Lisa made these muffins adapted from a recipe found in Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, Jamie At Home. She cut the oil way down from the recipe, and nixed the walnuts (Whole Foods apparently didn’t stick them in the bag), but they turned out pretty darn good just the same.

Lisa says:

“With a Frosty Top”? What a random name… why can’t they just be called Butternut Squash Muffins?

Chris says:

‘Cause he’s a Brit… I hear they talk funny. Besides, it’s not like a traditional frosting… it’s a bit… goopier.

Lisa says:

It’s almost as if you should dip each one in the frosting just before you eat it.

Chris says:

Well with all the extra frosting we ended up with, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Lisa says:

I love that citrus taste! Okay, if these stay in the house any longer they’ll migrate directly from the kitchen into my mouth.

Chris says:

Looks like the folks at work are getting muffins tomorrow!

Butternut Squash Muffins with a Frosty Top
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14 ounces butternut squash, seeded and roughly chopped
1 & 1/4 cups light brown sugar
4 large organic eggs
pinch of salt
2 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
2 heaping tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup applesauce

For the Frosty Topping:
1 orange, zested
1 lemon, zested
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt
2 heaping tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a food processor, pulse the butternut squash until finely chopped. Add the sugar and eggs. Add in a pinch of salt, the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, olive oil, and applesauce and mix until well beaten. Scrape the sides if needed, and mix only until everything is well combined.

Fill a regular sized muffin tin lined with paper cups until each cup is just over 3/4 full. Cook 20 - 25 minutes until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool on a wire rack.

For the topping: Place the zest and lemon juice in a bowl. Add the yogurt, the sifted powdered sugar and vanilla and mix well. Taste, and adjust the sweet and sour accordingly. Keep in the fridge until ready to top the muffins. Sprinkle the topped muffins with a little more orange zest.

Makes 18-20 muffins

I’m not sure how this happens, butevery single Taste & Create event ends up with me baking. This month I was paired with the truthfully-titled Heaven is Chocolate, Cheese, and Carbs, a relatively new food blog featuring a bunch of baked breads and treats. I was really close to making the awesome-sounding Double Chocolate Caramel Brownie Tart that was featured for Pi(e) Day, but decided instead to make something I’d never attempted, a hot, fresh loaf of bread. This particular loaf is a potato bread, one of two (so far) featured on HICCAC. We had a bunch of wheat flour on hand, so we used that instead of regular bread flour. For a first attempt, this was a homerun — the bread was delicious! The recipe makes enough for two loaves, and for my second I made a long free-form loaf, adding freshly chopped rosemary to the dough and sprinkled sea-salt on the outside before baking. Wonderful!

Lisa says:

Whoa, you made bread!

Chris says:

I know, what’s up with that?

Lisa says:

I’m all for it — wow, this is good. Is there anything better than a freshly baked loaf of bread?

Chris says:

The act of eating said loaf?

Lisa says:

True! I like these T&C events, you make things you never would have tried otherwise.

Chris says:

That’s certainly true — wow, that second loaf with the rosemary is awesome.

Lisa says:

I’m taking the pieces with the most salt on the crust. I love it.

Whole Wheat Potato Bread
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2 cups water*
5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
8 ounces mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt

*You’ll use the water from boiling the potatoes for this.

Peel and cut potatoes and boil for approximately 30 minutes, or until soft enough to mash. Measure out 8 ounces of potatoes, and two cups of water, plus a little more on the side in case you need it. Mash the potatoes in the potato water and allow to cool until approximately 100F. Add the wheat flour and yeast to the potato/water mixture. Add the butter and mix until well combined. Mix in the salt.
Spread the all-purpose flour onto your work surface and begin to knead the dough, adding more flour and water as needed. Work that dough, baby!
Grease a large bowl and put the dough in, greasing the top of the dough. Cover the bowl and let rest for approximately an hour, or until doubled in size. Punch down, cut the dough in half and let rest for a few minutes. Form two loafs and put them in greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise another hour, or until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Cut two or three slits in the top, lightly flour the tops and bake bread approximately 20 minutes. Turn and bake for another 15 minutes* or until tops are golden brown and a thermometer inserted inside reads 200F.

* Note that the loaf in the breadpan actually took about 10 minutes longer than my freeform loaf. If the top of the loaf starts to get too brown and the inside isn’t done, you can make a foil “tent” to cover the top of your loaf while it cooks through.

Makes 2 Loaves

I first saw these muffins on Rose’s 64 sq ft kitchen a couple of weeks ago and knew I’d have to try them out. Cilantro? In a muffin? With *rutabaga*?? I think the only time I’d ever had rutabaga was as a kid, where it was mashed with carrots. So the recipe sounded crazy — but just crazy enough to work! We brought the moist, savory muffins to Carrie’s holiday party.

Carrie says:

Hey, Muffin Man!

Krishna says:

Mmmm… these are good, what’s inside?

Chris says:

You tell me!

Krishna says:

Roasted bell peppers… cilantro…

Thad says:

Buckwheat flour…

Krishna says:

Rhubarb? Beet? No? It’s a veggie? Turnip?

Thad says:

Rutabaga?

Chris says:

We have a winner!

Rutabaga and Cilantro Muffins (courtesy 64 sq ft kitchen)
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1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp freshly ground coriander seeds
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped
1 1/2 cups rutabaga, peeled and finely shredded
1 red pepper, roasted, peeled and diced *
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup olive oil

* To roast bell peppers, grill or broil the peppers, turning regularly, until the skin blackens and begins to peel. Place into a plastic bag and seal: the steam will help separate the skin. When cool enough to handle, remove from plastic; the skin should peel off easily.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Butter and flour 12 muffin-pan cups.
In a bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, buckwheat flour, baking powder, salt, ground black pepper, cilantro and the ground coriander. Beat the eggs until blended. Add the milk, oil, honey, red peppers and shredded rutabaga and beat until blended. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until moistened.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin-pan cups. Bake for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out just a little moist. Do not over bake them.
Let them cool in the pan on a wire rack for two minutes, and then invert them onto the rack.
These muffins can be stored for up to 2 days in an airtight plastic container.