Pizza Muffins

                                                
This recipe makes 12 pizza cups.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Ingredients:
-2 1/2 large white tortillas
-3/4 cup pizza sauce
-1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
-pam cooking spray
-whatever toppings you want in your pizza cups, about 1 cup of each topping if you want enough to fill each muffin cup

Directions:
1. Begin by greasing your muffin tin
2. Cut small circular pieces of the tortillas, I used an upside down coffee mug as my template. Each tortilla should give you 5 circle bases, so 2 1/2 makes 12.
3. Place each circle into each muffin cup and form a base
4. Add in a teaspoon of pizza sauce into each cup
5. Add your toppings, about a teaspoon of each into each cup
6. Top each cup with cheese
7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and slightly browned on the top.


You can serve these cups alone or with any side that goes with a pizza. I LOVE serving these with a ceasar salad! For my pizza cup toppings I used chorizo/mushrooms for 6 cups and chorizo/olives for the other 6. You can use any toppings you want, just make sure whatever you use is in small pieces so your cups do not overflow. Also, I would suggest using 2-3 toppings max to prevent them from being overstuffed.

Sweet Banana Muffins

Who doesn't love banana muffins?! If you just said "me", you're crazy! ;) These muffins are sweet, delicious, especially when warm, and have a little something for everyone in them!

This recipe makes 12 muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

-3 VERY ripe bananas, the riper the better

-1 cup white sugar

-2 cups flour

-1/4 cup softened butter

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 tablespoon vanilla

-1/2 cup chocolate chips

-1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mash the bananas

2. Add in the sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips and softened butter and mix together

3. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and gently mix together

4. Drop batter into greased muffin tin, filling each cup about 3/4 full

5. Bake for 24 minutes

6. Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan

You can choose to add other items into the muffins, including walnuts, raisins and apple chunks. Whatever you have on hand. These muffins are yummy served warm and topped with some butter. Great for breakfast, dessert or even just a snack. :D

Taco Muffin Cups

These taco cups are so cute and turn a boring taco into something fun! You could omit the ground beef and still have a simple and delicious vegetarian taco :)
This recipe makes 10 taco cups.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Ingredients:
-1lb ground beef
-1/2 can re-fried beans
-1/2 cup taco sauce
-Pam, or other cooking spray
-3 tablespoons taco seasoning (I use my own taco seasoning, you could make your own or use a packet of Old El Paso taco seasoning)
-1 1/4 cup hot water
-10 small tortillas
- typical taco toppings, cheese, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, whatever you want!

Directions:
Tortillas:
1. Place tortillas in microwave for 50 seconds to make them pliable
2. Grease muffin tin and spray each tortilla with cooking spray
3. Form each tortilla into the cups creating a base and enough room for stuffing
4. Bake in oven for 12 minutes
Filling:
5. Cook ground beef in frying pan, drain grease
6. Place beef back in frying pan and add taco seasoning and hot water, simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is gone
7. Heat the re-fried beans on low in small sauce-pot or in microwave
8. Prepare shredded cheese as it will be used in the filling
Combining:
9. Once tortillas are done, stuff each with a layer of beans, beef, taco sauce and cheese
10. Place back in oven for 5 minutes to allow cheese to melt
11. Remove each cup from muffin tin and serve immediately

You could have all the taco toppings set out on the table and ready for everyone to top their own. Kids will especially enjoy this! These taco cups would be great to make for a child's birthday party because they require everyone to get involved and to choose their own toppings. They also allow adults to become kids again!

Chicken Pie Muffins

This recipe is one of my favourites! I wanted to come up with something delicious and easy and this is what I created.

This recipe makes 12 muffins, with some leftover filling that can be used during plating.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Ingredients:

-2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

-4 strips bacon, cooked and cut into pieces similar in size to diced chicken

-1 can of mixed peas and carrots

-1 3/4 cup chicken stock

-1/2 cup half and half

-2 tablespoons butter

-2 tablespoons flour

-2 garlic cloves, diced

-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

-salt and pepper

-puff pastry sheets (I used Tenderflake brand, and used the whole box, which is two squares)

Directions:

1. Begin by defrosting the puff pastry, I left mine on the counter 2 hours before cooking time

2. Once defrosted, roll out each half to about the size of a cookie sheet. It should make 6 rectangles out of each half, so 12 rectangles total, enough to fill a muffin tin.

3. Using a greased muffin tin, shape the pastry into cups, ensuring that there is a base and no holes in the pastry (the cup will need to be able to hold liquid)

4. Poke holes with a fork in each cup, the pastry will puff up during cooking if you don't do this.

5. Cook the pastry according to box directions
Filling:

6. Begin by melting the butter in a medium sauce pot on medium heat

7. Once butter is melted add in the garlic and sautee for about 1 minute

8. Then add in the flour and whisk together for 1 minute

9. Add in the chicken stock and half and half

10. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a low boil for 5 minutes until sauce is thick

11. Add in the chicken, bacon and canned peas/carrots

12. Stir everything together and remove from heat

13. Once pastries are cooked, spoon fill each cup up to the top with filling and top with a pinch of cheddar cheese

14. Place filled pastries back in the oven for about 5 minutes to allow cheese to melt

15. Remove from oven and serve immediately

As I mentioned before, this recipe does make more filling than the 12 cups, so you have the option of making more cups using more pastry and another muffin tin, or you can use it for plating. I spoon about 1/2 a cup of the filling on the middle of a plate, and then place 3-4 of the cups on top of the filling. It just makes it a little fancy. But, if you have a hungry family who don't care about the pretty things and would rather devour the cups before you have the chance, that's fine too! These chicken pie muffins are a big hit in my house and would be perfect as appetizers!

