Gingerbread White Chocolate Muffins with Nestle Toll House Morsels

I have to admit. These probably aren't the prettiest thing that I've posted about recently.

But let me be the first to tell you that they were gewd!

I considered remaking these muffins because the white chocolate chips sank to the bottom. I thought that maybe if I sprinkled the morsels on top of the batter right before they went into the oven I would get better results.

**Edit: it has been suggested by several people to toss the chips in flour prior to mixing into the batter.**

But I've decided against doing them over.

You see, Little Butt and I made these muffins together.

I was recently selected by Foodbuzz and Nestle Toll House to spend an afternoon in the kitchen baking with my kiddos. While Baby N napped, Little Butt and I took the opportunity to bake some love with Nestle Toll House Morsels and refrigerated cookie dough.

First, we had to stop by the store to use our handy dandy coupons to grab some morsels and cookie dough.

Once we got home, we both donned our aprons (yes, Little Butt has her own apron) and set to baking the most important part of our project; the chocolate chip cookies.

Poor Little Butt had trouble squeezing the cookie scoop...

So I helped her out. Together we were able to get the job done.

We tossed the cookies in the oven and set about to making our gingerbread white chocolate muffins.

Little Butt was able to help me measure all the dry ingredients. She also made sure that there were no ingredients left at the bottom of the cups or spoons.

Once we had our ingredients measured, we carefully whisked them together.

Since I'm the grown up, I used the electric mixer to cream together the butter and sugar.

Then we added the egg and mixed.

Next up: the molasses!

And we slowly mixed in the dry ingredients.

We stirred in the hot water...

And Little Butt was a great help stirring in the white chocolate chips. YUM!

We filled our muffin tins and baked these bad boys up until a tester came out (mostly) clean.

Finally, we allowed them to cool completely in the pan.

Serve and enjoy!!!

By then the cookie sheet was cool enough to touch so it was time to move the cookies to the cooling rack. Little Butt was so excited about this part!

But definitely not as excited as THIS part!! Yay for chocolate chip cookies, Nestle Toll House, and making memories! Thanks to Foodbuzz and Nestle Toll House for allowing us to bake some love in our kitchen this holiday season!!


As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a holiday baking kit and stipend from Nestle Toll House Morsels


Gingerbread White Chocolate Muffins
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

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Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 1-12 ounce bag white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 muffin pans with baking spray.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, on medium high speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
4. Beat in the egg until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. Mix in the molasses until incorporated.
6. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter, scraping down sides of the bowl as necessary.
7. Stir in the hot water.
8. Stir in the white chocolate chips.
9. Pour batter into muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way full.
10. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, there may be a few crumbs.
11. Allow to cool in the tins on a wire rack until completely cool. 
12. Remove muffins from pan, serve and enjoy!!

Apple Cinnamon Carrot Coconut Muffins

I don't really know what I was going to say for this post earlier...but now all I can think about is my aching ankle and knee.

See...I feel like I'm on the run all the time now.

Baby N's doctor found a mass in his neck last week. We went for a scan and it is not cancerous, thank goodness!

He has something called Torticollis. Basically, the muscle on one side of his neck is bunched up and is preventing him from being able to turn to the left (the reference to Zoolander does not escape me here). With the Torticollis he needs physical therapy at least once a week and I have to do neck stretches with him several times a day.

Then there is the whole running Little Butt to and from school thing. I'm not ready to let her ride the bus yet (even though she really wants to look all around inside) so I've been taking her and picking her up.

Today, I was taking her to school and carrying Baby N in his carseat/carrier thing and my left ankle found a hole in the ground. I twisted my ankle really good and scraped up my right knee. Blah!! I also kind of landed on the baby...but he's fine!

Poor Little Butt was so traumatized though! Mommy's are NOT supposed to get hurt. She cried and cried until her teacher took her inside. I'm still not sure if she has stopped crying...poor thing.

Anyway, since I'm on the run constantly nowadays it helps to have quick and lower fat options for breakfast. These muffins really do the trick for me. I mean, you dump some stuff in a bowl, stir it up and bake it! Easy peasy!

This recipe is basically doctored up muffin mix. But it is so worth it. If you are not averse to using boxed cake mix then you will be totally cool with making these muffins. They are too easy and delicious not to make them!

Here's what you do:

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl until combined.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan until each one is about 2/3 full. And bake! Let them cool when they come out of the oven.

Serve and enjoy!!

Apple Cinnamon Carrot Coconut Muffins

Adapted from Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking Made Light

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Ingredients:

• 1 (19oz) box apple cinnamon muffin mix (I used Duncan Hines)
• 4 (4oz) jars organic carrot baby food puree
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a muffin pan with baking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all ingredients until combined.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin cup about 2/3 full.
4. Bake until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (there will be a few crumbs), about 20-25 minutes.
5. Cool in the pan on a cooling rack about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely.
6. Serve and enjoy!!

Guest Post: Lick the Bowl Good

Today I have a really special treat for you! It's Monica from Lick the Bowl Good!

Monica is always baking or cooking up something that is absolutely mouthwatering.

I am one lucky girl at this point. Last week, I had the pleasure of getting to meet Monica!

Monica helped me realize that I have no pictures of myself on my blog...so there ya go!

This lady is so sweet. And a ton of fun.

I found myself wanting to hang out with her every day until we left Austin.

Alas, I had family and other friends to visit while we were in town so we only got to hang out for one afternoon.

But I'm more than happy to have had even that small amount of time with her.

Luckily, I still have her blog to visit. And so do you!

Monica is sharing an incredible recipe with us today. After you read this post you should head over to Monica's blog and show her as much love as she puts into her recipes and posts.

Thanks again Monica, not only for this wonderful guest post but also for a great afternoon. I hope we have many more to come!

Hello Jolts and Jollies fans! I am Monica from Lick The Bowl Good and I am happy to be here guest posting on Maranda's blog. I "met" Maranda several months back- she was a loyal reader of my blogs and commented occasionally, but I didn't really know who she was. Then one day, she emailed me and introduced herself to me. She was so genuine and nice and we became instant blog buddies. We emailed back and forth and found out that she's from Texas and her family and I lived in the same town! How crazy is that?

Over the past few months, I've gotten to know Maranda better and I realize she likes her coffee just as much as I do. I've shared this recipe on my blog before, but I know she'd love them, so here they are again! They're loaded with butter and instant coffee/espresso, but they're light and tender and they melt in your mouth. It doesn't seem possible, but it's true. These muffins are studded with chocolate chips which adds a bit of sweetness and compliments the coffee flavor very nicely.

This recipe makes quite a bit of muffins, but it can easily be halved. Or make the full batch and freeze them in Ziploc bags, like I did. Take one or two out, thaw or nuke 'em for about 20 seconds to bring them to room temperature. They're perfect every time.

Thank you Maranda for asking me to be a guest blogger on Jolts & Jollies. I hope you and your readers will enjoy these caffeinated beauties. They're sure to put a "jolt" in your step :-)

Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins from LTBG
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Beat at high speed in a large bowl until fluffy:

• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 5 tbsp instant espresso powder*

Sift in:

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

At low speed add until just combined:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Scoop the batter into prepared muffin tins.
Bake at 350F for 20 - 25 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Makes 24-28 muffins.