Whole Wheat Pumpkin Yogurt Muffins

When muffins came on the scene in the 1980's, everyone was crazy about them. People said goodbye to donuts and cheese danish in favor of the healthy muffin.  Despite the fact that nearly every summer Sunday of much of my childhood was punctuated by my Grammy’s Wonderful BlueberryMuffins, muffins were new, exciting, healthy, and fast. They were a wonderful way to eat something that was like cake but not as decadent and seemingly healthy.  Muffins started showing up at coffee shops and bakeries in the common variety of blueberry and cornmeal but bakers were experimenting with new flavor combinations to entice consumers. The favorite muffins were lemon poppy seed, oat bran, carrot and cream cheese and banana chip. 

These whole wheat pumpkin yogurt muffins truly are healthy, they are lightly sweetened and loaded with nutrition.  These were filling and delicious and easy for my teenagers to take and eat on their way to school.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Yogurt Muffins

Makes around 1 dozen

1 ¼  cup whole wheat flour

½ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup flax seed meal

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

2 large eggs

1 cup pumpkin purée

6 ounces plain yogurt (Greek or regular)

½ cup brown sugar or coconut sugar

3 tablespoons molasses

3 tablespoons canola oil or oil of your choice

2 tablespoons green pumpkin seeds (also known as pepitas)

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 375°F

Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, flax seed meal, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, yogurt, brown sugar, molasses and oil. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture just until combined.

Spoon the batter into muffin cups, filling each almost full.

Sprinkle tops with pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds.

Bake until tops are browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of each muffin comes out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it, about 25 minutes.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and serve, or transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container up to 2 days or freeze.

Recipe adapted from Whole Foods

Grammy's Wonderful Blueberry Muffins

My grandmother's blueberry muffin recipe card reads "Wonderful Blueberry Muffins" and they are wonderful.  Every time I eat one of Grammy’s muffins,  the happy memories they bring flood back.  Nearly every Sunday during the summer, my Grammy would get up early and bake blueberry muffins for her children and grandchildren.  Everyone gathered at my Gram’s house on Sunday mornings for breakfast and togetherness.  My cousins and I looked forward to those Sunday breakfast blueberry muffins.  My grandmother was a mix (she no longer cooks or bakes) of scratch cooking and convenience cooking.  She was known for her three standard homemade treats - banana bread, blond brownies, and blueberry muffins.  Her two semi-homemade treats were a box chocolate sheet cake for special occasions topping it with a Crisco based vanilla frosting that I loved and strawberry banana Jello in a Pyrex dish with a can of fruit cocktail or mandarin oranges mixed in which was a much anticipated picnic standard.   On Thanksgiving and Christmas she must have been plain tired out as she reheated Mrs. Smith pre-made frozen apple pies and served it with Coolwhip topping.  Her cooking repertoire included the whole range of cooking possibilities and she served her family in the best way she could and she served it up with a whole lot of love.

Grammy's Wonderful Blueberry Muffins

Makes about 1 dozen

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt scant

¼ cup sugar

1 cup milk

1/3 cup Crisco melted is in Grammy’s recipe but I use canola oil or melted butter

1 ½ cups or 1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries – if frozen do not defrost

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar, together in a large bowl.

Add 1 beaten eggs, milk, and oil and mix with wooden spoon until just combined.

Add blueberries and mix lightly.

Spoon the batter into a greased or lined muffin tin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.

Crepes Suzette

I have always wanted to try Crepe Suzettes and never had.  I have a list of things that I would like to try and for one reason or another I haven't gotten around to them.  Perhaps I should take to heart the quote ―

   “Why didn’t I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I   believed in the future.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

To name just a few items that I have been waiting to make or try are Bananas Foster, Baked Alaska, Black Forest Cake,  crumpets, homemade mozzerella and goat cheese, canning food of any kind, homemade pickles, beef bourguignon, homemade cherry pie bolognese sauce ,.....perhaps I need to make a food bucket list! 

The suzettes were delicious though very sweet and rich with butter.  They are definitely a treat to have on very special occasions. The next time I make them I will make them the traditional way in a saute pan and flambe it for flair!

Use any leftover Orange Butter Sauce on ice cream.

Crepes Suzette
Crepes
makes 20-25 medium size crepes
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla optional
1 tablespoon sugar
Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder ingredients in large bowl.
Add to the same bowl the milk, eggs, oil, vanilla if using.
Whisk the ingredients together (I use the whisk attachement on my hand mixer or you can use a blender).
Let the ingredients stand for 15 minutes.
Generously oil sautepan and pour thin layer of batter in pan swirling batter to make thin circle.
Using a thin edged spatula lift edge of crepe and turn cooking a few minutes on each side.  Cook until desired browness is achieved.  I always try to stay on the extreme light side.

Orange Butter Sauce
2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 lemon juiced
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier liquor

Combine the butter, sugar, orange juice, lemon juice and orange zest in a small saucepan and cook for around 10 minutes until it carmelizes and is golden in color.
Remove from heat and whisk in the Grand Marnier.
Return to heat and continue to whisk until  the mixture is syrupy around 10 minutes.

Assemble
Drizzle a tablespoon or so of the sauce onto crepes then fold in fourths and lay into a heatproof saute pan or a 13x9  baking dish. Pour the remaining syrup over or as much as desired and heat through in oven. 
Serve hot with extra syrup. Garnish with candied orange peel if desired.