Yogurt Spice Muffins
When I was a little girl I heard a woman say she wanted to “clip coupons for a living.”
I had no idea what that meant but later learned that she wanted to be rich and own lots of stocks and bonds and in those days apparently, in order to collect the interest on a bond you had to physically clip an attached coupon and present it at the bank.
I clip coupons. Not the bond kind though. The supermarket kind. You know, $.50 off a carton of milk and so on. It won’t make me rich but it will save me some money.
And also it allows me to try new products that I might not have tried because I don’t have to pay the full price for them.
So I was happy the other day to get a few coupons for Maia yogurt, a new brand for me. Anyone who reads this blog knows I eat and cook with yogurt all the time, so this was a natural for me to try. I usually buy plain yogurt because I think the flavored ones are way too sweet. But I couldn’t find plain Maia and so I bought strawberry and vanilla.
I can tell you that as for eating out of hand these yogurts are very creamy and thick, but not at all starchy. The milk comes from grass-fed cows; the yogurts are completely gluten-free, GMO free and kosher.
Best of all, for me anyway, they are not cloyingly sweet. There’s much less sugar in these yogurts than in other brands. So they are good to eat as a snack and also to bake with, because the amount of sweetener won’t mess up a recipe meant to be prepared with unflavored yogurt.
For example in these Yogurt Spice Muffins.
Also, click on this coupon link so you can try it for yourself.
NOTE: the recipe calls for a full cup of yogurt (more than one container)
Yogurt Spice Muffins
5 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 cup Maia vanilla yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
sugar or finely chopped almonds for garnish, optional
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter and flour 10-12 muffin cups. Melt the butter and set aside. Whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves in a bowl. Set aside. In another bowl whisk the eggs, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla extract together until thoroughly blended. Fold the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until just blended. Do not overmix. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups. Sprinkle tops with sugar or almonds, if desired. Bake for about 18 minutes or until the muffins are set and lightly browned. Let cool in the cups for 5 minutes then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes 10-12