Cream Cheese Coffee Muffins #MuffinMonday

Cream cheese coffee muffins are made with espresso granules for great coffee flavor but even better, they have espresso morsels, my new favorite chip!

During most of the pandemic, my only outing was a once-a-week trip to the grocery store. Sometimes it was a quick get-in get-out and no one gets hurt sortie. Other weeks, I took my time and really looked at the options on the shelves. It was one of those second times that I found the Nestlé Tollhouse espresso morsels. 

Maybe they’ve been around a while but they were new to me. I love coffee so how could a coffee chip be anything but good? I’m here to report that they are fabulous! The package says, and I quote: Made with real coffee, no preservatives, no artificial flavors or colors. 

They have the texture of semi-sweet chocolate chips but are full-on coffee flavor instead! If you love coffee, you are going to love these too. 

Cream Cheese Coffee Muffins 

These muffins are the perfect breakfast or snack time treat. Serve them with a cup of coffee, tea or a cold glass of milk.

Ingredients

2 cups or 250g flour

3/4 cup or 150g sugar

2 teaspoons instant espresso granules

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup or 170g espresso morsels

2 eggs, at room temperature

8 oz or 227g cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup or 180ml milk

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by lining it with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, espresso granules, baking powder and salt together. Set aside 24 espresso morsels and add the rest of them to the dry ingredients and stir to coat the morsels with flour. 

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl then add the cream cheese. Use a whisk to chop the cream cheese into smaller pieces then whisk until smooth and creamy. 

Add in the milk and whisk again to combine. 

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined. 

Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Top with the reserved coffee morsels.

Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes or until golden and well-risen.

Remove muffins from muffin pan and leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Enjoy!

It’s Muffin Monday! Check out all the lovely muffins my baking friends are sharing below. 

• Buttermilk Rhubarb Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Cream Cheese Coffee Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins from Making Miracles
• Lemon Strawberry Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Sourdough Cherry Almond Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

 

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Cream Cheese Coffee Muffins! 

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Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones

These overnight yeasted cheese scones have cheese inside and on top. They make a delightful breakfast or snack or use them as sandwich bread. 

A couple of months ago in this very group, you might recall that we posted recipes from Poland. I made a very tasty potato pie called baba kartoflana in Polish. While I was researching for that recipe, I somehow came across these overnight, yeasted cheese scones from Hungary and made a note for later. 

According to the original author, these are called pogácsa in Hungarian and they are a popular bite-size snack served at the beginning of parties or get-togethers. Makes sense because they would be wonderful accompaniments to cocktails. Pogácsa are always made with a yeast dough. 

Since we aren’t really doing parties these days, I made mine normal scone/biscuit size. They are perfect on their own, especially warm. After eating one scone for breakfast plain, my husband also made sandwiches with a couple for lunch. He highly recommends salami and mustard on these. I think smoked ham would also be delightful. 

Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones

In the original recipe, as mentioned above, a much smaller cookie cutter is used so that the scones are bite-sized. They also have half the cheese. In our house more cheese is always a good thing so I’ve doubled the cheese and put some in the dough and on top. 

Ingredients
2 tablespoons lukewarm milk
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 113g butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, separated into yolk and white
1/3 cup or 75g sour cream
3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated and divided

Method
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm milk. Set aside. 

Whisk the flour and salt together into a large bowl. Add the cubed butter and use a pastry blender to cut it into the flour. 

Add in half of the grated cheese and mix well. 

Make a hollow in the flour and pour in milk/yeast mixture, followed by the egg yolk and sour cream. 

Use a wooden spoon (then a clean hand) to mix the ingredients together. At first it looks too dry but just keep at it and shortly, it comes together into a stiff dough. Knead until smooth. 

Press the dough into a fat disk and cover it with cling film. Chill overnight in the refrigerator. 

The next day, when you are ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator so it can warm up slightly.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner and preheat your oven to 428°F or 220°C. Beat the egg white to loosen it, adding a 1/2 teaspoon of water.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is about 3/4 in or 2 cm thick. Use a 3 in or 7.5cm cm cookie cutter to cut out the scones.

