It is that time again! Time for SRC!
I am a proud member of the Secret Recipe Club and I applaud all of the blood, sweat, and tears put in by the hosts: Amanda, Angela, Tami, and Tina. (And welcome Angel, the newest hostess.) Ladies, your dedication is appreciated!
SRC is a great way to expand your foodie horizons and meet different bloggers. The premise is that you will be assigned a “secret pal,” you explore your new friend’s site, and then secretly bake or cook away with one of your new pal’s recipes. I have had great experiences in my previous assignments.
When I was assigned Everyday Insanity for February’s Secret Recipe Club reveal, I can tell you I was intrigued by the name from the get-go. I thought I had the market cornered for everyday insanity (and I mean EVERYDAY!). And then I visited the site and saw the tag line: “Tackling life one brownie recipe at a time.”
What’s more to love?
Brownies—yes, but I found a lot of scrumptious looking muffin recipes. I went on a baking binge.
These are the recipes I made up from Cindy’s great stash of recipes:
- Pumpkin Muffins with White Chocolate Chips
- Apple Cinnamon Bites
- Orange Cranberry Muffins
- Perfect Blueberry Muffins
- Oatmeal Date Muffins
Yes siree Bob, I made all these muffins on one Sunday Insane Baking Binge!
Here is my rendition of Cindy”s Orange Cranberry Muffins.
Citrus, Cranberry, Walnut Muffins
Based on Orange, Cranberry Pecan Muffins or The Best Muffin I’ve Ever Made! from Everyday Insanity.
(I could not find any fresh or frozen cranberries so I had to use dried. I also used fresh ginger and whatever citrus I had on hand.)
1/2 c. butter, melted
3/8 c. 2% milk
3/8 c. orange juice
1/4 c. plain Greek Yogurt
1 farm fresh egg
1/8 t. fresh ginger, finely chopped
1/2 c. sugar
zest of 1 lemon, finely chopped
zest of 1 lime, finely chopped
1 3/4 c. flour
2 1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. fine sea salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. walnuts, choppedPreheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a muffin tin with cooking spray.
Melt butter in microwave and set aside.
In medium bowl, combine butter, milk, juice, yogurt, egg and fresh ginger Whisk until well combined.
In a large bowl, add sugar and citrus zest, rub together with your finger tips. (This is a great tip and really will make your kitchen smell fantastic.) Add in flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.
Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix gently. Add cranberries and walnuts. Do not over mix. Use a cookie scoop to portion batter in muffin tins. Sprinkle coarse sugar on top of each muffin.
Bake muffins for 18 minutes; mini muffins for 12 minutes.
“A brownie a day keeps the monsters away.” But what does a good muffin keep away? The morning blues, of course.
I took this giant platter of muffins to work one morning to help us get through a long day of staff development. What was the consensus among the staff? The Apple Cinnamon Bites got the most love. (They are the small muffins in the center of the platter and are super easy to make.) My personal favorite was the hearty Oatmeal Date Muffins (which is unusual, because I hate dates). The Pumpkin Muffins with White Chocolate Chips were the sweetest. I would definitely make this giant platter o’ muffins again and I am saving all these recipes. (And, the Perfect Blueberry Muffins were pretty darn perfect.)
Please go check out some of Cindy’s great recipes and shenanigans at Everyday Insanity. The butter post from Saturday had me in tears.
And, these muffins actually did help make a large dent in our 2012 Clean Out. Thanks, Cindy!
That is definitely INSANE! LOL! That is a ton of muffins to make in one day! They all sound so delicious. What was your favorite? (Oh, and the hosts are now Jane, Suzanne, Angela, and April)
Insane baking! Happens quite often when I’m stressed! lol
Thanks for the clarification on the new hosts. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around who was who before the post! My favorite was the date muffin.
Ohhhh.. Love that recipe; fresh ginger and yogurt? SIGN ME UP!!!
These were all great recipes!
Great choice for SRC, these look so delicious! So glad to be in Group C with you! 🙂
Thanks, you too!
You were a baking machine! All of them look so tasty! Glad to be part of SRC group C with you.
Once I got started, I just couldn’t stop!
What a great collection of muffins, they all look fantastic!
I would highly recommend all of Cindy’s recipes!
Sometimes you just need to have a baking bonanza and it definitely was your time. Great that you enjoyed so many of Cindy’s recipes, clearly you are enjoying being a part of SRC. Now you can have a variety of muffins instead of the same flavor every day, I wish I could say the same about me. Well done!
Look at you…you had a quite a baking session, indeed! Love muffins…great choices!! Thanks for sharing…
Thanks, Wendy! I love that burger that Kate grabbed from your site. YUM!