Cheesy Pasta Muffins

These little cups were made using farfalle pasta, but you could substitute for any small pasta, elbow macaroni would work great!
This recipe makes 10 muffins.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

-1lb, or half box of cooked pasta

-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

-2 cups milk

-4 tablespoons butter

-2 tablespoons flour

-1/2 cup breadcrumbs

-1/2 cup parmesan cheese

-salt and pepper

-Bacon bits, optional

Directions:

1. Begin by cooking the pasta according to box directions

2. In a small frying pan melt 2 tablespoons of butter

3. Once melted, add in the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese, mix to combine and remove from heat. Set mixture aside.

4. In a medium sauce pot, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat

5. Once melted, add the flour and stir constantly for 1 minute

6. Add milk into pot

7. Continue stirring and bring milk to a boil over medium heat

8. Allow mixture to boil and thicken, about 4 minutes

9. Once mixture is thick, remove from heat and add cheese, stir together

10. Add cheese mixture to cooked pasta, add in cooked bacon and stir together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

11. Grease muffin tin and spoon in pasta mixture, filling each cup to the top

12. Sprinkle breadcrumb/parmesan mixture over each cup

13. Bake in oven for 30 minutes

These muffins are so cheesy and so yummy! The tops become crunchy and the middle remains soft and gooey. You could also add other items to this recipe, like using diced crispy pancetta instead of bacon, or try a cheese other than cheddar. These can be eaten alone, served with a side salad or even eaten as a meal with the meatloaf muffins! The possibilities are endless and the meal is delicious!

Pancake Muffins

These muffins are so simple to make! Perfect for those picky eaters because you can fill each muffin with different ingredients! The muffins in this picture contain cinnamon and chocolate chips.

The amount of muffins this recipe makes depends on the type of mix you use.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients:
-Pancake mix, can be from scratch, or from a box. Make whatever amount of mix you need to feed your family. 1 pancake = 2 muffins
-Filling for your muffins: some examples could be, chocolate chips, diced bananas, 1 teaspoon peanut butter, diced apples, raisins, cinnamon sugar, honey, bacon,  basically anything you would think of topping a pancake with.

Directions:
-Mix together ingredients required to make your pancake mix
-Grease your muffin tin
-The next step is really to your preference. You can either add your filling right into your muffin mixture, or you can wait until the end and top your pancake muffin with the filling before baking. I personally fill the muffin cups halfway, add my filling, top off the rest of the way and then add a bit more filling to the top of the muffin.
-Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until each muffin is golden brown on the top
-Allow them to cool in muffin tin for about 10 minutes before removing


These muffins can be served with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup, with butter, peanut butter or even nutella and can be enjoyed as a breakfast meal or just as a snack :)

Meatloaf Muffins

This recipe is basically a meatloaf recipe, just cooked differently. If you have a personal or family meatloaf recipe that you use, feel free to use that instead of the ingredients that I use.

This recipe makes 9 meatloaf muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

-1 lb ground beef

-1 egg

-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

-1/2 cup bread crumbs

-1/4 cup ketchup

-2 tablespoons yellow mustard

-1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

-1 teaspoon onion powder

-1 teaspoon garlic powder

-dash of salt and pepper

-adding bacon to your meatloaf muffins is optional, you can add bacon bits or precooked and diced bacon strips.

Directions:

1. Mix together the ground beef and all ingredients except the cheese

2. Grease muffin tins (I use pam)

3. Fill each muffin cup with ground beef mixture, about 1/4 full

4. Put a pinch of the cheese on top of meat base

5. Cover with more meat mixture, fill up to 3/4 full

6. Cook in oven for 45 - 50 minutes

7. Allow muffins to sit for 5 minutes before removing from tin

This recipe is SO simple and easy! After making these in a muffin tin, I have never gone back to using my meatloaf tin! These are delicious and perfect for a family dinner, or even as appetizers at a birthday or dinner party. They can even be served alongside the mashed potato muffins I posted earlier :)

Potato Muffins

This recipe makes 9 potato muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients needed:

-2 large potatoes

-1/4 cup sour cream

-splash of milk

-1 tablespoon butter

-1 teaspoon oil

-1 finely minced garlic clove

- salt and pepper

-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

-optional for  filling: cooked bacon, cooked sausage, green onions, chives

Directions:

1. Boil the potatoes

2. Mash when soft with milk, sour cream, butter and salt and pepper

3. Cook the garlic clove in the oil on medium heat for about two minutes to remove the raw taste so it does not overpower the muffins. (If you have chosen to add green onions into this recipe, I would suggest cooking them in the pan with the garlic to soften them)

4. Mix the garlic, cheese, and any other filling items you have into the potatoes

5. Grease your muffin tin (I use Pam as an alternative to butter or oil)

6. Scoop the potato mixture into the tin, filling each cup to the top

7. Cook in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown

8. Allow potatoes to cool for 5 minutes before removing from tin

The potatoes should be crispy and brown on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside. These potato muffins put a twist to the overused mashed potatoes and can be eaten alongside any meat dish, such as roast beef, pork tenderloin or roast chicken. They also work great when covered in gravy!

Welcome

Welcome to the blog related to all things MUFFIN TINS! I love cooking in muffin tins because it's simple, quick, and everything comes out in the perfect portion. Every recipe on this blog has been created and tasted by me. I ensure that the taste and quality of each item I cook is delicious and perfect. Feel free to give any of these recipes a try and let me know how they turned out for you. Keep reading for mouth watering goodness!
-A