Peaches and Cream Muffins

Lately, my husband and I have been enjoying weekend-quality breakfasts even on weekdays. Call it the blessing of a wife on summer break! This morning, I wanted to try a new recipe rather than making my typical pancakes or waffles. Without strawberries, I hesitate to make crepes.

Muffins + Eggs = perfect!

As any good mom of a toddler, I have several varieties of canned fruit to augment the fresh fruit that's in season. So, I pulled out a trusty can of peaches packed in juice to tinker with a recipe from the Dean brothers (of Paula Dean fame) that I saw on Food Network.com. Needless to say, the first ingredient to be changed was the cup of butter...

Note: The recipe calls for self-rising flour. You can make your own with all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

Peaches and Cream Muffins
Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/3 cup sugar or Splenda for Baking
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (15-ounce) can sliced peaches, drained and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, butter, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Gently fold in the peaches.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a serving platter and serve immediately or transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, before storing.

Makes 10-12 muffins.

Husband-loving Heart Healthy Apple Muffins (Bread)

One of the highlights of summertime is the county fair. We live two streets away from the festivities and walk or bike there every day to enjoy the milkshakes, animals, and carnival games. Every year, there are also two baking contests sponsored by the local 4H Homemakers group. This year, I developed a heart-healthy quick bread recipe to enter in the open class contest.

Mike was super sweet about tasting several iterations of this recipe, as a bread machine bread as well as a muffin, while I honed the quantity of apple, type of apple, and amount of spices. He is always supportive of my projects, big or small. A comment on apple variety: go traditional with Granny Smith, sweet with Gala.

Husband-loving Apple Muffins/Bread
A Heart-healthy (low cholesterol/high fiber) Recipe

½ c Egg beaters
¼ c 2% milk
1/3 c canola oil
¼ c applesauce
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c oat bran flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ c Splenda for baking
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ c apple, diced

1 Tbsp sugar

Combine all the ingredients except the 1 Tbsp sugar, and then spoon into muffin cups. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

If you prefer a loaf of bread in the oven, bake in a prepared pan at 350 for approximately 1 hour. (Don't forget the sprinkling of sugar on top!)

Lastly, you can dust off your bread machine to use this same recipe. Add the ingredients in the order listed, but omit the last Tbsp of sugar. Bake in the quick bread setting.