For the past two glorious hours, I have been elbow deep in flour, sugar and the wonderful world of baking.

My kitchen is a disaster.

My sink is filled with dishes.

My clothes are covered in ingredients.

And I couldn’t be happier.

I decided that this would be the night I would finally test out my mini muffin pans and the silicone liners. Ok, I realize that silicone muffin liners sounds silly, especially when you find out I spent more than $9 per dozen, BUT these are, hands down, the best baking purchase if you like to bake muffins! They are non-stick, reusable, and the muffins pop right out. Perfect!

Back to the really good stuff, the actual muffins.

I perused Pinterest for a while this morning until I found three recipes I wanted to try. Due to a combination of time, exhaustion and sheer laziness, I only made two of the three, Lemon Blueberry and Double Chocolate. Who could go wrong?

[Just a side note: Yes, Santa Claus makes an appearance in the background of my images. While I enjoy baking and sharing, I am lacking in the large Tupperware department. This is all I had.] 

Lemon Blueberry Muffins [mini]

Ingredients
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp lemon extract
11/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 lemon juice
1 TB lemon rind (To be honest, I wasn’t 100 percent sure on what this was, so I left it out.)

Recipe

1. In a large bowl whisk together milk, vegetable oil, egg, lemon extract and lemon rind. In a separate bowl combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and nutmeg. Mix the dry ingredients into the large bowl and stir until smooth. Fold in sour cream and blueberries. I had to chop my blue berries because they were big enough to fill half of one mini muffin cup.
2. Preheat oven to 375. Fill cupcake pan with liners (or use a cooking spray) and fill with batter about 2/3 the way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove muffins from pan and allow to cool.
3. If you were doing this correctly, you would combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and drizzle over muffins. If you’re moving too quickly, like me, and don’t read the full instructions, you just squeeze a few drops of lemon juice onto the muffins. *sigh* At least they taste good!

Double Chocolate Muffins [mini]

Ingredients
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c yogurt
1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c chopped milk chocolate (one whole Hershey’s milk chocolate bar)

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tin. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Stir.
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add egg, vanilla and yogurt. Mix well.
5. Combine the dry ingredients to the egg mixture a little at a time. Mix well.
6. Add chocolate chips and chopped chocolate and stir it in.
7. Drop the batter in to the liners using a small cookie scoop.
8. Bake for 5 minutes in 400 degree oven. Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake 14 more minutes, or until browned on top.

I always recommend taste-testing 1-4 mini muffins before sharing with friends or family. I mean, they are mini.