Snickerdoodle Muffins

Hello all,

I think we've established here on Sugar Mountain that I have a bit of a muffin obsession. I'm sure you are thinking "Totally understandable - muffins are freaking amazing" but in case you are one of the few who still doubts the delectable delight that is the muffin, I bring you these Snickerdoodle Muffins as proof.

Of course, you could also check out Strawberries & Cream Muffins, Lemon Streusel Coffee Cake Muffins, Red Velvet Muffins, or any other muffin lovin' recipe on my Recipe Index Page.

We will make a believer out of you.

Besides their deliciousness, I also love muffins because they are simple. If I have a bake-o-phobic friend who wants to learn how to whip up something sweet, I always point to a muffin recipe. They are so forgiving and so much fun; once you start you will quickly end up with millions of muffins in your kitchen.

Though, to be fair, these muffins were a tad more like cupcakes in preparation. Creaming butter and sugar are usually not on my "To-Do" when I'm making muffins, but the photos on EatmeDelicious were absolutely mouthwatering and I could not resist trying them. I also love any excuse to break out my Vietnamese Cinnamon. :D But even if you are a new baker or inexperienced, do not shy away from these!

Different does not always mean difficult.

Say hello to the thickest muffin batter known to man. You will need (or have after this!) some serious arm muscles to work that thing into shape.

Using an ice cream scoop, you measure out the batter and drop it into a cinnamon sugar mixture, and it holds its shape. Weird.

Roll it around real quick and plop it into a heavily greased muffin pan. They may look a little humble now, but oh, just wait. The smell alone that fills your house (or my tiny college apartment) is enough to get anyone craving a snickerdoodle. Be prepared for the masses to come running.

Not only were these fun to make (and eat of course!) they also ensured my hopes that Fall is on it's way. The crisp, cool air in the morning, the slow incorporation of cardigans and sweaters into people's wardrobes,   Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks, and now Snickerdoodle Muffins.

My life is complete, for now anyway.

Check back next Tuesday for more Fall-weather Favorites and Chai Spiced Sugar Cookies!

Happy Baking!

Snickerdoodle Muffins Via EatMeDelicious

2 sticks unsalted butter, softenend
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/4 cup sour cream
2 1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp cinnamon + 1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and heavily grease muffin pans with cooking spray or butter. In a small bowl,  combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Beat in vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated.
4. Add flour mixture and sour cream to egg mixture in an alternating fashion, starting and ending with the flour. Stir until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, measure out muffins one at a time, and drop the batter into the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Roll around in mixture, being sure to cover completely, then place muffin in greased muffin pan. Repeat until you run out of muffin batter.
6. Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let cool in pan 10-15 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

makes approximately 12-16 muffins

Nutella Stuffed Muffins

Why hello there!

It's been AGES I know, but I am so happy to be back to blogging and back at good old Rutgers University. True, the bus system is still horrendous and for some reason air conditioning only reaches certain classrooms in certain buildings. but nonetheless I am moved back into my apartment and ready for the new semester.

I am also super excited to be writing this post from the brand new Barnes and Noble on campus! It's three stories of nerdy awesomeness, and TED ALLEN will be showing up here in roughly twenty minutes for a book signing! Needless to say I have staked out a nice spot to (hopefully) snap a quick picture of him to share with you all, so fingers crossed!

Now back to the title of this post: stuffed muffins. Yes, we have done stuffed cookies here On Sugar Mountain, and stuffed cupcakes, but now all boundaries are broken with the help of our old friend Nutella.

So this starts out as your run-of-the-mill muffin recipe; mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients, and stir until just combined. But then things get interesting once you begin to fill your muffin pans...

Fill the cavities a tad less than halfway with muffin batter, then go ahead and put a big ole' dollop of Nutella in the center. Of course, Nutella naturally fights to stay on the spoon instead of off of it, so two spoons may be necessary at this point.

Then cover with more muffin batter and bake until scents of cinnamon, nutmeg and Nutella fill your kitchen. What a stress-relieving aroma let me tell you.

These are cute and delicious on their own, but why stop here? What could make a Nutella-stuffed muffin even more gratifying? Oh I don't know....how about dipping it in melted butter and cinnamon sugar?

I thought so.

Whether you're starting a new semester, feeling frazzled or just in the mood for some seriously comforting sweet treats, these muffins are absolutely, positively the way to go.

Oh and just a bit of shameless self-promotion before I go, the new blog The Foodie Files has begun! Click here for my first post and check over there tomorrow for an out-of-this-world recipe for Tuscan Bean Soup.

