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Do you know that the Irish would carve turnips into jack-o-lanterns instead of pumpkins on Halloween? I just heard that on the History channel.

Pumpkin is not one of my favorite ingredients, I don’t hate it, I just don’t love it. Though I have been more open to using and trying things with pumpkin lately. So I was excited to make these muffins. Although I am always be happy to try a new muffin recipe, especially an Ellie Krieger one. This recipe is a pretty standard low fat muffin recipe. The fats are canola oil, eggs, and low fat buttermilk. And the actual flavor of the muffin is very much like a spice cake with a hint of pumpkin.

I did make a few changes to the original recipe, which can be found here.

• I used 100% all-purpose flour
• I added 50% more of all the spices since some were saying these were bland
• I only used 2 tbsp of molasses since that is all I had left
• I left out the pumpkin seeds because I did not want to buy them just for this
• I added in a handful of ground flax seed to the batter

Overall I really enjoyed these muffins. Ellie’s muffin recipes have not disappointed me yet. There was a nice flavor to the muffin with the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, though I think there is room to improve by changing the amounts. It was also pretty moist and did not have the gross gummy dense texture that some low fat muffins can have.

I think that some golden raisins in the muffin might be good, I will try that next time. I also loved 24carrots idea on the Tell All to substitute maple syrup for the molasses. I may also try replacing one of the eggs with another cup of pumpkin and see how that goes. This would make it healthier as well as allow me to use up a whole small can of pumpkin instead of only half a can.

Bottom line: These muffins were very good, I will definitely make them again and try different variations.

Great pick by Amanda of Oddball Oven Mitt for this week’s Craving Ellie in My Belly.

You may recall some weeks ago that I posted about strawberry bread that I made that was loaded with butter and marscapone cheese. Yum! It was delicious.

Now I bring you strawberry muffins. These are not nearly as rich and delicious as the strawberry bread. However, the good news is that I can actually eat more than just a sliver without gaining 10 pounds.

I bought a huge container of strawberries and I had to use them up before they turned on me. I had seen this recipe from Jen at Savor the Thyme a while back and it popped in my head as the perfect way to put these berries to good use.

These were pretty tasty, and I also think they are the healthiest muffins I have made in a while. They were a tad dense and not as tender as I would have preferred, but they were a good low fat breakfast muffin.

Since I used Jen’s recipe almost as written, I am going to send you over to her site for it. The only change I made was that I did not boil the strawberries down before adding them to the batter, I just added fresh cut berries. You can find the recipe here for Strawberry Muffins.

Applesauce Spice Bars. I can’t say that this is something I would have chosen to make on my own. However, as is the case with most Dorie Greenspan recipes, they were quite good. This cake was spiced with the usual suspects of cinnamon and all spice, and rounded out with a nice splash of brandy. The cake could really not have been more moist, and the glaze, oh boy. The glaze was by far the best part. Just combine yourself the right amount of sugar and fat and you have liquid happiness. I let my bars cool 100% completely before I made the glaze so I would have a nice thick icing. Some of it still did seep into the cake, but most of it set quickly and stayed on the top where it belonged.

This cake really reminded me of a muffin, in the process of making it and in the texture and taste. I am sure some people did bake them into muffins and they probably came out wonderful. I might try to lighten this recipe up in the future and make some healthier muffins with it. I really loved the chunks of apples and nuts, and I even enjoyed the raisins in this which can be hit or miss for me. Nick suggested that I make these again during the holidays and make a boozed up version of the glaze to top it with. Sounds good to me.

Nick seemed to enjoy these a lot, and I hope the rest of his coworkers do as well, as I am dumping a huge pan of them in his office this morning. They must get out of the house. I am so untrustworthy around anything sweet that I bake myself. Even if I don’t really like something, I will still eat it because it’s there and it’s home baked by me.

This was a super Tuesdays with Dorie pick by Karen of Something Sweet. You can find the recipe at Karen’s blog or on page 117-118 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

So a few weeks ago I posted about some yummy lemon blueberry muffins. This week I thought I would shake things up a bit and post about some orange blueberry muffins. I know, I’m crraaaazy. I like to live life in the fast lane.

These Orange Berry Muffins are the very first recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. I don’t really know why that is relevant, but, something has got to be first and this is it.

They top the list of favorite muffins that I have made in recent times. I absolutely loved the orange blueberry combo and the orange flavor was a nice change up from the standard lemon zest that I usually add to a berry muffin.

These muffins were really tender and moist, with a great crumb. Not surprising since this is a Dorie recipe. They were on the lower end of sweet, which to my surprise I enjoyed. There is only 1/3 cup of sugar in the batter. The rest of the sweetness comes from some honey and fresh orange juice.

For this recipe I used the zest of 2 oranges but the juice of only 1 orange (about 1/4 cup). This created a lovely orange flavor that was not overpowering.

I used 6 oz of blueberries which is a standard small container. I think these could stand to have a bit more berries, a full 8 ounces would probably be perfect.

If you are looking for a way to use up your bounty of blueberries, this is a great recipe to try. I just scored blueberries for 99 cents per pint, so you can bet your ass I will be making these again really soon.

Full recipe after the jump.

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Well, they don’t look like much, but this is yet another winner from my girl Ellie Kreiger. I made these muffins for this week’s Craving Ellie in my Belly, which was chosen by Leanne of Enjoying My Favorite Things.

So, are these muffins or cupcakes? I am not really sure what the difference is, but I didn’t frost them, so I am going with muffins. Though I think if you did make the lemony cream cheese frosting that is a part of this recipe they could easily pass as cupcakes.

