Earl Grey Yogurt Muffins

Yummy muffins.

A perfect breakfast treat or a simple-yet-elegant dessert to serve when entertaining, these muffins are excellent served alongside a pot of tea.

They have a satisfying texture: chewy on the outside and moist on the inside, compliments of the plain yogurt. They have a surprising, delightful creamy citrus flavor--an Earl Grey tea distinctive.

These Earl Grey Yogurt Muffins are pleasantly sweet. As-is, I think they could multitask as a light dessert cupcake. One could reduce the sugar amount slightly, thus reducing the sweetness, though such a reduction isn't necessary.

Prior to inventing this recipe, I had been toying with ideas for such muffins for several weeks. I once saw a recipe on a British blog for a cake that used Earl Grey tea leaves (the small particles, or fannings--which are typically what you find packaged in tea bags--or loose leaf tea ground into small particles resembling fannings). Neat idea! I also often came across recipes for yogurt muffins in my many Internet travels. Another neat idea! Why not combine both neat ideas?
One day, I finally decided to try it.

Happily, I found that the proportions I chose were right, and the muffins not only held together and didn't burn, but they also were really tasty and pleasantly aromatic. (Not all my culinary inventions have wonderful results, though they do tend to be edible, regardless.)

Have fun trying this recipe! Let me know what you think. :~)

Removing the muffins from the muffin tins: When using nonstick bakeware, one has to be careful not to scratch the nonstick coating. Sometimes it's tricky to get anything done (like removing muffins from nonstick tins) when exercising such caution. Even though baked goods don't strongly adhere to a nonstick surface, they do tend to stick just a bit, even when the surface is greased. Plastic knives can scratch the coating, so...
Idea: Use a small rubber spatula.
How: Carefully loosen all around the sides of a muffin.

Then slide the spatula underneath the muffin. Press downward against the pan, so the end of the spatula will bend underneath the muffin.

Rotate the spatula in a circle beneath the muffin, then pull up and pop it out. This technique worked well for me. The muffins stayed intact, and very little baked batter was left in the pan.

Note: My pictures depict a small spatula removing a mini muffin from a 24-cup muffin tin.

Well, anyway, on to the recipe...

Earl Grey Yogurt Muffins
Estimated time: 40 minutes (about 20 minutes prep time and 15 to 20 minutes baking time)
Makes 2 dozen regular-sized muffins (or 1 dozen regular-sized muffins plus 2 dozen mini muffins)

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea leaves* (about 3 teabags worth) 
• *The tea should be the size of small particles
• 2 cups plain (unflavored) yogurt (low fat)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 3 teaspoons imitation vanilla extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease 2 regular-sized 12-cup muffin tins (or 1 regular 12-cup tin plus 1 mini 24-cup muffin tin).
3. Cut off the tops of the Earl Grey tea bags and empty the tea into a small bowl. Measure the amount to ensure it is approximately 1 tablespoon (a little more or a little less is fine). The tea should resemble small particles, similar to coffee grounds.  

4. Measure the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a medium bowl.
5. Add the tea leaves, then stir the dry mixture thoroughly. Set aside.

6. Into a stand mixer (or a large bowl with which to use a hand mixer), measure the plain yogurt.

7. Add the unsweetened applesauce.

8. Add the vanilla extract.

9. Add the eggs.

10. Add the granulated sugar.

11. Cream those ingredients together on medium speed for about 1 minute.

12. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix on low speed for about 10 seconds.

 13. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix well for about 15 seconds on low then increasing to high speeds.

14. Scrape down the insides of the bowl with a spatula.

15. Mix the ingredients on medium speed for about 5 seconds.

16. Spoon muffin mixture into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.

17. Bake as close to middle of the oven as possible (ideally on the same rack, if they will fit side-by-side) at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out mostly clean.

18. Carefully transfer muffins to cooling racks.

19. Serve the muffins warm or cooled, and freeze some of them to savor later.

Enjoy!

Heart(y) Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Wanting to make some healthy-but-still-tasty blueberry muffins, I designed this recipe with ideas culled from various muffins and breads I'd made before. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did the recipe work (muffins were made), but the resulting pastries (if they qualify as that) tasted really good.

