Breakfast / Brunch Archives | Flour Arrangements

Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

May 7, 2017 by Suzanne Cowden 2 Comments

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With cocoa powder for bittersweet chocolate flavor and juicy raspberries for tart sweetness, these Chocolate Raspberry Muffins are a perfect breakfast or snack food. Stir semi-sweet chocolate chips into the batter for extra richness.

If you believe chocolate is a food group all its own, you’re my kind of human being. If not, we can still be friends, but I probably won’t always understand you.

I love chocolate in all its versatility. It’s just as delicious in the form of chocolate cake as chocolate cream pie. Chocolate cookies? Of course. Chocolate brownies? Um, yeah.

You can savor it as chocolate mousse, hot cocoa, chocolate frosting, or even straight up as a candy bar.

Let’s not forget hot fudge or chocolate ice cream.

I bake frequently with chocolate, but I’ve come to realize that I mostly prepare chocolate desserts.

Consider these chocolate raspberry muffins my penance for overlooking its importance as a snack food. They’re dark and chocolaty, full of tart, tangy raspberries, and (why not?) semi-sweet chocolate chips….

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Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

October 12, 2016 by Suzanne Cowden 6 Comments

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With just a hint of spice, these Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins deliver sweet banana bread goodness combined with rich chocolate decadence.

Overripe bananas have brought me back from my long absence here at Flour Arrangements. I spent the summer outside with my daughters — at the beach, biking around town, or swimming at the pool.

When we did venture inside to bake, my kids wanted to make tried and tested recipes like chocolate chip cookies, corn bread muffins, or simple vanilla cookies. They’re eager to bake, and I’m trying to encourage it, which means not pushing my experimental projects — like these banana chocolate chip muffins — on them.

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Easy Blueberry Muffins

June 3, 2016 by Suzanne Cowden 2 Comments

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Sweet, light, and tender, these Blueberry Muffins get a hint of brightness from lemon zest. This easy recipe is simple and quick to prepare.

Quick, easy, extraordinary. It’s my new mantra, and I’ve got these Blueberry Muffins to show for it.

This school year, I’ve been working on developing recipes to bake with fifth graders in less than an hour without a mixer — including cleanup — and these muffins made the cut by a landslide.

Despite the fact that they’re quick and easy to prepare, I know a class full of fifth graders who’ll tell you that they’re extraordinary….

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Raspberry Lemon Scones

May 9, 2016 by Suzanne Cowden 30 Comments

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Simple and quick to prepare, these little Raspberry Lemon Scones are full of tart berry and tangy lemon flavor. They’re perfect for a quick breakfast or afternoon snack.

A few weeks back, Tessa and her friend Kadin snacked on Raspberry Lemon Scones after school. Since Kadin couldn’t seem to get enough of these tender, fruity scones, I told him I’d send the recipe to his mom.

Eliza and I had been testing the scones in preparation for baking with her fifth grade class at school, so when I sent the recipe, I added a note explaining that Kadin could bake them himself with just a little help.

Later that evening, she wrote back, “Kadin will help bake these! When he got home he announced that he ate scones, and, as he put it, ‘They were fit for a king, Mommy. Really, they were that good!'”

The scones elicited involuntary “Ooohs” and “Aaahs” from the fifth graders at school, and I learned, too, that one of the teachers who sampled a scone asked Eliza’s teacher for the recipe — which she used the very same day….

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Quick and Easy Cheddar Drop Biscuits

March 23, 2016 by Suzanne Cowden Leave a Comment

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Super tender and incredibly rich and buttery, these Cheddar Drop Biscuits are perfect for snacking, serving with soup or stew, or dishing up alongside bacon and eggs for breakfast.

I‘ve been volunteering to help with math centers in Eliza’s fifth grade class all year. Until about a month ago, I ran the math games center. My students got to play games like Set, Gravity Maze, Rush Hour, or Tantrix. How cool is that?

In another station, kids were learning to knit. Their teacher decided that she should offer a different station once everyone had knitted a hat: “I need a new idea,” she kept lamenting.

Every time she said this, I responded in the same way:”Baking involves lots of math.”…

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Cheesy Muffin Tin Popovers

January 23, 2016 by Suzanne Cowden Leave a Comment

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These Cheesy Muffin Tin Popovers are perfect for breakfast or snack-time. Since they’re so quick to prepare, they’re also a great addition at dinner-time alongside a steaming bowl of soup.

On one especially cold and rainy day recently, I treated my kids to warm popovers after school. They usually like to make popovers themselves, but on this dark, drab day, they didn’t mind that I’d baked them instead. They wolfed down nearly a dozen in nothing flat, and they’ve been asking me to make them almost daily now.

Since popovers are so simple to make, I’ve started playing around with the recipe as I prepare them, stirring in different additions to keep things interesting. So far, the best variation — Cheesy Muffin Tin Popovers — features Gruyere cheese and a bit of smoked paprika….

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Oatmeal with Raspberries and Cocoa Nibs

December 9, 2015 by Suzanne Cowden Leave a Comment

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A hearty breakfast of oatmeal with raspberries and cocoa nibs will get your day off to the right start.

I‘ve never been a big breakfast eater. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always just filled my bowl with dry cereal and doused it with milk. Occasionally I’ll indulge in waffles or pancakes on weekends, but weekday mornings always feel so rushed; I just can’t find the energy to do much more than feed myself a simple bowl of cereal.

It’s been so cold lately, though, and my husband’s started making oatmeal. A hot, comforting bowl of oatmeal in the morning has been a revelation for me. Not only does it warm your belly on chilly days, it’s like a blank canvas to fill with toppings to your heart’s content.

Here’s my favorite combination so far: frozen raspberries, cocoa nibs, and brown sugar.

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Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits

October 9, 2015 by Suzanne Cowden Leave a Comment

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Flaky and tender, these easy-to-prepare Buttermilk Biscuits taste spectacular on their own or in combination with other recipes calling for biscuits.

One tender bite of flaky buttermilk biscuit highlights a momentous truth: perfection often presents itself in simple packaging. Buttery and light, tangy and comforting, a perfect buttermilk biscuit is flaky without seeming dry, chewy without feeling dense, and rich without overwhelming your tastebuds.

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