Pumpkin Muffins!

Well, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon so I decided to make some pumpkin muffins. This was my first time making a gluten-free muffin recipe from scratch and they turned out amazingly well. I dressed them up with a little rosette of cream cheese frosting and some decorative cupcake liners.

I've added them to the Autumn line-up of goodies in my Etsy shop - yep, I'm back open for business. Check out the pumpkin muffins in my shop. Cheers!

Muffin Musings

About a year ago I came up with the idea of making celery muffins, and somehow because of this, I have become known as the veritable Muffin Lady to my friends and family. It used to annoy me, because quite honestly, I wasn't even a big fan of muffins! Since then, however, I have begun to embrace muffins and become a bit more intimate with them. Yay for muffins! (Adorable comic strip courtesy of Kawaii Not.)

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On Muffin Tops

When I first moved back to Houston, I discovered Panera Bread. One day when I stood at their pastry counter and asked "what type of cookie is that?" I learned that people sell and eat muffin tops. Muffin. Tops. Muffin TOPS?! Uhhhm... what happened to the rest of the muffin? I wondered why anyone would want to just eat the top of the muffin - seems ludicrous!

Since then I have asked around and found out that apparently many people enjoy the top of the muffin and don't care so much for the rest of it. While I find this idea maddening, I must be alone, because they even make special baking pans specifically for muffin tops! What is this world coming to?! Besides, who wants to eat something with a name that can also mean "unsightly rolls of belly fat"? Not me, anyway.
(Of course, I had to pick the most un-muffin-top-looking muffin to be my model for this photograph. Sigh...)

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On Muffin Bottoms

Yes. As for me, myself, personally... I much prefer the muffin bottom. The meat of the muffin! The pleasure center, if you will. Ever since I was a kid, I've eaten my cupcakes and muffins upside-down. I peel off the paper wrapper and set my muffin top-down onto it. Initially, I'm sure this started with cupcakes and my OCD-ish tendency to "save the best for last" (because I loved the frosting). But the more I started to do this, the more I began enjoying the cake part and became disinterested in the top part. Now, you might even catch me scooping the cake part out of the muffin top (like a bowl) and tossing what's left into the trash. I'm sure that is probably the weirdest thing you've ever heard, you muffin-top-enjoyer, but believe me when I say it's much more delicious this way!

As a muffin-bottom-lover, I was overjoyed to discover a new technique for lining my muffin tins. Set aside those cute little paper liners and save them for decoration later! Spray your tin with cooking spray and coat that baby in sugar! The muffins pop easily out of the tin, have a smoothed "crust" around the bottom (which I find very visually appealing), and the taste is amazing! They will have a slightly crispy, sweet crust on them that is absolutely to die for!

So the next time you eat a muffin, give some extra love to the bottom, where the heart of the muffin really lies. Bottoms up, I say!

Sunrise Muffins

Today I went to Whole Foods and found the most delicious fresh strawberries! I was inspired to bake some muffins. I made gluten free muffins with fresh strawberries, moistened with strawberry nectar, pineapple nectar, and heavy cream, and brushed with honey butter. They are SO yummy! I am quite pleased.



I'm very happy with these photos, by the way. If, perhaps, you are too, and would like a desktop wallpaper of these muffins, I have uploaded a couple of them here: one and two.

Celery Muffin Challenge!

One day back in March or April (it's been a while now, can't remember), it occurred to me that a celery muffin might be a good idea. Apparently, however, I was in the minority with this thought since most people I mentioned it to just laughed or looked at me like I was crazy. Kim, however, liked the idea and when we began discussing celery muffins we discovered that our visions were quite different. There stood the birth of our culinary challenges.

My intention was to make a sweet muffin that had celery instead of fruit or nuts. Kim's intention was to make a savory muffin, something you could eat with a meal. We decided to bake our muffins and bring them to work, to see which ones people liked more.



Kelley's Celery Muffins
I tried three different combinations with my muffins. Since these were going to be sweet, I decided to try adding some peanut butter, seeing as peanut butter is often eaten with celery. The first muffin was just a plain, sweet muffin with a coarse celery puree mixed in. The second muffin was the same thing, but with a dollop of peanut butter in the middle. The third muffin had the peanut butter blended into the batter.

After taste-testing all three, the results were surprising. I was sure that the one with the peanut butter mixed in would be the winner, but in fact it was pretty gross. The one with the dollop of peanut butter inside was pretty good, but the dollop was too large and overpowered the muffin a bit. Yes, it turns out that the plain celery muffin was the best. I baked all the rest of the muffins this way, and enjoyed them. I brought a bunch of them over to my parents and they loved them, too! They're gently sweet, with a nice little bit of crunch, and a hint of spice that leaves you curiously pleased. Oh, and they are also gluten free, of course!

Kim's Celery Muffins
Unfortunately, Kim hasn't made her celery muffins yet. Which is a bummer because I was really looking forward to trying them! Boo. :(