Morning Glory Muffins

 

I had discovered Morning Glory Muffins when I was looking for carrot cake recipes. It intrigued me because I had never heard of them before. The combination of fruits and veggies sounded delicious. I perused some recipes and made some modifications. This is what I ended up with.

Can be made in a bowl by hand.

1/3 cup mashed banana (1 small banana mashed on a plate with a fork and then measured)

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup snack cup of unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup of pineapple juice (from 8 oz of crushed pineapple)

2 eggs

1/2 cup of brown sugar

3 TBSP of honey

1 tsp of vanilla

Mix well

1 cup of wheat flour

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/3 or less of ground flax-seed and chia seed mix

2 tsp of baking soda (I accidentally used the cinnamon measurement of 2.5 tsp and they                                                 seemed great)

2 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

3/4 tsp of ginger

1/2 tsp of salt

Mix just until combined, then fold in 

1 cup of grated carrots (other recipes have 2 cups, 1 is fine)

1 cup of grated apple

1/2 cup of raisins

1/2 cup of crushed pineapple (my addition, sometimes a suggested substitution)

Spray muffin pan and fill most of the way with a full ice cream scoop.

Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes and then reduce the oven to 350 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes or so.

These muffins are moist and have a great flavor. I do detect a hint of banana, but it doesn't take away from the other flavors. They might be nice with an addition of allspice and a reduction in oil. There's also plenty of sweetness between the sugar, banana, and raisins. A decrease in sugar would work too.

Yielded 12 muffins and 1 small ramekin.

Chocolate Cheesecake

Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes

Yield 24 mini cheesecakes and two 4” round cakes

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Crust:

14 Gluten Free Oreos - use potato masher or blender to crush

2 TB melted butter 

Divide into foil muffin liners (foil only) and bake 5 mins

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees

Cheesecake:

Mix together for 2 mins

2 8 oz Philadelphia ⅓ less fat cream cheese

⅔ cup sugar

Add and mix together

⅔ cup plain Greek Yogurt

1.5 tsp vanilla

Add one at a time and mix

2 eggs

For chocolate cheesecake:

Melt chocolate according to instructions, then allow to cool and mix in

7 oz Ghirardelli 60% Cacao bittersweet chocolate bars melted

½ TB Ghirardelli cacao *May contain tree nuts, whet, soy, milk and egg

Add batter to muffin liners with a cookie scoop. Batter appears thick.

Bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 mins.

Cheesecakes are not very sweet, but a nice combination.

Could add more sugar or use semi-sweet chocolate for people who like it sweeter.

Two 4" springform pans baked about 30 minutes

For a full sized chocolate cheesecake increase the ingredients by 1/3.

Crust:

20 Gluten Free Oreos - use potato masher or blender to crush

3 TB melted butter 

Cheesecake:

3 - 8 oz Philadelphia ⅓ less fat cream cheese

1 cup sugar

Add

1 cup plain Greek Yogurt

2 tsp vanilla

Add one at a time and mix

2 eggs

2 eggs whites

For chocolate cheesecake:

Melt chocolate according to instructions, then allow to cool and mix in

10 oz Ghirardelli 60% Cacao bittersweet chocolate bars melted (or semi sweet)

3/4 TB Ghirardelli cacao

General cheesecake recipe with images

Chocolate and cinnamon/cardamon twists (buns)

Every Christmas morning growing up we would have cinnamon buns. As I started my own family, my mom or more often my dad would deliver my mom's cinnamon buns. Her recipe is actually called cinnamon twists. I enjoy experimenting with recipes and not everyone at my house likes raisins. I came across a King's Cake recipe that reminded me a lot of the cinnamon twists. The shape is made differently by rolling and braiding additionally the filling adds flour to the butter, cinnamon, and sugar mixture. I made the King's Cake a couple times as the recipe is written. I wanted to try chocolate filling and found a recipe for Chocolate Sweet buns  and tried twisting them after I rolled the swirl and that wasn't quite right. But they were tasty.

This time I decided to make the King's Cake recipe, make half the filling cinnamon with cardamon and the other half chocolate. I also wanted to twist the dough and followed the old twist recipe by adding filling to the center third of the 10 x 16" rectangle, then folding over the top third. Then the other half of the filling is added on top of the folded part which finally is enclosed by the last third.

Like other cinnamon bun recipes, the dough is divided into twelve pieces, in this case strips, which are twisted and then the ends are pinched together. 

When I made the Chocolate Sweet Buns recipe above, it stated that chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate could be used interchangeably. In the King's Cake brioche with chocolate filling, I used 4 oz of semi-sweet Ghirardelli chocolate and found that the chunks of Ghirardelli chocolate melted completely while the chocolate chips from the previous attempt did not melt well at all.

Sweet brioche dough recipe adapted from the King's Cake recipe.

1 cup milk

¼ cup butter

Heat milk and butter in the microwave until warm or allow to cool until warm.

Add

1 ½ teaspoon salt

⅔ cup warm water

½ cup granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon bread machine dry yeast

1 teaspoon of cardamon

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Add one cup of bread flour at a time until 5 - 5 ½ cups have been added.

Knead until smooth. Dough will be a bit sticky. Allow to rest for 1-2 hours until doubled. Once doubled, punch down and knead briefly. Divide the dough into two. 

Stretch the first ball of dough and then roll it to a 10" x 16" rectangle. 

Add one-half of one of the fillings to the middle third, fold one third over, add the other half. 

Cut into 12 strips, twist and arrange on a lined cookie sheet. 

Repeat with the second dough ball.

Cinnamon filling (adapted from King's Cake recipe):

2 Tablespoons of butter melted

1/3 cup of brown sugar

half of a 1/3 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of cardamon

Chocolate Filling (adapted from Sweet Chocolate bun recipe):

4 Tablespoons butter melted

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons flour

2 Tablespoons baking cocoa

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate bar, chopped

Once twists are formed, allow to rise again covered for 30 minutes.

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes. Tent with aluminum foil after 15 minutes.

While icing was included in both above recipes, we did not see a need for more sweetness. The sugar could probably be cut down a bit and still have a great flavor.