Recipe Review: Trish Magwood’s Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I became a Food Network and HGTV Canada junkie in high school. Anytime I was home, the TV was turned onto either channel- Martha Stewart, Trading Spaces, Restaurant Makeover, Party Dish- you name it, I watched it.  One show that I really enjoyed was Party Dish with Trish Magwood. Author, Chef and Food Consultant, Trish would create these lavish, yet easy platters to set up at small and large gatherings and functions.  After Party Dish went off the air, I kind of forgot about Trish until I recently heard someone mention her name.  After Googling her, I found Trish’s website and began to go through her free recipes.  Like her, I am a fan of Starbucks’ Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf. I love the tangy flavour of the lemons with the sweetness of the powdered sugar glaze.  YUM!  What I don’t like is the number of calories in the cake.  In Canada, restaurants do not have to list the number of calories in food items, but in the US, by law, calories for every drink and dish has to be listed somewhere.  Guess how many calories are in a slice of that loaf? 410 calories!! Lucky me, Trish has come up with a slightly healthier version of the Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf that I desire to eat every time I go to Starbucks.  I followed her recipe with one exception- I did not dress my muffins with the lemon glaze because I didn’t have powdered sugar on hand.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

(pic below shows what happens when you over fill the muffin tins and then have to go sooth a crying baby which then makes you forget you have muffins in the oven!)

2 cups  all-purpose flour

1 tsp  baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp  salt

1/4 cup  poppy seeds

3/4 cup  butter, softened

1 cup  sugar

2 eggs

1 cup  buttermilk

1/4 cup plain yogurt

Zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 1/2 cup juice)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line standard muffin tin with paper liners. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each egg until the mixture is a light yellow colour. In a measuring cup, mix buttermilk, yogurt, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add half the dry mixture to the batter, then half the buttermilk mixture. Repeat, stirring until just incorporated. Do not over-mix. Using an ice cream scoop or 1/3-cup measure, fill muffin cups three-quarters full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes.

My thoughts after making the muffins: 
1. Trish says this recipe makes 12 muffins…umm NO! This recipe made about 16 standard-size muffins. I followed her meausrements exactly, so I’m not sure what happened. Maybe I whipped too much air into the butter?
2. These muffins can easily become gigantic muffins if you fill the cup too much (see picture )
3. The cake has a mellow lemon flavour. I think if I added the lemon glaze, it would kick it up a notch. However, if I don’t want to empty calories from the glaze, I may just add more lemon rind and lemon juice to the mix.

Bananaberry Muffins and Spiritual Reflections

 “Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods, lives and the fruits (of your toil) but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere. Those who, when misfortune strikes them, say: ‘Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him is our return. Those are the ones upon whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord and it is those who are rightly guided.” [Qur’an 1:155] 

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “When Allah desires good for someone, He tries him with hardships.” [Sahîh al-Bukhârî]  

These last few months for me have been tough emotionally and spiritually. I found myself enveloped in a darkness that brought me down to an all-time low.  As the verse from the Holy Qur’an states above, God will test us in our lives and we must patiently persevere for “Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear..” [Qur’an 2:288].  Keeping this in mind, I have been putting myself through a cleanse- not a detox cleanse of my body (although I would like to do that one of these days), but a spiritual cleanse whereby my life, behaviour, attitude, personality, heart, and soul come into alignment with Allah swt and the teachings of Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him).  This spiritual cleanse has not been easy and is far from over…I feel as though I have only just scratched the surface. All I can do is continue on this path of realignment with patience and gratitude that God put me through this test and be thankful for all that God has given me.
(Please note that I use God and Allah interchangeably because they mean the same thing- Allah is the Arabic word for God.)

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Bananaberry Muffins – these are great for Sehri/Suhoor 

(Recipe adapted from Janet and Greta)

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup wheat bran (original recipe calls for ground flaxseed or wheat germ)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4-5 small ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 large egg
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, washed and drained of water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray muffin tin with oil and set aside.

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl, mix well and set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together bananas, butter and egg. Fold in banana mixture into dry ingredients until dry ingredients are moistened.  Gently fold in blueberries.
Evenly divide batter into muffin tin using a large spoon or ice cream scoop.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Remove muffins from tin and cool on wire rack.

