By now all of my readers should know about my love for cookbooks. Makes total sense as I’m a food blogger. I’m always wanting to check out new ideas and pairings. Who knows what will inspire me?
Recently I had a cookbook called Weelicious from the library. I’m a huge believer in libraries! I started volunteering and then working at my local library in Louisville while in high school. We had lots of fancy coffee in the mornings, always ordered out for lunch and the branch manager let me redesign and organize the entire library. (It was a really small branch!) Up until moving back to Chicago, I’d always been a librarian.
Wait….we were talking about my love of cookbooks….Weelicious in particular. The author has written it on the premise that kids will eat vegetables if you offer them. That you don’t have to be sneaky, puree and then hide them in a recipe to get your kids to eat them. While I’m not sure that would have worked on me or my siblings when we were younger, its a great idea.
I’ve been dying to try this recipe! To me, parsnips are an unassuming root veggie. Slightly like a carrot, but with a mild taste. I had a larger parsnip, so mine used 1 1/2 cups packed grated parsnip. If you only use 1 cup, yours might not be as big of a muffin. The cream cheese filling makes them a little fancier. Due to the cream cheese, if you don’t plan on eating these within a day they will need to be refrigerated.
Parsnip Muffins
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup grated parsnips
Filling
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the brown sugar, yogurt, oil and vanilla and stir to combine.
Stir the grated parsnips in to the flour mix and toss to coat.
Add dry to wet and stir to combine.
To make cream cheese filling, put all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Fill each cup 1/3 of the way with batter, top with 1 tablespoon cream cheese filling and then drop another tablespoon of batter over that.
Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cool and serve.
Susie Savors: These tasted just like a spice muffin. Of course, parsnips are not exactly strong or bold. So, it was just a healthier version of a muffin. The cream cheese boosted the moisture levels. They aren’t quite so fluffy or rise as tall as traditional muffins, but they were still good. Everyone loved them!