When I first made these muffins I was really feeling rather…uninspired. The days have been long and rather dull for me as I gear up for my last two months of school. Boredom kills my motivation and inspiration unlike anything else.
I needed a simple breakfast recipe that could be made well in advance and only used ingredients I had on hand. I searched online and in my cookbook/magazine stash for nearly 2 hours before finally settling on a recipe for “Morning Magic Muffins” by Arlene Stolley. The recipe looked very simple and I had everything on the list of ingredients except for one thing: buttermilk. Usually I would have done the teaspoon of vinegar in your milk alternative but I’ve been experimenting with something called Kefir and decided to give this probiotic-heavy option a try.
This is an easy recipe for an on the go breakfast and the results are fantastic, fluffy muffins!
Grab from the pantry and fridge: flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, kefir (or buttermilk), canola oil, applesauce, an egg and your favorite jam (mine is some home made blackberry jam).
Mix all your liquids in a bowl (except for the jam).
And mix all your dry ingredients in the bowl of your mixer until there aren’t any more clumps of brown sugar.
Make sure you’ve got your muffin liners ready to go right about now.
Then mix the dry and wet ingredients together just until the batter comes together.
Scoop about 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin liner or until 2/3 full. If making jam muffins, place 1 teaspoon of favorite jam in the center of each muffin and lightly press it into the batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Oh yum. The crumb on these guys is fantastically moist! Whip up a batch today!
Kefir Jam Muffins
Slightly adapted from Cooking Bouquet by Arlene Stolley
2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup packed Light Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Sugar
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Kefir (or buttermilk)
1/3 cup Canola or Vegetable Oil
1/3 cup Applesauce
1 large Egg
Jam or Jelly
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In bowl of stand mixer mix all dry ingredients until there are no more clumps of brown sugar. In separate bowl, mix kefir, oil, applesauce and egg. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and mix just until the batter comes together.
Using 1/4 measuring cup or ice cream scoop fill muffin cups 2/3 full. If making jam muffins add 1 teaspoon of jam to each muffin and lightly press into the center of each muffin cup.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are set and golden on top.
Notes from the book: Arlene notes that you can refrigerate the mixed batter in a container for up to one week if you need to make these very well in advance. Additionally, the recipe for this muffin is easily adapted for many other variations such as blueberry, banana, cinnamon-sugar, or any other variation you can think of!
Eat well and love much,
The Muffin Woman
I looked up “muffins made with kefir” and this was the main result. I just started making my own kefir and wanted some ideas for using it. Thank you so much for this! I do have to say that I made a few modifications based on my own preferences, but your recipe was definitely the basis and gave me the structure I needed. And the texture was still delightful!
My modified version used 1 cup of rolled oats in place of one of the cups of flour, and 1/2 cup pumpkin instead of oil. I whisked the dry ingredients together instead of getting out my stand mixer. And, I filled the cups a little more than 2/3 full, to use up all the batter, and put about 2 teaspoons or so in each one. Next time, I think I would use even more jam and swirl it in. Instead of actual jam, I used fig puree that I had just made with figs picked from our fig tree.
Thanks again! also got the search result for this on Tasty Kitchen, where I am a member. I know this is a couple of years old but I wanted you to know I appreciate it!