Whole Wheat Rhubarb & Spice Muffins

March 28, 2020 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

If the empty shelves in the baking aisle of the otherwise fairly well-stocked grocery store are anything to go by right now, there are lots of people dealing with the current global pandemic in same way I am: with lots of baking therapy. These whole wheat muffins stuffed with tart rhubarb, spiced with cinnamon, and topped with crunchy sugar are an extremely comforting thing to bake and eat, so they were the first thing I made when sh*t started to get real a few weeks ago. They are quick and easy to mix up, don’t require any special pantry ingredients, and unlike most muffins, which are best eaten the day they are baked and then decline from there, these are excellent two, three, even four days after baking, thanks to their nubbly whole grain ingredients which help keep them moist and fresh. They are also a great way to use up that bag of slightly freezer burned rhubarb from last summer that you discovered at the back of the freezer when doing a pandemic inventory of all the edible things in your kitchen.

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Pear Ginger Muffins with Hazelnuts and Milk Chocolate

January 4, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Happy New Year!

For my first post of 2014, I bring you muffins. Muffins fit in with all those well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions about eating better and being frugal – these muffins in particular came about from the need to use up three very tired-looking pears, which were made into an extremely delicious pear ginger sauce to put in the muffin batter. However, underneath their nubbly, virtuous-looking brown exterior, they contain a little bit of sin: chunks of hazelnut milk chocolate, a large bar of which I “won” in a present exchange game over the holidays. Truth be told, these muffins are more sinful than not – a muffin like this is basically just a rustic cupcake – but now that the Christmas tree is put away and it’s back to reality (ie: work), they helped ease the sting a little.

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Strawberry Yogurt Muffins with Oat Crumble Topping

June 15, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Strawberry Yogurt Muffins with Oat Crumble Topping | Korena in the Kitchen Last weekend I spent a few days on Salt Spring Island, where I grew up, with a bunch of girlfriends. We stayed in a house on the ocean and basically just vegged out. There was a lot of talking and laughing (obviously, it was a house full of girls), a lot of eating and a little drinking (OK, more than a little), some suntanning (or in my case, burning), and there may or may not have been a very loud sing-a-long to terrible 90’s music (any Aqua fans out there?).

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Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Muffins

November 3, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 17 Comments

Pumpkin spice muffins are one of those things that seem to spring up in every coffee shop and bakery on the very first day of fall. The ones I’ve had the most are the Starbucks version – not because they are the best, but because they are everywhere. The Starbucks pumpkin spice muffin is more like a pumpkin cupcake and has a cream cheese filling inside, which, while a good idea, has sort of an odd, gelatinous texture. My ideal pumpkin spice muffin – which I have been on the hunt for – is denser, warmly spiced, and has a cream cheese filling with a much more cream cheesey texture. I tried to create such a muffin last year and failed miserably, so I’m happy to say that this recipe pretty much nailed it.

Oh hai, Riley-cat!

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Raspberry-Lemon-Poppyseed Muffin Cakes

July 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

Seeing local strawberries in the store is a sure sign that summer is here, but to me, it is the raspberries that signal its true arrival. Last summer I got nostalgic about blackberries, but really, it’s all about the raspberries. My mum used to grow reapberries in her garden and I loved eating them straight off the bush, still warm from the sun, sweet and tangy and so good, and now, they taste like summer to me. BC raspberries are finally in stores and I have been shelling out the $4 or $5 per pint to get me some summery goodness. The only problem is that they don’t keep and I needed to find something to do with them besides eating them by the handful. Enter: Raspberry-Lemon-Poppyseed Muffin Cakes….

Amazing Struesel-Topped Muffins

June 14, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

These muffins are so good I made them twice. Once for myself, and again the next day for my friend Heather, who just had a baby girl. For the last seven and a half months of her pregnancy, Heather was sick every single day, and obviously had a really hard time eating anything. This would be my own personal hell. Thankfully, now that the baby is out, she can actually enjoy eating again. I visited her and baby Zephyra on the weekend, and when Heather told me to “bring food!” I was more than happy to oblige with these muffins.

The original recipe from Smitten Kitchen is for rhubarb struesel muffins, and I came across it about a week after I posted the recipe for strawberry rhubarb coffee cake made with whole wheat pastry flour – I had been dreaming of a muffin incarnation, and then this recipe appeared, using whole wheat pastry flour to boot! The first time I made them I used (frozen) rhubarb, and they were delicious: not too sweet, with a delicate, springy texture, a crunchy golden struesel layer on top, and a good tang from the rhubarb. Not to mention the fact that they smelled HEAVENLY while baking. The second time around, I used fresh strawberries and frozen blueberries, because Heather has two older kids and I figured berries might be more kid-friendly than slightly sour rhubarb. I also played around with yogurt instead of sour cream, and switched it up with the flours, using a combination of whole wheat and all purpose in place of whole wheat pastry flour. Both times, they came out perfectly, and I think I may have found my new favorite muffin recipe. I’m fairly confident that you could put any kind of fruit in these – fresh or frozen – and they would be fantastic. Thank you Deb at Smitten Kitchen for this recipe!!…