TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie features Allspice Crumb Muffins, chosen by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.


One word -- YUM!

I made these almost as written. I added some chopped walnuts to the streusel (they were left over and needed to be used up, and we both love nuts in streusel). I replaced one-third of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour, and added the optional lemon zest. And I had leftover streusel. (Guess I'll have to make more muffins!)



Kayte, thanks for a great choice!

Cornmeal Mango Muffins for Memorial Day

Sorry, no TWD this week. My husband has been complaining of "too much dessert" (can you believe it?) and what's more, I'm starting to agree with him...

So, how about breakfast? I liked the Fresh Mango Muffins from last week's "Tuesdays with Dorie" so much that I was inspired to create a variation. Behold--Cornmeal Mango Muffins!


Cornmeal Mango Muffins, version 1.0
adapted from Fresh Mango Bread from "Baking: From My Home to Yours," by Dorie Greenspan
makes 24 standard-sized muffins

1 1/2 cups medium-grind yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (2.4 oz / 68 gm)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (4.8 oz / 136 gm)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 gm)
grated zest of 1 lime (about 1 teaspoon or 3-4 gm)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten (150 gm)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil (107 gm)
3 1/2 cups diced mango (about 3 medium mangos), about 600 gm, sprinkled with the juice of one lime (about 1 1/2 to 2 Tbs)
1 cup raisins (about 120 gm), soaked in 2 Tbs. rum

Prepare standard muffin pans, enough for 24 muffins, by lightly buttering the muffin cup depressions and then lightly spraying with oil. (This "double-greasing" helps to prevent sticking.)

Set oven rack to middle of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Rub the lime zest into the sugar with your fingers, then whisk into flour mixture.

In another bowl, mix together eggs, yogurt and oil.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, pour in the egg mixture, and mix just until barely incorporated. It will be more like a dough than a batter. Gently stir in diced mango and raisins.

Spoon into muffin tins, filling them about two-thirds to three-quarters full. Place in oven. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes. Rotate pans and turn oven down to 350. Bake about another 10-12 minutes, until brown around edges, golden brown and springy on top, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pans on racks for about 10 minutes. Run a small knife or spatula around the edges of the muffins. Remove from pan to finish cooling on racks.


These were delicious! I love the sweet flavor of cornmeal with tangy sweet fruit. A heavenly combination.

Still, I came up with some ideas about what to do differently next time, namely, increase the batter a bit:

Cornmeal Mango Muffins version 2.0 (warning, not yet tried)

2 cups yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour (3.2 oz / 91 gm)
1 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (6.4 oz / 181 gm)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 c. granulated sugar (150 gm)
grated zest of 1 lime (about 1 teaspoon or 3-4 gm)
4 large eggs, lightly beaten (200 gm)
3/4 cup vegetable oil (161 gm)
6 Tbs. plain yogurt
4 cups fairly finely diced mango (from 3 large or 4 medium mangoes), about 688 gm, sprinkled with juice of one lime (about 1 1/2 to 2 Tbs.)
1 cup raisins (about 125 gm), soaked in 2 Tbs. rum

Sorry, I don't have weights for the cornmeal and yogurt right now. I'll try to remember to add them later.

TWD: Fresh Mango Muffins

First, I apologize to all my "Tuesdays with Dorie" friends for all the late posts this month.


For this week, Kelly of Baking with the Boys chose the Fresh Mango Bread from Dorie Greenspan's wonderful book.

Somehow this recipe said "muffins" to me. And it made excellent muffins! I made a few changes -- substituting white whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the flour, reducing the white sugar to 3/4 cup, reducing the ground ginger to 1 teaspoon and the cinnamon to 1/4 teaspoon, adding 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander and a pinch of allspice, and adding the zest of an entire lime. The spice combination was great, just spicy enough but not overwhelming. Oh, I also chopped the golden raisins and soaked them in rum.

Dorie says that this will turn out more like a dough than a batter. Well, mine turned out more like a mess of crumbs than a dough! So I added in most of the juice of the lime, and that was just enough liquid to bring it together into a very thick batter. It was enough to make 23 muffins.

The muffins only took about 20 minutes to bake. They did have a bit of a tendency to stick to the pans, but I managed to get them out with only one serious casualty. (Hey, I needed to taste-test one anyway!)


After they cooled, I put them into a Tupperware container for storage and we had them for breakfast for several days thereafter. The muffins were very light, fluffy, and moist with excellent flavor. I did think they could use a bit more mango and maybe some other add-ins.

For next time, I would use more white whole wheat flour -- maybe 1 1/2 cups. I'd replace 1/4 cup of the oil with yogurt, decrease the white sugar to 1/2 cup, and increase the chopped mango to 2 1/2 or 3 cups. I wouldn't chop the raisins, and I'd add some coarsely chopped nuts.

Thanks to Kelly and Dorie for this recipe -- I'd never have thought of adding fresh mango to a quick bread or muffin, and it's great!

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

This week's project for "Tuesdays with Dorie" was Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins, chosen by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake. For the recipe, check out Rebecca's blog, or better yet, buy "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by the delightful Dorie Greenspan!


This turned into a bit of a "use it up" project. We didn't have a jalapeño pepper on hand, and the only sweet red pepper was chopped and frozen (though I'm sure that would have been fine). No fresh cilantro, either. I suppose I could have taken a quick drive up to the Mexican market in Sauk Prairie, and maybe even watched some bald eagles as well, but I didn't really feel like traveling on this cold Wisconsin day.

So I rummaged around to see what needed using up. The partly-used package of frozen corn held about 1/2 cup. OK, use that up. Leave out the red peppers because I didn't want to load these down with too much stuff. (Now that I've made them, I think they'd be great with lots of add-ins!) Here's about half a cup of grated cheddar cheese. All right, add that in too. How about 2 tablespoons of freeze-dried chives from Penzeys? I've been meaning to use those chives more often -- let's do it!

Other than that, I stayed with the recipe -- using 1 1/2 teaspoons of very mild home-grown chili powder plus a teensy-tiny pinch of super-duper-hot home-grown chile piquin powder. I reduced the sugar to 2 tablespoons -- just right for our tastes -- and the melted butter to 4 tablespoons. (Next time I'd use 6 tablespoons instead.)

This was more like a dough than a batter, about the same consistency as drop biscuits. Here they are spooned into the muffin tin:



And here they are after exactly 20 minutes in the oven:


Let's have dinner! Home-made lentil soup, corn muffins and red wine. Great for a winter evening!


These were excellent -- crunchy on the outside, tender and tasty on the inside. The cheddar and chive flavors were really subtle. The chili and corn were just right. I can see playing around with these -- one idea is to use more cheddar, cut into small chunks so you get little melty cheese bites here and there, with scallions instead of chives. How about some fresh chopped garlic tops in early spring? Hey, would roasted garlic be good? And I can't wait until late summer to try different varieties of home-grown peppers! I'm thinking the very mild Delicias jalapeños with sweet red Apple peppers, or the mildly hot red Beaver Dam bell peppers all by themselves.

Which reminds me, it's time to check our seed collection and order seeds...see you all next week!