Happy St. Patty's Day! Since today is a holiday that's all about greenness, I'm sharing a recipe with you that *might* be in my next cookbook (the jury is still out).
It all started about a week ago when my assistant went on a baking spree and posted a bunch of photos on Facebook of all the things she'd made. While I was practically licking my screen at the "Cake Batter Cinnamon Buns" what really got my attention were some "Green Monster Muffins."
The term "green monster" (which I believe was coined by Angela, of Oh She Glows) refers to spinach-rich smoothies that are popular among bloggers.
Anyway, I used to *love* spinach and cheese muffins waaay back in my vegetarian days. (There is something really kick ass about a savory muffin) so I thought, "Hey! I could probably substitute spinach for carrots in the carrot cake cupcake recipe!"
But after some thought, I decided to tinker with it a bit -- add lemon zest because I'm obsessed with lemon in baked goods, reduce the sugar to make it more "healthy" and less "dessert"-like...and before I knew it, I'd reworked the entire recipe.
Makes 12
2 cups spinach
1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1 cup nondairy milk
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin tin if necessary, and set aside (I use non-stick). Chop spinach (or put in a food processor or blender) until it's chopped finely -- and pack it tightly into a 1 cup measuring cup (you may have a little overflow), set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together. In a small bowl, mix nondairy milk with applesauce and vanilla. Pour into flour (dry) mixture and stroke a few times. Then add spinach, and lemon zest, stirring until just combined -- careful not to over stir, but make sure there are no pockets of flour. Fill cups 3/4 full and bake 15-25 minutes (mine were perfect at 17).
For the exact Green Monster muffins Andrea made, visit The Chic Life. BTW, I think if you want the muffins to be brilliant green, you'll need to pulverize the spinach like in this recipe.
Also if you're looking for more St. Patty recipes -- might I suggest HH's Irish Soda Bread or Beer Bread?
