Sunday, July 26, 2009

Spiced Yogurt Muffins

Alright, I just have to say this now, these are the best muffins I've had in over 3 years, probably ever. And people, I've eaten a lot of muffins these past 3 years! But wait, thats not all. These muffins are healthy! No, really. Low fat, brown sugar, yogurt- it's all there. Really, you will not BELIEVE just how darned good these muffins taste. I know I hardly can! And I've been making them every few days since my first batch :)

Ok, ok, I'll stop going on and on, and just tell you about the recipe. But oh, before that, you need to know this, Singapore = food paradise. No, it's not not one of those random things I just like saying (though, now that we're on that topic, did I mention that I have about 2 whole hedgerows of basil at home? And that I can't think of anything exciting enough to make using basil? Sorry, back to Singapore). Anyway, the thing is, I spent the last 4 days there. And probably ate about a month's worth of food (I can see you turn green with envy! Poor you, I feel your pain. Honestly I do.) 

More importantly, I managed to bring home over 40 pounds (ha! it still feels so good saying it!) of food/cooking ingredients. Look! This is just some of the food that I bought back. I can't wait to get cooking with all this!!

Please tell me you're jealous now. It would make up for all those times I've looked at your blogs and wished I could just go shopping and buy cheese and fresh herbs, like you probably can.

Back to the muffins.




You will need - Low fat yogurt, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, freshly grated nutmeg, eggs, unsalted butter, applesauce (or milk), granulated sugar, light brown sugar, vanilla extract/vanilla bean, salt (that I haven't included, of course), and ground allspice (that I don't have)





It's very simple. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl (except the granulated sugar and 1/4 tsp nutmeg), and keep that aside. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, butter, applesauce (or milk) and vanilla extract (if you're using a bean like I did, just scrape out the seeds and use the pod to make vanilla sugar). Fold yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until just blended.





Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the granulated sugar and remaining nutmeg over the muffins. Bake until muffins are springy. Let the muffins cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.





Serve warm. And bake them again. And again. And again. And again... You get the idea...


RECIPE

(adapted from Food & Wine Magazine)

Ingredients:

all purpose flour - 2 cups
light brown sugar - 1 cup
baking powder - 1 tbsp
baking soda - 1/2 tsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
ground allspice - 1/2 tsp
ground cloves - 1/2 tsp
freshly grated nutmeg - 3/4 tsp
eggs - 2 large (room temp.)
low-fat yogurt - 1 & 1/4 cups
unsalted butter - 4 tbsp
applesauce - 1/4 cup (or substitute with full fat milk)
pure vanilla extract - 1 tsp (or 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped)
granulated sugar - 1 tbsp


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 
Keep aside the granulated sugar and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg.
In a bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, applesauce (/milk), butter and vanilla.
Fold the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until just blended.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. 
Sprinkle granulated sugar and remaining nutmeg over the muffins.
Bake for 18 minutes, or until muffins are springy.
Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
Serve warm.

8 comments:

Parita said...

Oh yes I am soooo jealous :) look at all those goodies!!! Muffins sound super delicious, never spiced yogurt muffins before, sounds wonderful to me, by the way first time here , and must say you have lovely space :)

hullabaloo said...

forty pounds of food!?! mad woman. hope the rest of your singapore days were good and shopping-ful. (wait with everything you've brought back like i even need to ask!) enjoy using all your ingredients!

soumya

ps: i messaged you on sunday, did you receive it?

raj said...

@ parita - thank you! :) and trust me, these muffins are the BEST!

@ sowmya - i tried texting you a million times! :( think my phone was screwed up. will try making it before you leave! thank you! LOVED that whole day. p.s:i now crave dim sum. sigh...sadness...

Vasishta Dasika said...

40 pound??? :)

Slurrrrrpp :P

raj said...

@ vasi - i would've left my clothes behind if it had meant bringing back more food! :P

The Purple Foodie said...

OF course I am jealous! Just wne ton to flickr to see the enlarged version of it, but poor me the biggest image I could find was still not big enough to show me more detail. I love everything you got! I can't wait for you to cook up things from here. See aren't you happy you went after all the mulling over it?

I'm sure the yoghurt muffins taste great. Yoghurt makes anything better. Especially cakes and muffins!

I'm so happy you're back! :D

raj said...

@ shaheen :P you made my day! lol.

nandini said...

Jealous? sure iam... Look at those goodies!!. Hey tell me something,does basil survive chennai weather . Its my dream to grow my own.