Mini Maple Pancake Muffins

I love pancakes.  I would eat them every day if I let myself.  My husband is actually making some for me right now, isn't he sweet!  ;)  And just how cute are these mini maple pancake muffins?  Dunk them in some warm syrup after they come out of the oven and mmmm, satisfied tummy!  These would be a fun breakfast for little kiddos, too!  Make them plain, throw in some chocolate chips... or even some blueberries (I made half of mine blueberry - yum!).

Mini Maple Pancake Muffins
adapted from Bakerella

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
•  1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2/3 cup buttermilk (remember my buttermilk trick?) 
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. maple syrup
• 2 tbsp. melted butter
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• A couple taps of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or blueberries (optional)

 Preheat oven to 350 F.  Generously grease mini muffin pan with nonstick spray.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, and a few taps of cinnamon in a medium bowl.  Mix with a wire whisk.

In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup, vanilla extract and melted butter until just combined.  Then add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir.  Stir in chocolate chips, if you desire.  I used frozen blueberries instead!  

Bake 8-9 minutes.  Makes 24 mini pancake muffins.  Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.  Serve immediately with warmed butter if you like or even just with maple syrup.

Peabody Vanilla Muffins

This is one of those recipes that I dug out of my Grandma's bread recipe folder.  I must say, her recipes never disappoint me!  I love muffins, although my favorite is blueberry, I thought I'd give this one a go.  At first I was afraid that this one would be too plain and boring, but not at all!  It's very simple, but still elegant.  My Grandma had a note written next to the recipe saying that they serve these at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis (an extremely beautiful and historic hotel), so I asked my husband about that since he's from that area and he said that they do serve them - not that I was doubting my Grandma's notes!  I just thought it was neat.  :)

The view of Memphis from the top of the Peabody, while we were in town visiting family in 2009.

The famous Peabody ducks.

Peabody Vanilla Muffins
recipe from my Grandma

• 2 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix milk, egg, and melted butter, and vanilla together.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and pour all of the milk/egg mixture into the well.  Stir with a fork, only until all the ingredients are  moistened - over-mixing will result in tough muffins.  Spoon muffin batter into well greased muffin tins (or use paper baking cups), filling each slightly more than half full.  Also, before I bake them, I like to sprinkle a little bit of sugar over the top.  It makes the muffins all sparkly and pretty when they're done baking.  :)  Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes.  Remove from muffin pan immediately and serve hot.

This recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins, or 30 mini muffins.

My husband likes his with a little jam.  I like them with a little honey!  But they're just as delicious plain.

Blueberry Muffins

Yesterday was a very lazy day here in our household!  My Husband was a bit under the weather and came home from his Doctor appointment with an insane amount of medication.  Poor Guy.  So I decided to make some homemade blueberry muffins to cheer him up.  An afternoon of warm blueberry muffins, Tosh.0, Army Wives (yes, he is a trooper), and naps.  Those days are nice every once in a while.. and Husband is feeling a bit better today.  I think it was the muffins.  ;)

 Perfect Blueberry Muffins
recipe by Smitten Kitchen

• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (I used sour cream)
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, no need to thaw out)

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners or spray muffin tin with nonstick spray.

Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy.  Add egg and beat well, then sour cream (or yogurt).  Stir flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a separate bowl.  Pour half of dry ingredients over batter.  Mix until combined.  Pour remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears.  Gently fold in your blueberries.  The dough will be fairly thick, closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups.

You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden.  Cool on a wire rack, if you can wait that long (we couldn't!).  They are yummy straight out of the oven with a little butter!

I promise you won't be disappointed!