This recipe makes one dozen muffins. I hesitated to call them "pastries" because pastries typically involve the use of an oil of some sort. These muffins, however, use neither egg nor oil; I've substituted baking soda and applesauce for those typical muffin must-haves.

The fiber in these muffins comes from whole wheat flour and milled flax seed. I like how the flax seed adds a slight (almost indiscernible) crunch.

My recipe calls for soy milk, but you can use regular milk of any variety to suit your taste. If you use soy milk, I recommend you use the kind that has no sugar added. The applesauce should also be of the original, no-sugar-added type. The idea is to cut back the sugar (and cut out the oil and egg) and revel in the oft-overlooked taste of whole wheat, with a gentle kick of lemon and the sweetness of plump blueberries.

My recipe calls for just 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. I wasn't confident that such a smallish amount of sugar would make the muffins sweet enough (non-bland), so I also used a packet of Splenda no-calorie sweetener. Aside: If I sweeten my coffee, I like to use a (very) small amount of Splenda instead of regular granulated sugar. I need to use so little of it to get my desired sweetness, so I always have plenty of Splenda around. If you have none, you could either go with just the 1/4 cup of sugar the recipe calls for, or you could use 1/4 cup plus a tablespoon or so of granulated sugar and no Splenda. Or you could probably use sugar-added soy milk instead.

I bet you could use fresh cranberries instead of blueberries, but I haven't tried it yet. If you try, let me know how it turns out. (Note: I don't recommend using store-bought frozen blueberries. A batch I made using those resulted in muffins that looked oddly purple-black and tasted less-than-desirable. Use the real thing.)

Kitchen tip: A my-kitchen-to-your-kitchen tip I'd like to share is on the subject of oven thermometers: buy one. Investing a few bucks in an oven thermometer is a great idea. I was doubtful about their necessity for years, but after I found myself with an electric oven which was well-cared for but yet elderly and...electric (I'm a fan of gas ovens, I must say)...I began to notice that things just didn't cook right, or they took seemingly random amounts of time TO cook/bake. So, I got an oven thermometer at Wal-Mart. No surprise: I found that the oven sometimes (but more often than not) runs at least 25 degrees too hot. If you have trouble with baking times—if you notice that some dishes take significantly more or less time to bake than stipulated by the recipe (or if you're disappointed with burned baked goods), you may want to try out an oven thermometer that will tell you just how hot that oven is. The numbers on the oven might be fibbing.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the recipe.

Heart(y) Healthy Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Estimated preparation time: 15 minutes
Estimated baking time: 15 - 20 minutes
Makes 12 muffins 

Ingredients

• 1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 packet Splenda no-calorie sweetener
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup applesauce (no sugar added)
• 5 tablespoons applesauce (no sugar added)
• 1/2 cup soy milk (no sugar added)
• 2 teaspoons milled flax seed
• 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

1. Place oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Grease a 12-muffin pan.
3. In a medium or large bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, flax seed, granulated sugar, Splenda, baking powder, and salt.
4. Stir in lemon zest.
5. In another bowl, use a fork to stir together baking soda and 1/4 cup of applesauce. Allow to sit for a minute or so. This is the egg substitute.
6. Stir in the other 5 tablespoons of applesauce. This acts as a substitute for oil. 

7. Add the soy milk to the bowl with the applesauce and baking soda mixture.
8. Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Combine well (but don't over-stir) with a spatula.
9. Carefully fold in the blueberries.

10. Evenly portion the batter into the greased muffin cups.
11. Pop the pan into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

12. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of a muffin (I used a chopstick, in the absence of any toothpick)--if it comes out clean, they're done! Of course, you don't need to worry about undercooked eggs since the recipe uses none. Super!

13. Let the muffin pan cool for a few minutes. Serve them warm (beware: the blueberries will remain extra hot inside longer than the rest of the muffin) or cooled.
14. Allow leftover muffins to cool thoroughly on a wire cooling rack, then store them in an airtight bag or container.

Enjoy!