Low Fat Mini Pumpkin Muffins with Pepitas

Recently, I had another “first-time” food experience. This time it was with pumpkin.  Back in the day, and I’m talking way back in elementary school…grade 5 to be precise, was the last time I had had any experience with pumpkins.  It was in Mr. McFarlene’s class and we were carving pumpkins for Halloween.  Now, we didn’t really celebrate Halloween, but because this was a class activity, my parents let me drag a pumpkin to school and carve it with my classmates. I remember sticking my hand inside my pumpkin and feeling all of the gushy, thready goo, and giggling/cringing as I scooped out the seeds and flesh until the insides were smooth.  I was no artist, so I drew out a very simple Jack O’ Lantern design- a face with a very toothy grin.  After school, I dragged the pumpkin back home and planted it on the front porch. When my dad came home that night, we lit a candle and put it inside the pumpkin and had that stupid grin shine up on the wall.  Ahh…life was so simple back then……

Flash forward a “few” years (ahem..) and pumpkin has re-entered my life yet again. This time in the form of a can.  I thought I would have to cut, clean out, and cook a pumpkin to make this, but luckily this recipe from Gina’s Skinny Recipes called for good ol’ canned pumpkin puree. The first time I tried this recipe, I followed it to a T.  Unfortunately, I found the taste to be very OVERWHELMING because of the amount of pumpkin pie spice used. The second time I made them, I cut the pumpkin pie spice in half and found the flavour to be much more appetizing.  If you like your pumpkin baked goods to be very spicy, go right ahead and use the original measurements. But if you want a more delicate taste, use the measurements from below.

Low Fat Mini Pumpkin Muffins with Pepitas

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups Nutri-Blend flour (same as white whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 large egg whites
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp pepitas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray mini muffin tins with some oil.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, pumpkin spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.  Set aside.
In a large bowl beat together egg whites, pumpkin puree and vanilla at medium speed until thick.
Add flour mixture and mix at low speed until wet and dry ingredients are just combined.
Scoop out batter into mini muffin tins using an ice cream scoop.  Sprinkle pepitas on tops of muffins and bake on the centre rack for 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Remove muffins and place on cooking rack.

April Update and Cheddar Herb Mini Muffins

I’m guilty as charged.  I promised in March I would blog more frequently, but that never happened for several reasons. I had flown out to LA for about a week with a vision in my head. I would create something new in my SoCal kitchen as I watched the palm trees sway right outside my window, but that never happened.  I ended up catching a virus on the plane ride to LA. I started to feel run down and had the chills the whole time I was down there. By the time I flew back to TO (El Toro) a week later, the virus showed its ugly head and after a visit to the doctor’s office, I learned that I had viral bronchitis.  I needed to recover fast because I was traveling with my family shortly thereafter on a trip with the Sacred Caravan. I was pretty much over the virus when we travelled to Saudi Arabia and was lucky not to get sick on the trip. However, it seemed like it was destiny for me to get sick on the flight back home, which led me to be out of commission for a bit.  So now that I’ve fully recovered from EVERYTHING, I’m back to blogging with the hope that April will be a better month.

This recipe that I’m going to share with you today came out of one of the December 2010 issues of the Toronto Star. This recipe originates from Good Food For All, a fundraising cookbook for The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto.  I’ve made this recipe twice so far. The first time I followed the recipe step by step. The muffins turned out okay, but I felt that they needed some salt (the original recipe calls for 1 tbsp of sugar and no salt).  The second time I made them, I added 1 tsp of salt and got rid of the sugar entirely, and swapped the 1 cup of white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour for 2 cups of nutri-blend flour and was satisfied with the results. Also, instead of making the muffins in the regular sized muffin tray, I used a mini muffin tin to help with portion control.

Cheddar Herb Mini Muffins

2 cups of Robin Hood’s Nutri-Blend Flour (It is a combination of unbleached flour and ground wheat bran. If you’re in the US, you can use white wholewheat flour or stick with the 1 cup of all purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour)

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp dried oregano (dried sage, basil, or thyme can replace the oregano)

1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 1/4 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the nutri-blend flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, oregano, parsley and cheese. Stir well.

In another bowl, crack the egg and whisk in the buttermilk and oil. Stream into the bowl with the flour mixture, mixing gently as you pour. Stir just until moistened. Scoop the batter in using a 1 1/8″ ice cream scoop or a table spoon into a greased mini muffin pan.

Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.  Remove the muffin tray from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then transfer the muffins to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Beware, once these little muffins come out of the oven, you won’t be able to resist them!