Apple & Raisin Muffins

I promise I bake things other than muffins. Really. I might even bake cookies this weekend! (My friend’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day.) First I have to address these muffins, though. Just look how delightful!

Whole-Wheat Chocolate-Almond Biscotti (with Orange Zest!)

Honestly, the only way to motivate myself into doing schoolwork is to bake. I’ve been reasonably productive over the weekend, but I really need to do some honest-to-goodness studying this afternoon. The only thing keeping me from baking prolific amounts of muffins, cookies, and cupcakes right now is the fact that I have plans to bake tomorrow for Rebecca’s small group as well. So I decided to keep it quick (I do have studying to do, you know!) and simple.

Pumpkin Bran Muffins

I have an 8am class this semester.  Really, I am a morning a person, but that’s a little early even for me.  Needless to say, I don’t have time to sit down for breakfast on my weekdays anymore.  So sad!  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day (mainly because it’s an excuse for coffee and carbs).  What’s a girl to do?  Bake muffins, of course!

In an attempt to make a muffin that would be healthy and satisfying, I made Pumpkin Bran Muffins from a recipe that I found on recipezaar.  It had great reviews, but honestly I wasn’t very impressed.  I mean, it was good, but not that good.  I won’t be making it again.  Ah well, there’s a long semester ahead of me and plenty more muffin recipes to be tried…

Oatmeal Cherry Muffins

Due to my determined procrastination on schoolwork over the holiday weekend, I had heaps of reading and translating to do once I got off work this afternoon. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like things that need to be done to make me want to bake instead. (It’s stress relief! or I need a break from studying!) But I was (fairly) studious this afternoon and accomplished most of the reading and the Latin translation for classes tomorrow.

What to do to celebrate such a productive day? Bake, of course! I actually made some muffins on Sunday (slightly modified from Joy the Baker’s recipe again– I used dried cranberries instead of blueberries). My mornings are usually pretty rushed, and I figured muffins would be an easy and healthy thing to grab for breakfast on my way out the door. I should have realized that between my roommate and me, these muffins would not last until the end of the week. Breakfast? Snack? Dessert? Those muffins have been all of those things for the past three days.

Experimental Banana Oatmeal Loaf Thing

I know I promised a recipe from Nigella– and believe me, I have one picked out and everything– but rest assured, neither is this another Martha recipe. Like Amanda, I felt inspired by Joy the Baker’s recent Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins. I originally wanted to make these into apple-chai muffins– I tried and fell in love with Starbuck’s new Apple-Chai Infusion last week– but when I went in search of cardamom at the grocery store, I discovered that it was far too expensive for a college student in the middle of buying 4958381 books for this semester. Nixed that plan.

But this morning I really, really wanted to bake these muffins. Alas, I have neither applesauce nor blueberries in my house at the moment. However, I did have two browning bananas that were begging to be baked into something yummy. Hmmm… As I began to throw together these muffins with what I had on hand, I realized by the time I finished with this recipe it would only have a passing resemblance to Joy the Baker’s.

Whole-grain Applesauce Muffins

Last night my roommates and I were in a minor car accident.  We are incredibly grateful that the accident wasn’t worse.  Other than a little soreness, we are all okay.  Needless to say, though, I was in the mood for something comforting this morning.  I decided to bake muffins (which, as you may not know yet, is one of my favorite things to make.  I’m slightly obsessed).

Whole-Wheat Raisin Biscotti

I’ve wanted to try a biscotti recipe for a while, but for some reason it always seemed daunting.  Maybe the twice-baked thing, and cutting the log into those adorable little pieces.  Yeah… terrifying.  

Nonetheless, I decided to face my fears the day after Christmas!  I found a recipe on Martha’s (we’re on a first name basis) website that doesn’t use butter (some biscotti recipes do, some don’t) and seems healthy (I’m on a whole-wheat baking kick).  Whole-Wheat Walnut-Raisin Biscotti!  It has great reviews.  Then I went and changed the recipe…