Muffy Muffins and The Muffin Formula

When it comes to baking from scratch, I think whenever you can do it--do it. But sometimes a shortcut or two to save time, money or energy, is practical and acceptable. The following recipe, which is really a formula of sorts, was a tried-and-true go-to for when I was a young mom. It's become a staple and for my now grown kids, a taste of home.

Jan's Muffy Muffins

1 C. Pioneer Baking Mix, no substitutes!
1 C. quick oats
1 C. milk

1/2 C. sugar, plus a bit more for sprinkling
1 egg
3 TBS veg oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk into a mixing bowl, add oats and go fold some laundry for 15 minutes or so. Add sugar, egg, oil and vanilla. (To the bowl, not to the laundry!) Using a fork, beat mixture like a crazy person for about 30 seconds. Stir in Pioneer just until incorporated thoroughly. Pam spray a muffin pan for a dozen muffins. Get a big serving spoon or small ice cream scoop and evenly fill pan. Sprinkle muffin tops with sugar and bake for 20 minutes. Voila, muffins! Now for the best part, besides eating them of course, the formula...

Fill muffins with a two part pastry tip (available at crafts store) attached to a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off. 

Jan's Muffin Formula

If you have 1 cup of Pioneer Baking Mix
1 cup of any other dry ingredient 
1 cup of wet (milk, buttermilk, mashed banana/sour cream, yogurt/almond milk, canned pumpkin/1/2&1/2...) and the rest of the above mentioned ingredients, you have muffins.

 Here are some suggestions for dry ingredients to accompany the Pioneer:  All Bran cereal or pretty much any cereal as long as it has been run through a blender to make a flour-like consistency, rye flour, rice flour, pecan meal, another cup of Pioneer, buckwheat four, coconut flour...you get where I'm going with this.

Your flavorings can change as well. Instead of vanilla, add almond extract. Throw in a pinch or two of nutmeg and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Add raisins or mini chocolate chips to the batter. Mix up a filling of softened cream cheese/powdered sugar and fill the muffins when they're done baking. Play with your food! You can make them as simple as Muffy Muffins or come up with your own crazy concoction. Have fun!

Court's pumpkin muffins (yummmmm)  for our most recent catering job

Perfect Weekend Pancakes

There are two things my Mama taught me that have really served me well in the kitchen over the years: gather all your ingredients before you start cooking/baking, and clean as you go. By gathering all your ingredients before you begin a recipe, you can make sure you don't leave something important out (and by putting them all away after using them, you can insure you don't double anything), and by cleaning as you go, you get more time enjoying what you've made and less time cleaning up after yourself.

Brilliant.

I follow those rules every time I find myself in the kitchen, be it for an elaborate family meal, a simple summer afternoon lunch, or a Sunday morning, when no one wants to clean up, everyone's hungry, and the kiddos are crying for pancakes.

And cry for pancakes they do, especially these.

Note: don't be intimidated by the amount of ingredients in this recipe- together they make a moist, fluffy, wholesome pancake that any picky eater will enjoy, and they're easy to boot!

Courtney's Perfect Weekend Pancakes

Makes around 2 dozen pancakes, which freeze beautifully, by the way

1/2 C whole-wheat pastry flour (unbleached all-purpose flour works too)

1/2 C oat flour*

1/2 C rye flour*

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 C buttermilk

3/4 C nonfat milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 generous TBS honey (maple syrup works well too)

2 large eggs

2 TBS canola oil (or melted butter)

Any add-ins you might enjoy, like blueberries, walnuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Combine flours with baking powder, baking soda, and salt (aka the "dry" ingredients) in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine milks, eggs, vanilla, honey, and oil (aka the "wet" ingredients). Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and mix until just combined (don't over-mix, or pancakes will not be as fluffy!). Heat a pan or griddle to a medium-low heat, rub hot surface with a little butter, and cook pancakes (I use a 1/4-C ice cream scoop to measure the batter) until bubbles form and don't fill back in on the surface of each 'cake. Flip and cook ~1 min more (if using add-ins like blueberries, etc., sprinkle on the top of each pancake just after you pour the batter onto the pan/griddle,). 

Serve warm with butter and syrup, butter and powdered sugar, warm fruit compote, or my daughter's favorite- cinnamon applesauce.

Enjoy!

*You can substitute almost any type of flour in this recipe- you can leave out the rye and double up on all-purpose or whole-wheat pastry flour, you can do the entire recipe with all-purpose flour, or you can sub buckwheat for the oat flour... whatever you have on hand!