Briefly knead together any leftover dough and roll it out again to cut more scones. 

Transfer all of the scones to the prepared baking sheet.

Brush the tops with the beaten egg white. 

Then top them with the other half of the grated cheese. 

Bake the scones in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Cool them on a wire rack for a few minutes before serving. 

Enjoy! 

Today's Baking Bloggers theme is yeast breads. Check out all the lovely recipes my blogger friends are sharing. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Bagels from Sneha's Recipe
• Connie's Swedish Rye from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Crunchy Herbed Whole Wheat Breadsticks from Cook with Renu
• Crusty No-Knead Oatmeal Bread from Making Miracles
• Hearty Slow Fermented Rustic Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Hveteboller (Norwegian Cardamom Buns) from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones from Food Lust People Love
• Pizza Focaccia from Palatable Pastime
• Sourdough Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

Pin these Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones!

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Browned Butter Banana Muffins #MuffinMonday

Banana muffins are always good, especially when your bananas are sweet and ripe but switch out the oil or butter for browned butter and try my browned butter banana muffins with browned butter glaze. You’ll never want them any other way.

A number of years ago, I discovered browned butter on my friend Kayle’s wonderful blog, The Cooking Actress. While I think I am mildly addicted, Kayle has so many more browned butter recipes on her blog than I do. She is my inspiration to brown butter all the things. If you need instructions on how to make it – it’s super simple, so don’t be scared – check out this link.

Meanwhile, you might want try some of my favorites:

• Browned Butter Applesauce Bars with Apple Walnut Streusel 
• Browned Butter Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Muffins 
• Browned Butter Maple Muffins 
• Browned Butter Pecan Muffins 

Browned Butter Banana Muffins with Browned Butter Glaze

Can you leave off the browned butter glaze? You could, of course, but WHY? I am not a big sweet eater but I do have a weakness for all things caramel. I’m here to tell you though that browned butter lends that same almost smoky flavor to all things, both sweet and savory. Seriously. I couldn’t stop eating the glaze and it’s just about pure sugar. So good!

Ingredients
1/2 cup or 115g butter
2 1/4 cups or 280g flour
3/4 cup or 170g golden caster sugar (Sub regular sugar if you can’t find golden)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 well-ripened bananas
1/2 cup or 120ml buttermilk
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Optional (BUT DO IT!): browned butter glaze
2 teaspoons browned butter
1/2 cup or 63g powdered sugar
2-3 teaspoons milk or buttermilk
pinch salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your large 12-cup muffin pan by greasing lightly or lining with muffin papers. This batter will fill more than your standard 12-cup muffin pan. Either use larger paper cups that come up higher than the pan, or make more muffins.

Brown your butter for the muffins, adding an extra couple of teaspoons if you are going to make the browned butter glaze. If you don’t know how to brown butter, it’s easy! Follow these instructions, right here, from The Cooking Actress:  How to brown butter. When the butter is browned, set it aside to cool, reserving two teaspoons of it for the glaze in a small mixing bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In another bowl, mash your ripe bananas with a fork. Add in the eggs, vanilla extract and milk and whisk.

Pour in the cooled browned butter and whisk again.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and stir a couple of times until just combined.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, add the powdered sugar and pinch of salt to the reserved teaspoons of browned butter. Mix well.

Drizzle the cooled muffins with glaze. I like to use a plastic bag with the corner cut off for neater drizzling.  I left a few naked at my daughter's request.

Enjoy!

Check out all the lovely muffins my Muffin Monday group are sharing today!

• Browned Butter Banana Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Small Batch Apple Nut Oatmeal Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Strawberry Banana Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Sugar Free Banana Pecan Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Browned Butter Banana Muffins!

