blue artichoke

Math quiz:
Q: Blue Artichoke has one egg and needs to make breakfast for two people on two days, Saturday and Sunday. She has fifty muffin recipes. All muffin recipes call for two eggs to make one batch of muffins. One batch equals 12 - 18 muffins. One serving = 1 muffin. Which recipe Blue Artichoke make?

Give up?
A: Sour Cream Coffeecake Muffins. Come on, the answer was in the title of the post. Easy!

Sour Cream Coffeecake muffins call for 2 eggs to make 18 muffins. Halve the recipe and we have 9 muffins for two people for two days, which means each person gets 2-1/4 muffin per day. However, GC eats five muffins on Saturday and BA eats 4, so Sunday breakfast is a garden veggie patty with cheese on a baguette with sliced apples. That's the answer you got, right?

Stay in school, kids. Math skillz are rad!

Sour Cream Coffeecake Muffins

Fold the batter just four times to swirl in the sugar mixture, not fully blend it.

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup egg substitute
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 7 3/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 teaspoons fresh orange juice
Dash of salt

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine first 3 ingredients; set aside.

Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 3 minutes). Add egg substitute; beat 3 minutes. Beat in sour cream, water, and vanilla.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture; add sour cream mixture. Stir just until combined.

Place 3 tablespoons brown sugar mixture in a small bowl; set aside. Sprinkle surface of batter with remaining brown sugar mixture. Gently fold batter 4 times.

Place 18 paper muffin cup liners in muffin cups; coat liners with cooking spray. Spoon batter into prepared cups. Sprinkle batter evenly with reserved brown sugar mixture. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove muffins from pan immediately; place on a wire rack. Cool 10 minutes.

Combine powdered sugar, juice, and dash of salt in a small bowl, stirring until smooth. Drizzle powdered sugar mixture evenly over muffins.

Yield: 18 servings (serving size: 1 muffin)

CALORIES 182(28% from fat); FAT 5.7g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 2.9g; CHOLESTEROL 14mg; CALCIUM 53mg; SODIUM 176mg; FIBER 0.6g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 30.4g
Cooking Light, MAY 2006

Though making this recipe requires many mixing bowls, it's pretty fast to assemble and get into the oven. I used one egg instead of the egg substitute (1/4 c. of egg substitute = 1 large egg) and full-fat sour cream. I tasted one muffin right from the oven, before drizzling with the glaze; it was cinnamony-nutty good as is, so I omitted the glaze. I didn't think a sweet-orange glaze would improve the muffins, and thought it might actually add too much sweetness and a discordant orange flavor. If you try these muffins, try them first without the glaze before deciding if you want to go to the extra trouble.

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