Once a month I drive O.G. and her friends around town to eat, shop and cause general old people mayhem. As their designated driver I am often thanked with homemade goods, this go ’round I got a jar of freshly made ‘Olallieberry Jam’.

I’d never heard of olallieberries before, turns out they are a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry. I think that hybrid made it a bit too seedy for my taste, but it was still delicious.

I made muffins with the fresh jam and if you don’t have access to Olallieberry, any jam will do!

ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup whole milk
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep a muffin tin with liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

In a medium bowl mix the egg, vanilla, lemon juice, milk and oil.

Add the wet to the dry ingredients until just combined – don’t over work it.

Swirl in the jam.

Spoon the batter into the prepped liners and bake for 15-20 minutes until done, depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

One of my fave places is the Spice Station in Silverlake, they have an amazing array of sugars and spices that all make for great recipe inspiration.

The last time I was there I picked up some Blueberry Sugar. A nice large granule of sugar infused with fresh blueberry. Amazing! I thought it’d make a great topping for some lemon-y blueberry muffins. While not pretty, they sure are tasty. But hey, looks aren’t everything.

ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
juice of one lemon
zest of one lemon
1-1/2 cups blueberries
1 Tablespoon flour
blueberry sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners. (you will only get about 10 muffins.)

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder, whisk to combine.

Add the oil, egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until JUST combined.

In a small bowl toss the blueberries with the flour, that sort of helps keep the blue color from bleeding into the batter.

Add the blueberries to the batter and just fold until combined.

Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. Top with a sprinkling of blueberry sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

If you need to appease small children and/or Gorilla Grodd, this is the recipe for you. Just look at him – don’t mess with his muffins. They’re THAT good. (Psst – even *I* eat these, don’t tell the bananas that.)

ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 eggs
4 ounces banana yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
brown sugar to sprinkle

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners.

Why do I love making muffins? Because you don’t need a mixer. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

Now let’s do the wet ingredients in another bowl. Combine the bananas, melted butter, eggs, banana yogurt and vanilla. You can use regular yogurt, but the banana one adds a little more flavor. Vanilla would work perfectly fine too, of course.

Now add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing together well.

Fill the liners about 3/4 full, and sprinkle the top with a bit of brown sugar.

Bake for 18-20 minutes depending on your oven. Test with a toothpick to see if it’s done. Let cool on wire racks.

There. A muffin fit for a primate supervillian. Now he just has to fight the Baby for them…

So light. So buttery. So full of brown sugar-y goodness. Eat these WARM. You’ll thank me for this later.

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

crumb:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoon cold butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degres. Prep a muffin tin with liners.

In a small bowl make the crumb by taking the flour, brown sugar and cold butter and just cutting it up with a fork until it’s crumbly. Set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk the flour, brown sugar,white sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the butter, eggs and buttermilk, and stir together until JUST combined.

Spoon into the prepared pan.

Add the crumb topping on top of each muffin – be generous!!! Make a mess, go ahead.

Bake for 14 minutes, let cool on a wire rack for just a bit. Again, if you can’t eat them straight out of the oven, heat them up for a few second in the microwave. You won’t regret it.

The crumb on this is so fine that any addition of fruit or nuts would just be heavy. Besides, why mess with buttery, sugary perfection?

I made these up on a whim, they came out really good, then I realized I needed to write down the recipe. Oops. So I had to make them again. And again. And again…not to test the recipe…just because they were so good – YUM. Lemon-y. Moist. Soft. And muffin-y. I’m sure those aren’t words, but let me tell you, they’re delicious. The secret? Lemon sugar, of course!

ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup lemon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
juice of one lemon
zest of one lemon

more lemon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners. (you will only get about 10 muffins out of this)

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, lemon sugar and baking powder, whisk to combine.

Add the oil, egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest. Oh. So. Lemony. This is the kicker here, peeps. Lemon juice, lemon sugar, lemon zest. Don’t skimp, you’ll be rewarded in the end! Stir until JUST combined. Not too much – you don’t want a tough muffin!

Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. Top with a sprinkling of even MORE lemon sugar.

Bake for 15-18 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

These are for true lemon lovers. Flavorful, not overly sweet – just the perfect muffin for a morning snack.

“My mom and I are going to bake cakes for Satan.”

Yikes. Those would be the most evil cakes ever. Poor Santa.

The Kid loves to bake with me and this weekend he asked for something specific – his favorite Mini French Breakfast Muffins. They are really easy to make and a perfect one bowl recipe, so the Kid knows that he can do all the steps himself.

They were so delicious I took a batch of them to eat and give out to friends as I sold stuff at a craft show. It’s the cinnamon and sugar that keep you wanting more, I tell ya. Later the Kid asked where his muffins were….um. Guess we’ll be making more soon.

Mini French Breakfast Muffins

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups (almost one container) Trader Joe’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir til combined, don’t got too far, just until it’s mixed, or you’ll get a rubbery muffin. EW.

Now stir in the mini peanut butter cups. Spoon into your prepped muffin pan. Bake for 15-17 minutes.

When you bite into them the flavor combination is soooo good. Don’t eat them all.

Part of my own personal ‘Iron Chef: Battle lemons’ series.

I have been wanting to make cake with olive oil for some time now, and the abundance of lemons gave me the perfect opportunity because the combination is terrific.

ingredients:
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large lemon (zest and juice)
1 cup flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a mini cupcake pan with liners.

Using a microplane, grate your lemon zest directly into the one cup of flour and set aside. I like to sort of infuse my flour when cooking with lemons, to get the mixture going before I even start baking.

In a small bowl, squeeze all the juice out of the lemon and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale. On low, slowly add the flour mixture, then the olive oil, and finally the lemon juice.

You will get a beautiful glossy batter. Pour the batter into the prepped baking cups. Bake for 10-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Once cool and ready to serve, dust the powdered sugar over the tops of the cakes. What you will have a nice moist, perfectly light cake, ideal for an afternoon snack. But my kids like them for breakfast!

Nothing is more lovely than a jar of espresso powder. I knew I’d find some good use for it…someday. Then I came across a post on cookiemadness for William Shatner’s cappuccino muffins and I couldn’t believe it, but yes, the recipe was his. (I changed it to suit me.) These are tasty, pack up well and best of all, super easy!

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prep a muffin pan with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg lightly. Whisk in milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.

Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in milk mixture. Stir until just blended, don’t overdo it, if you go too far your muffins will get tough. No one needs tough muffins. Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter among the cups. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

This is the PERFECT recipe for new parents. When I had a newborn I was up late at night, these muffins would have been good, 1. the coffee part would have helped keep me alert. 2. They are easy to grab and eat. 3. There is nothing on late at night but Classic Trek. See how that all works out?

ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake tin with liners.

In a bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour into cups, filling almost to the top.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Overcooking will result in a dry muffin per the usual, so I like to check them early. These are so great for breakfast but even BETTER when you eat them with ribs. And bbq chicken. And beans. And…