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

Nutella Stuffed Muffins Via DamnDelicious
makes roughly 16 muffins

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
16 tsp nutella

cinnamon sugar topping:
6 tbsp melted butter
4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together vegetable oil, milk eggs, and vanilla.
4. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
5. Scoop a small amount of batter (half of what you would normally use, maybe 2 tbsp) into the bottom of each muffin cavity. Then, drop a teaspoon of nutella in the center of each. Cover nutella with more muffin batter.
6. Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 13-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan before moving to wire rack to cool completely.

7. For cinnamon sugar topping: stir together cinnamon and sugar until well incorporated.
8. Grab muffin from bottom and gently dip top into the melted butter and then quickly into the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Rutgers Day 2012

Hello all,

I told you I would share all of the exciting happenings of Rutgers Day, and I will not disappoint.

Rutgers Student Bakers made over twenty different recipes in order to prepare for this day, with sweets ranging from Red Velvet Rice Krispie Treats to Banana Caramel Cake Pops. My personal favorite? It would have to be a tie between the Crunch Berry Cereal Treats and the Strawberries N Cream Muffins.

With every dollar going to Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale, people just couldn't pass up the chance to try out our gourmet sweet treats!

Red Velvet Cereal Treats:

Fudgy Mint Oreo Brownies:

Trix Cereal Bark:

Cake Batter Sprinkle Bark:

S'mores Bark:

Chocolate Covered Oreos:

Banana Caramel Cake Pops:

Clementine Muffins:

Crunch Berry Cereal Treats:

Would you be strong enough to turn away any of those items? If you are, don't worry; we had even more to pick from. The Rutgers Student Bakers do not take baking lightly; only the amazing, the decadent, the mouth-watering comes out of our kitchen.

We had such a great turnout, with thousands of students. alumni, faculty, family and friends.

Everyone really got a kick out of our carrot-cake shooters...

and the members shared some great laughs together while supporting the cause to end childhood hunger.

In the end, we raised more funds than I could have hoped for, and I am so proud of each and every one of the members who played a part in this event this year. With baking every Friday in April and all day long the day before, these ladies deserve a serious round of applause. I have never been more honored to be part of a group and it reminds me why I love baking so much.

And now, drumroll please....

The following members are now officially Very Important Bakers (VIBs)

Congrats Ladies!

Shivani Amin

Allie Avillo

Tessa Caprio

Linda Ferreira

Jennifer Lee
Jenny Lin

Valerie Raziano

Elena Spathis

Prama Verma

Anne Wang
Smitha Yellayi

Another round of applause to my lovely fellow officers; without whom, I would have lost my sanity on numerous occassions:

Alycia So

Ashley So

Serena Mueller

Devon Stein

I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for an amazing Rutgers Day, and an amazing year full of wonderful baking memories.

Lemon Streusel Coffee Cake Muffins

Hello all!

So I learned something while preparing for this post:

working with lemons in baking is tricky.

Case and point: this recipe I am sharing with you is the third attempt at lemon muffins in the past three days. Dedicated? Yes. Obsessed? Maybe just a little. But I just couldn't get it right until today.

For starters, however, when a recipe tells you to take 2 whole lemons, slice them in quarters, place in the blender, and then use that mixture in the muffins just stop and say no. This is a muffin PSA from me to you: don't do it. There's no way this will work out well, and do not succumb (like I did) and think that since it's a recipe on a decent-looking food blog, they will turn out great. In reality, it will be like chewing on a giant piece of lemon with bits of muffin on it.

But, after all the lemony labors of love, I have these little sweeties to show for it:

Lemony sweet and fun to eat! The coffee cake has just the slightest hint of lemon that gets amplified by the lemon glaze that catches to every inch of the crumbly struesel topping.

So, seeing as how I now have breakfast for the week, I can say it was all worth it. Not to mention during all of this the kitchen smelled lemony fresh! I hope you enjoy baking these up for yourself, knowing that it is both tested and approved by your truly.

 
Lemon Baking continues with the next post OnSugarMountain for Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies!

Happy Baking!

