When it comes to baking, there's nuffin' like a muffin

During my days of baking for the farmers market, one of the most popular items was muffins. Blueberry ones were the favorite. I had acquired a pan that made the big muffins you see at certain warehouse megamarts these day. I found that scratch muffins were just as tasty as those made with a muffin mix.

In my early days of baking at Super One Foods, we used a commercially-made muffin base to make muffins. All we had to do was add eggs, water, and vegetable oil. The oil gave the finished muffin a very moist texture. Because it was a commercial mix, it was a very stable recipe and was also used to make crème cakes and pound cakes. During part of my time as the bakery manager at Food Pavilion, I tried making muffins from a scratch recipe and from the commercial mix. Both had their strong points, but the scratch one didn't have all of the additives. As an aside, current megamarts get all muffins, sliced quick breads, and crème/pudding cakes premade from a factory far, far away and come frozen, already baked and packaged, so you no longer have the fresh baked flavor we did 30 years ago.

When you make your standard quick bread recipe, you get a crack along the top of the loaf as the top gets set by the heat of the oven, and then as the center of the loaf comes up in temperature and the leavening starts, it breaks open the top of the loaf giving it a distinct crack. In the bakery, we would make sure we had a nice looking crack in the finished product by taking a plastic bowl scraper dipped into vegetable oil and lightly dipping it into the top of the portioned batter in the loaf pan.

When we had need to make up a batch of bran muffins back in the day, we had a mix for that. It came in a 25-pound sack and all we had to add was warm water and mix. Raisins were optional. We'd scoop it out into lined muffin tins, bake a few pans off, and the rest would be placed into the walk-in cooler to bake another day.

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

• 3 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 sick of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups small to medium blueberries, room temperature
• Struesel topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line 16 muffin cups. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl occasionally. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla and sour cream. Mix well. Stir in dry ingredients and mix just until smooth. Fold in blueberries, if desired. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle with streusel topping. Bake for 18 to 24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to complete cooling.

STRUESEL TOPPING

• 1/2 cup flour
• 6 tablespoons brown sugar
• Dash of salt
• 3 tablespoons butter

Place these in the bowl of a food processor and run until crumbly. Use as needed. Store any unused streusel in a ziptop bag in the refrigerator.

GINGER CREAM CAKE

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt, allspice and nutmeg in medium bowl; set aside. Beat 1/2 cup butter and sugar in large mixer bowl on medium speed until creamy. Add egg; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low. Continue beating, alternately adding flour mixture with molasses and 1 cup water, beating after each addition just until mixed. Pour batter into 13x9-inch ungreased baking pan; sprinkle with 3/4 cup brown sugar. Combine hot water and 1/3 cup melted butter in medium bowl; carefully pour over top of batter. Bake for 40 to 55 minutes or until gingerbread is cracked on top and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm with whipped cream.

BRAN MUFFINS

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups oat bran
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
• Fine grated zest of 2 oranges
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons canned crushed pineapple, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees and adjust shelf to just below center in oven. Roast the walnuts on a baking sheet for 10 to 12 minutes. While the nuts are hot, stir in the butter and sprinkle with the salt. Set aside. Raise oven temperature to 450 degrees. Combine the oat bran, flour, dry milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the grated carrot, apple, orange zest, and nuts. Stir to combine. Beat together the egg, the whites, buttermilk, oil, pineapple and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir to combine. Using paper liners in a muffin pan, fill each cup to the brim. Bake until browned, about 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack.