freshly grated nutmeg | smilingfrog.ca

Baking in the new kitchen=SO MUCH BETTER than the apartment kitchen! Its bigger, actually has a dishwasher, and the oven is actually accurate! *Gasp* So I’ve been having fun. I’ve been trying a mix of new recipes and old faves, but feel that I need to push myself to actually creating my own recipes. So, the blog may be featuring some very experiemental stuff in the near future but that’s how you learn right? So I start with something easy. I make muffins a lot. They’re pretty easy and forgiving. I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t….so I give you….

Carrot Muffins With Cinnamon Streusel Topping

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour (I used Robin Hood Nutri-Blend)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Wet ingredients

• 1 1/2 tsp egg replacer
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 1/4 cup shredded carrot, packed
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 3 Tbsp Canola oil

Streusel Topping

• 1 Tbsp cold butter
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1Tbsp oats
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line muffin tin with paper liners 

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Combine water and egg replacer in a small lidded container. Shake shake shake to combine. In a medium bowl combine remaining wet ingredients and stir to combine. For the streusel topping, “squish” everything together with your fingers until crumbly-like.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until combined. Don’t over-stir! (I hear my mother’s voice in my mind when I say this Spoon batter equally into muffin cups. Sprinkle the center of each muffin with streusel topping. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Nibble on streusel topping as soon as they come out of the oven.  Err…..enjoy!!!

I also made this….

Multigrain bread! I was so impressed with how it turned out. 

In other news….I’m taking a professional Baking and Pastry Arts class at George Brown College two nights a week. Its pretty intense and I’m very excited because I’m going to be learning A LOT. I’ll remember to bring my camera to class tomorrow so that I can post updates on everything that I get to learn!  

I make muffins a lot. Mostly because they seem to disappear so fast. After I got home from yoga this evening I decided to make these pumpkin muffins. EEP! I realized I was out of cinnamon! So…..instead of using just cinnamon I created a  new spice mix to use in my recipe. These turned out really well and I would definitely make them again!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup margarine or butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup canned pure pumpkin
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Beat butter and sugar for a minute, then add egg, pumpkin and vanilla and beat until well blended. 

2. In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture, beating until just combined. Add half the buttermilk, then add another one third flour, the remaining buttermilk and remaining flour along with the dried fruit. Pour batter into 12 lined muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes.