Tag: mini muffins

Double Strawberry Mini Muffins

Posted on by Mari Vasseur
Double Strawberry Mini Muffins

These cute little pink muffins are the strawberriest muffins ever. I had to use a word that’s not even in the dictionary to describe them because these little gems are bursting with strawberry flavor. They’re made with fresh strawberry purée and finished with homemade strawberry sugar. The strawberry purée helps to make the muffins soft and moist on the inside and the strawberry sugar gives a nice crunchy texture and a bright strawberry flavor on the outside.

The strawberry sugar is made by pulverizing freeze dried strawberries together with sugar. Freeze dried strawberries are not the same as dried strawberries. You can find freeze dried strawberries at grocery markets, gourmet stores and online. They’re typically located near the nuts and dried fruit in most markets.

To watch the Instagram video of Double Strawberry Mini Muffins click here.

Double Strawberry Mini Muffins

Strawberry Mini Muffins Coated in Homemade Strawberry Sugar
Print Recipe
Servings 24 mini muffins

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup (200g) plus 2 tablespoons (25g) sugar, divided
  • ½ cup (14g) freeze dried strawberries not dried
  • 1 ½ cups (191g) all purpose flour, sifted
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • â…“ cup (74ml) vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon pure strawberry extract
  • ½ cup (118ml) strawberry puree
  • 2 pea size drops pink gel food color optional
  • 6 tablespoons (85g) butter, melted

Instructions
 

  • Combine the freeze dried strawberries and 2 tablespoons (25g) of sugar in a small food processor or a clean spice grinder. Process until finely ground. Add 1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g) of sugar and pulse a few times until well combined. Place the strawberry sugar in a shallow bowl and set aside.
  • Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease and flour a 24-serving mini muffin pan.** Do not skip this step and do not use liners. The muffins need to form a crust on the outside so they don't soak up too much butter in the final step.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup (100g) of sugar with the oil, egg and extracts until smooth. Whisk in the strawberry purée until well combined.
  • Stir in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula, just until combined. The batter will be thick.
  • Transfer the batter evenly into the prepared muffin pan cups.
  • Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake! Be diligent, since over baking can happen very quickly with mini muffins.
  • Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out onto a cooling rack. Place the melted butter in a small bowl. Dunk the warm muffins briefly in the melted butter, then roll them in the strawberry sugar.

Notes

To find the gel food color I used, click here.
To find the mini muffin pan I used, click here.
Keyword muffins, strawberry

Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins

Posted on by Mari Vasseur
Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins

My mom had a cupboard in the kitchen containing a few old cookbooks that she rarely used. As a child, I used to enjoy perusing them and looking at the baked treats. Some of the cookbooks were so old, they had black and white photos or even just drawings of the food. The ones with drawings interested me because they often depicted smiling children enjoying the treats.

When I started learning to bake, I found a recipe for French Breakfast Puffs in one of those old books. The title sounded so fancy, but they were really just simple muffins dunked in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar. I have no idea what the name of the cookbook was or what happened to it, but the delicious muffin recipe stuck around for a while. I’ve tweaked the recipe so many times over the years, and most recently, I added pumpkin to it. These Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins are one of the best versions I’ve created. The inside texture of the muffins is soft and moist and it contrasts nicely with the slight crunch you get from the cinnamon sugar on the outside. They look so cute too, like little pumpkins, and they definitely make children smile!

To watch the Instagram video of these mini muffins being made, click here.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins

Soft, tender pumpkin mini muffins rolled in cinnamon sugar
Print Recipe
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Servings 22 mini muffins

Ingredients
  

Muffins

  • 1 ½ cups (190g) all purpose flour, sifted
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, preferably freshly ground
  • ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
  • â…“ cup (80ml) vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup (113g) canned pure pumpkin purée Not pie filling

Topping

  • â…” cup (132g) granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 6 tablespoons (85g) melted butter

Instructions
 

Muffins

  • Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease and flour a 24-serving mini muffin pan.* Do not use muffin liners. (The muffins need to form an outer crust. This prevents them from absorbing too much melted butter later in the recipe.)
  • In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until well combined.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and pumpkin purée until smooth and well combined. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined. The batter will be thick.
  • Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, filling the muffin cups about 2/3 full. (I ended up with 22 muffins.)
  • Bake until toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean, about 10-13 minutes. Do not over bake! Be diligent, since over baking can happen very quickly with mini muffins. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out and place on a cooling rack.

Topping

  • Whisk the sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl until well combined.
  • Briefly dunk the warm muffins in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar.

Notes

To find the mini muffin pan I used, click here.
Keyword muffins, pumpkin, pumpkin spice

Fairy Puffs

Posted on by Mari Vasseur
Fairy Puffs sugared mini muffins wtih edible flowers

My dad used to take me on walks in the woods to look for fairy rings when I was a child. I wanted to see a real fairy so badly! I read a book about fairies, hoping to learn more about them. Fairies love little cakes, milk, honey and butter so I’m sure these Fairy Puffs would be fairy approved.

My Fairy Puffs recipe is loosely based on an old favorite mini muffin recipe. I tweaked it quite a bit, including the addition of pink dragonfruit powder. Dragonfruit has a subtle flavor, so the bright fuchsia powder is mostly for color. But oh what a beautiful color it is! You can find dragonfruit powder in healthy food stores or online. To find the dragonfruit powder, also known as pink pitaya powder, I used, click here.

fairy puff muffins

Decorating these little cuties was so entertaining! After sampling multiple variations of sparkling sugar and cinnamon sugar, I decided that dipping the bottoms of the muffins in butter and cinnamon sugar, then dipping the tops in butter and sparkling sugar gave them the perfect balance of sugar and spice. I had purchased some edible flowers a couple of days prior, and they added a pretty, magical touch. The flowers I used are called bachelor’s buttons and I got them at a local gourmet flower seller.

sugared mini muffins with edible flowers

Fairy Puffs

Print Recipe
Course Breakfast, Brunch
Servings 24 mini muffins

Ingredients
  

Fairy Puffs

  • 1 â…“ cups (6 oz or 99g) all purpose flour, sifted
  • 3 tablespoons dragonfruit powder *See note below
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • Scant ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • â…“ cup (2 5/8 oz or 75g) unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g) granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup (4 oz or 118ml) whole milk

Topping

  • ½ cup (4 oz or 113g) unsalted butter, melted
  • ½ cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g) granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g) sparkling sugar crystals **I used combinations of white, pink, purple & blue
  • edible flowers (optional)

Instructions
 

Fairy Puffs

  • Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 24 serving mini muffin pan.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, dragonfruit powder, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
  • Add egg and beat until smooth.
  • Add flour mixture and milk alternately in two additions and mix just until combined.
  • Transfer batter to prepared muffin pan, filling muffin cups about 3/4 full.
  • Bake until toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean, about 12-14 minutes. (Be careful not to over bake. Check a few minutes early. Small muffins can dry out easily.)
  • Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove puffs from pan and transfer to cooling rack. (Loosen puffs with a small offset spatula or butter knife if necessary.)

Topping

  • Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
  • Place colored sparkling sugar crystals in another shallow bowl.
  • Dip the bottoms of each puff in melted butter, then into cinnamon sugar mixture.
  • Dip the tops of each puff in melted butter, then into sparkling sugar.
  • Decorate with edible flowers if desired.

Notes

*To purchase dragonfruit powder, click here.
 **To purchase pink sparkling sugar crystals, click here.
 
Keyword cake, muffins