Lemon Streusel Coffee Cake Muffins Via SimplyScratch

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda   
1/2 cup butter at room temp.
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tbsp white vinegar + enough milk to make 1 cup)

For the Topping:
1 3/4 cup  flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, cubed
1 tsp salt

Lemon Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice


**Preheat oven to 350 and grease one 12-cup muffin pan OR one 6-cup jumbo muffin pan**


1. To make the topping: mix together the flour, brown sugar, and salt. Cut butter into flour mixture with pastry cutter (or two knives) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Keep in fridge while whipping up everything else.
2. For the muffins: Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter together until creamy. Add lemon zest and beat in each egg, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.
3. Alternately fold in the flour mixture and the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.
4. Fill each muffin cup in pan 3/4 full. Sprinkle topping over muffin batter. 
5. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes for standard sized muffins or 40-45 minutes for jumbo muffins. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

Cookies 'n Cream Muffins

I mentioned that I love any excuse to bake right? So it's only fitting that during the holidays I try to churn out as many awesome baked goods as possible. I know that Cookies 'n Cream Muffins do not sound overtly festive, but that can easily be fixed by these:

They're adorable, festive, and uber cheap at my favorite store to pick up baking supplies: Aldi.

Now that we have that squared away, can I tell you how long I've waited to test out this recipe? It's been sitting on my iPhone just begging to be baked for almost two months now. Two months.

Ladies and gentlemaen: the Cookies 'n Cream Muffin

Inside Bowl Number 1: Our Dry Ingredient Mixture (Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Salt and Cocoa)

Inside Bowl Number 2: Our Wet Ingredient Mixture (Milk, Oil, and Eggs)

Inside Bowl Number 3: Our AWESOME Ingredient Mixture (White Chocolate Chips, Milk Chocolate Chips, and Crushed Oreos)

Add Bowl #2 to Bowl #1 and Mix until Just Combined. Gently Stir in Bowl #3 and then fill each cup in the muffin pan 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 14-17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Then proceed to dig in!

How can I best describe these to you my lovely readers? Let's pretend chocolate chip cookies can go on steroids, become the size of muffins, and do so by ingesting a diet of white and milk chocolate chips and Oreos. Sound enticing?

I thought so.

Oh, and the original recipe only yielded 9 muffins (how can you be content with only 9?) so I've included the recipe in its original ratios but multiplied by 4 in order to yield 3 dozen, a number I myself find much more saisfying.

Cookies 'N Cream Muffins via PassthePlate

yields approx 3 dozen muffins

4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup + 8 tsp vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups milk chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups white chocolate chips
16 Oreos, crushed

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners
2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.
3. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined
5. Gently fold in chips and crushed oreos.
6. Bake at 400 for 14-17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Dig in!

21st Birthday, Apple Picking, and Apple Muffins

Hello all!

I bet you all thought I fell off the deep end for awhile there: well I did. Midterms and papers have taken me away from my wonderful little blog, but I am back with fun photos and a simple delicious muffin recipe that is totally in season.

So, first things first, it was my birthday last weekend! The big 21, which I celebrated with my lovely boyfriend up in Chester NJ apple/pumpkin picking and enjoying the wonderful Autumn weather that has finally set in. Unfortunately, Hurricane Irene took away a lot of the pumpkins this year, and apparently many of the apples as well. But it didn't stop us from finding a few stragglers on the very tops of the trees...

...and enjoying some much anticipated apple cider, cider dogs and cider donuts (can you tell we like cider?).

We spent the rest of the day waltzing around Chester, enjoying some birthday cake balls from a cute little shop called SweetSpot Bakery. I was so glad that they let me take some photos of all their little sweet treats. If you live around that area, be sure to check them out: their cake balls are fabulous. Seriously, the banana cake is to die for. I should have bought all of them right then and there actually.

It was quite the relaxing weekend, a much needed relief to all of the studying and writing and cramming of the last few weeks. I also tested out this apple muffin recipe via Tracey's Culinary Adventures and Baking and Boys! I must tell you; make as many of these as you have apples becasue they go quick. I brought them with me to work one morning and they were subsequently inhaled by all of my fellow college students, and when I got home my roommates had polished off the ones I left in the kitchen!

Hope you enjoy the recipe! I am in a muffin sort of mood as of late, so expect another post (hopefully on s'mores muffins!) in the near future! Happy Baking!

Apple Muffins
Via Baking and Boys!/Tracey's Culinary Adventures (makes 12-16 standard muffins)

1/2 cup whole milk +1/2 cup apple cider
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1  3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and cut into small dice

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease one 12-cup muffin pan.

2. Combine dry ingredients (including sugar) in large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in separate medium bowl.

3. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.

4. Pour into greased muffin cups, each about 2/3 cup full. Sprinkle streusel over top just before baking.

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 11-13 minutes or until toothpick comes outs clean.

Streusel:

1/2 cup  all-purpose flour
1 tbsp white sugar
3 tbsp light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 tbsp butter, melted

1. Stir the flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl. 

2. Add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is crumbly. More flour may be needed.