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Candied Fruit Christmas Muffins #MuffinMonday

Candied fruit Christmas muffins are made with a sweet, but not too sweet, vanilla crumb, filled with a mix of chewy fruit. They smell wonderful while they bake, filling the house with the sweet scent of Christmas. Perfect for a holiday breakfast or snack time with a hot cup of tea.

I came across a recipe recently for packaging up muffin mixes as gifts over on the BBC Good Food site and I thought, what an excellent idea!  Not that I was going to make the mixes to give away – I don’t have enough friends nearby who like to bake – but the muffins called for mixed fruit with candied peel.

I don’t know if it’s nostalgia for my grandmother’s fruitcake – she made the only version I would ever eat, not too dry with the just the right mix of fruit and nuts – but candied fruit always makes me think of Christmas. What could be better for this month’s Muffin Monday than a candied fruit Christmas muffin in anticipation of the holidays?

I used my favorite make-ahead breakfast muffin recipe but I cut back on the sugar because of all the candied fruit. These are sweet enough, I promise.

Candied Fruit Christmas Muffins

The chewy fruit and spices make these muffins smell and taste like Christmas. Put these in the oven on Christmas morning and your family will pop out of bed to find out what you are baking!

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 150g candied fruit peel and fruit medley, plus a little extra for garnish, if desired
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Generously grease cups and top of 12-cup muffin tin or line your pan with muffin paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice and salt, along with the candied fruit. Use your clean hands to mix the fruit in, rubbing the pieces between your fingers to separate those that are stuck together so they can be coated with the flour mixture.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, vanilla and eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened. 

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups and top with a few pieces of candied fruit.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other wonderful muffins my Muffin Monday group is sharing today!

• Apple Butter Muffin Tops from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Apple Streusel Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Beet Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Candied Fruit Christmas Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Crab Corn Muffin from Kelli's Kitchen
• Fruitcake Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Jim ‘n Nick’s Cheesy Muffins - Copycat from Making Miracles
• Shoofly Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook

 #MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Pin it!  

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Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins #MuffinMonday

Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins are my hat tip to the season, made with a cup of pumpkin and lots of rich dark chocolate. The pumpkin gives the batter a beautiful orange color and makes the muffins moist but the flavor is perfectly subtle.

I tend to be one of those people who resist cooking and baking with pumpkin until I can feel coolness in the air. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting that that just doesn’t happen in Dubai until autumn is pretty much over, calendar-wise.

But when it gets to be October and almost November, I guess it’s time!

Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins

If you are throwing a Halloween party, you’ll want to mix up a batch of these. The dark chocolate swirl and the orange pumpkin batter will be a hit on your holiday table.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 200g sugar
1/2 15 oz can or almost one cup or 200g pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil
1/4 cup or 60ml orange juice
4 1/4 oz or 120g 70% cocoa dark chocolate (I like Lindt.)

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it thoroughly, spraying with non-stick spray or lining it with paper muffin cups.

Melt your chocolate gently the microwave with a few short bursts of 10-15 seconds at a time, stirring in between.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar and stir well.

In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, oil, orange juice and eggs.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.

Pour about two-thirds of the melted chocolate on top of the batter and use a spoon to fold it in so there are still pockets of chocolate, in and around the pumpkin batter.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Use a small spoon to divide the remaining chocolate to top the batter in the muffin cups. Use a toothpick to swirl that chocolate into the top of the batter.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool for a few minutes and then remove the muffins and put on a rack to cool completely.

Word of warning: Depending on the temperature of your kitchen (still pretty hot here in Dubai!) the chocolate may come off a little onto your fingers as you handle the muffins. Lick it off and carry on. In a colder kitchen, the chocolate should set.

Enjoy!

Check out all the lovely October muffins my Muffin Monday group have baked for your today. It’s so hard to choose which to make first!

• Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins from Making Miracles
• Blueberry Muffin Tops with a Cheesecake Drizzle from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Bonfire Tea Muffins from The Spiced Life
• Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Mediterranean Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Savoury Pumpkin Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sweet Potato Casserole Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Pin it! 

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