Hello Muffin Madness! Can I come work with you? And can I borrow some of your baking energy?
You know, in hindsight I think my staff is pretty spoiled. At P/T conferences tonight and they got gumbo and King Cake. Maybe somebody should tell them how lucky they are! LOL
Thanks so much for your kind words! Can you tell I love muffins?? Your office is right on, the Apple Cinnamon Muffins have been a family favorite for 35 years. I put dates in any thing that calls for raisins–perfect substitute.
I just posted an Orange Date Muffin that is a killer–so many muffins to try. Muffins are a perfect way to start or end your day!
As for the “Everyday Insanity”, our daughter and 3 preschool children just moved in with us. So much for the ’empty nesters’, the insanity continues.
Have a great week.
Cindy—-Thank you!
I love the tip about dates. Since I now like them (LOL), I will try doing that (because I REALLY don’t like raisins!).
Good luck with the full nest. Can’t wait for some more humorous posts about toddlers, butter, and markers!
Have a great week too!
Wow, you went all out!!! Don’t you just love baking marathons. I think my favorite would have to be the good ol Blueberry muffin 🙂
Everything was wonderful thanks to Cindy’s recipes! I would love to try that cranberry muffin with real live fresh cranberries!
Oh my you are muffin baking machine! I am going to check out the apple cinnamon bites. Great pick(s)!!
Definitely do the apple cinnamon bites. Everything can be done in the food processor. Easy-peasy!
First, how can you NOT like dates and raisins?? And second, I’m cracking up that you made all of these muffins. I love that baking is your stress reliever – I’m the same way. You must have been really stressed and I hope it’s gotten better. I want to make those cranberry muffins, as you know I have a thing for cranberries. Thank you for sharing!!
Aimee—
Yes, I guess it does look like I have been stressing. (And, I found gray hairs yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!—Will need to do some more baking b/c of those!) LOL
I was very skeptical about the raisins in the chard dish I made for your SRC reveal. I was pleasantly surprised with that one, let me tell you. It was delicious!
Don’t you just love Cindy! I had her blog a few months ago and just love it! Great to be in Group C with you!
I was very happy to get Cindy’s blog! She makes me smile!
Love the muffin insanity and the apple cinnamon bites are calling my name.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my Group ‘A’ SRC entry: Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
I am checking out your site now. I highly recommend all of these muffins, but especially those cute little ole apple bites!
Oh, my gosh, your co-workers must adore you!!!! What a fabulous SRC post…every muffin sounds wonderful!
Well, let’s just say they might adore me as much as a high school principal can be adored! LOL
I can’t believe that you managed to make all those delicious looking types of muffins, each one sounds delicious and they look simply perfect, I wish I had that tray right now
Would love to send you some. I will trade you some of these for a slice of your chorizo bread!
My word, those are quite a few scrumptious muffins. Its awesome that you whipped up such a variety on a single day! Visiting you from Group B!
Thanks for visiting Group C!
Now THAT is a muffin-palooza! What a morning feast!
Ann—Thanks as always. It was a palooza! 🙂
what a lovely combination of flavours, I am sure they tasted great 🙂
Always looking for an amazing muffin recipe. Thanks for the addition and the visit from SRC.
Hope you stop by today and checkout a giveaway and a photography class I have going on :0)
Thanks! I will stop by. Hope you like these recipes as much as we did!
I had no idea about the SRC, where have I been???! Thank you for bringing it to my attention Eliot! I love the cranberry, orange and pecan combination it is one of my favorites! This is really awesome Eliot!
Oh, Sydney—you have to join, get on the wait list, whatever. It is soooo much fun!
Whoa, that IS a serious baking binge. Those little apple cinnamon muffins look especially tantalizing
Oh how I wish I were at your home on that Sunday morning with coffee in hand! These are incredible! Great minds think alike. I chose muffins, too….only because oddly, they seem like one of the things I have the hardest time baking. My muffins come out mediocre at best! ALL of these look fabulous! I am certainly going to visit Everyday Insanity to check out these as well as her brownies! Great job and a great choice! : )
I thought those donut muffins looked very good and tasty.
Yum! I love muffins in the morning with my coffee. Thank you so much for your show of love for my being the newest hostess for the SRC. I LOVE it, and am meeting some awesome bloggers, like you!
I was glad to make your acquaintance through SRC. Thanks for volunteering!:-)
WOW!! You went on a serious baking binge. Glad to see I’m not the only one that does that occasionally. 🙂 All of those muffins look soooooo good! Great choices and love the muffin theme. Great to be part of Group C with you.
Thanks, Erin! I am still recovering. 🙂