphasizes all the lemony goodness that’s already in the muffin. These are moist and cake-like, not very sweet, and good for breakfast or dessert.

The batter is very thick. With muffins, I never use my mixer; it overmixes too quickly and easily, making the muffins chewy. Do it by hand, and use a light hand. Less is more, when it comes to muffins or cupcakes!

Lemon Raspberry Muffins
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours
12 muffins
Printable Recipe

MUFFINS
2/3 cup sugar
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon (I used the zest of 2 lemons)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 cup jam (blueberry, raspberry, etc. or lemon curd)

ICING
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

MUFFINS
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 F. Spray your muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or line the cups with paper liners. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to combine. Do not overmix the batter – a few lumps are ok. Stir in the poppy seeds.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. (I filled them halfway, then put a teaspoon of jam on top, the filled the cups with batter)

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Cool completely on the rack before icing.

ICING
1. Put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon juice. Stir with a spoon to moisten the sugar, then add enough additional lemon juice, a dribble at a time, to get an icing that is thin enough to drizzle from the tip of the spoon. Drizzle lines of icing over the tops of the muffins.

We are really falling behind in our kitchen endeavors these days! On the bright side, we have been completely enjoying the summer, so all’s well. Admittedly, I do miss baking some days, and last night was one of those times. I didn’t feel like spending a long time in the kitchen, so I looked for something quick and easy to make, and came across Dorie’s Coffee-Break Muffins.

The description of them promises a very moist, almost silky muffin – this is not what I got. I took them out of the oven four minutes early, and they were already verging on overbaked. They are not incredibly moist, but they are quite flavourful; the coffee is a nice, strong taste, and the cinnamon balances it out well.

I decided to prepare a fast frosting to go on top, a cinnamon-coffee one. I think it’s a great addition to the muffin, and adds a bit of extra oomph to the muffin. Frosting is special that way.

Overall, a good muffin recipe, but watch the baking time! I can really see that these would be better warm, with a blob of frosting or a nice pat of butter. Yum!

Coffee-Break Muffins
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup strong coffee, cooled
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (1 stick)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Position oven rack in center of oven; preheat to 400°; butter or spray 12 regular-size muffin cups in muffin pan; place muffin pan on baking sheet.

2. In a big bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

3. Stir in the brown sugar, making sure there are no lumps.

4. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk the coffee, melted butter, egg, and vanilla until combined.

5. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and, with a whisk, gently but quickly stir to blend; don’t worry about being thorough—a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter.

6. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a pick comes out clean. Transfer pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Cinnamon Coffee Frosting

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons cream or milk

1. In a small bowl, mash instant coffee with the back of a spoon until powdery. Stir in cinnamon and salt.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth, then stir in spice mixture and vanilla. Alternately beat in confectioners’ sugar and milk until desired consistency is achieved.

I am definitely on a Dorie-streak, and I think that’s perfectly okay. I’m finally getting around to posting about the buttery, sweet corn muffins I made from her cookbook, Baking: From My House to Yours.

The recipe was actually for “Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins” and included such fantastic ingredients as chili powder, jalapeno pepper and cilantro. That version didn’t suit the meal we were having that night, so I attempted the “Plain Corn Muffins” recipe in the margins. Two recipes in one! The bonus is that these were sooo easy to make. Fast and simple and pretty much amazing.

These muffins are the plain ones, and they were incredible. Nice and slightly crunchy, very sweet, with a deep corn flavour to them. They were excellent right out of the oven, and I recommend heating them if you’re going to eat them a few days later.

Savory Corn Muffins
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours
Makes 12 muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg yolk
¼ cup corn kernels (add up to three tablespoons more if you’d like), fresh, frozen or canned (in which case, they should be drained and patted dry)

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-sized muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

3. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter and egg yolk together until well blended.

4. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough – the batter will be lumpy, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the corn kernels.

5. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

6. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully each muffin from its mold.

I love baking with bananas: cheap, versatile, tasty! So while searching for a new banana muffin recipe, I came across this one for Banana Crunch Muffins, and they turned out very well.

The walnuts are a great nut for this particular muffin, and the coconut is a sweet surprise – it adds an extra dimension of flavour to the usual banana muffin. They’re excellent warm, so either eat them all straight out of the oven, or give them a quick reheat if you don’t quite have that muffin-stamina.

Banana Crunch Muffins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Makes 18 muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 extra-large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 cup medium-diced ripe bananas (this gives wonderfully moist banana chunks throughout the muffins)
1 cup small-diced walnuts
1 cup granola
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
Dried banana chips, granola, or shredded coconut, optional

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer.
Add the melted butter and blend.

In a second bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas.
Add them to the flour-and-butter mixture. Scrape the bowl and blend well. Don’t overmix!
Fold the diced bananas, walnuts, granola, and coconut into the batter until just mixed.

Line 18 large muffin cups with paper liners and spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each one to the top.
Top each muffin with dried banana chips, granola, or coconut, if desired.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from the pan, and serve.