And for a cupcake or a muffin, these are quite healthy and low fat. The only fat in the batter is 1/4 cup of canola oil and 2 eggs. In addition, there is only 3/4 cup of sugar. Not bad at all. Even with the cream cheese frosting, there is only 10 grams of fat and 236 calories per serving.

I was pleasantly surprised at how moist these are. Like really moist. I don’t think they taste low fat at all, and they don’t have that denseness and chewiness that is often associated with low fat baking. I don’t know how they compare to full fat carrot cake because I very rarely eat it. The actual carrot flavor is very subtle here and the main flavors are the cinnamon and nutmeg.

Besides the semi annoying task of finely grating the carrots, this is a super easy and pretty standard muffin recipe. You can whip this up in 10 minutes, and they bake up in about 20 minutes.

I will definitely be making these again, and I give a big thank you to Leannne for picking something that I love that I would never have chosen to make on my own.

You can find the recipe here, or on page 284-85 of The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger.

No Brioche Plum Tart here today. I usually have to give the majority of my Tuesday with Dorie baked goods away, and I wasn’t about to go through the effort of brioche making just to give it all away to some coworkers.

Instead, I give you blueberry lemon muffins a la Dorie. I make muffins pretty much on a weekly basis so that we can always grab one out of the freezer for breakfast in the morning. So I like to experiment and try different muffins. However, blueberry muffins are one of both of our favorites. So whenever I see blueberries on sale I pick up an extra container for muffins.

This is a super easy lemon blueberry muffin, which is pretty much the same recipe that I used for my lemon poppy seed muffins. The original lemon poppy seed muffin recipe came from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, which I just adapted to a lower in saturated fat version. I actually liked this version with the blueberries better.

I used some fresh blueberries and I love how bountiful they look here. They really pop against the yellow muffin, not to mention that they are also absolutely delicious.

Make these. Trust.

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So, it’s Lemon Week at imafoodblog. The first in my series of lemon related posts is for these Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. (Check out my other lemon related posts: Lemon Almond Yogurt Cake (TWD), My Favorite Ultra Lemony Yogurt Cake, Lemon Blueberry Souffle Pancakes, Whole Lemon Tart & Pasta Frolla Dough).

I have been on a bit of a muffin kick lately. I posted a few weeks ago about these low fat chocolate muffins/cupcakes that I make and then freeze to eat as a quick grab and go breakfast. Ever since then I have been in the muffin making mood, trying to come up with other tasty yet low fat combination that Nick and I can eat for breakfast without feeling bad about it.

I ended up making these lemon poppy seed muffins which I had been eying in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan for weeks, but avoided them due to the stick of butter and sour cream in the ingredient list. I finally decided that I would make them, but try to lighten them up a bit. To do this, I substituted an equal amount of canola oil for the melted butter and used non fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

I was worried that these might be a total fail, which I have been far from immune to when trying to alter a recipe for health benefits. Lo, they came out wonderfully flavorful and moist, with a great crumbly muffin texture.

If you are obsessed with lemony baked goods like I am, I highly recommend trying this recipe, or Dorie Greenspan’s full fat recipe which is probably even tastier.

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In my house we call these muffins, probably because if we called them cupcakes it would be harder to justify eating them for breakfast pretty much everyday. However, technically I guess they are cupcakes.

This is a great recipe because it is low fat, quick and easy to make, and they freeze really well. It takes only about 10 minutes to prepare and they bake for about 25 minutes. I found this recipe on Food Fit a while ago and have been making them ever since.

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Special message to Greg at SippitySup - I did not steal your “redux". I already thought of it for this post before you published your post. I am not copying you - I swear.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me start out by saying that I actually do like corn muffins and corn bread, I like them a lot in fact. I will almost always go for the corn bread first in a restaurant bread basket. Even though I did not enjoy the Savory Corn Muffins from last week’s Tuesdays with Dorie it did put me in the mood for corn bread.

So when I decided on some Chicken Chili (courtesy of Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake) the other night, I decided to make Dorie’s other corn muffin recipe, Corniest Corn Muffins on page 4 of Baking. I have made these corn muffins before. They were actually one of the first recipes I tried from this book.

I made mini corn muffins and they were scrumptious. They were, of course, also a wonderful accompaniment to the Chicken Chili. This is a great quick chili recipe by the way. I have never tried it with the addition of the soy sauce, though I will admit that I am curious about this flavor combination. Perhaps one day I will throw caution to the wind and add a few splashes. This chili made its way into the weeknight dinner rotation in our house and is always satisfying. Thanks for the great recipe, Rebecca.

This week Tuesdays with Dorie pick was chosen by Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake. Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins are on Page 6 of Baking . I do love Rebecca's blog but I was disappointed with these muffins. After looking over the ingredients, I knew before I made them that I was probably not going to like them. I generally do not enjoy spicy foods. This dish is not something that I would chose to make of my own volition. I substituted the cilantro with parsley, because I hate cilantro. Hate is actually not strong enough a word, I despise cilantro like a sworn enemy. In fact, I belong to an I Hate Cilantro blog. I also added in the zest of a lime, which was definitely noticeable in the muffins and added a nice freshness (thanks for the suggestion, Honey!).

These muffins were not as spicy as I thought they were going to be, which was a plus, though I was still not thrilled with them. However, this recipe did make me revisit Dorie's muffin section and I am inspired to try some of her other muffins - so it wasn't a complete fail!.