Mothers Day Muffins

I don't often bake muffins on Mothers Day because we often go out to breakfast on Sundays, but we went with our friends yesterday since they had something planned today, so I decided to make muffins for breakfast. I used to run a muffin business thirty odd years ago, but I doubt that I have made muffins of any kind for a couple of years. Still, muffins are an easy quick bread, so being rusty didn't hurt too much, although the tops weren't the usual dome shape for most of them, which was odd, but didn't affect the texture or taste.

I made fresh raspberry muffins since Target had raspberries on sale yesterday when I was there. I decided to use some whole wheat flour and almond flour too for a bit of fiber and flavor. Some lemon zest added zing and goes so well with raspberries. Since I'm still on the non-dairy wagon, I used non-dairy margarine instead of butter and soy creamer instead of milk, but you can easily sub the exact same amount of real butter and milk if you prefer.

Properly made these are very tender with no large holes or sunken tops. The key to good muffins is to handle the dough as little as possible. Really do stir in the liquid into the dry ingredients only about 90 percent, then add the raspberries. As you gently  combine the batter and berries, the other 10% of the dry ingredients will be incorporated, too. Scoop right into the prepared muffin tin, sprinkle on the sliced almonds and sprinkle with the sugar and into the hot preheated oven they go.

Your kitchen will smell wonderful in about 5 minutes and continue to do so until the muffins are done and cooled a little bit. If you eat them right away, be careful because the berries are pretty hot!

We had these with a bowl of fresh strawberries and bananas and some more raspberries, plus tea and coffee.

After a while we took a cloudy Mothers Day excursion down Stony Point Road to Pepper Road to the wonderful Garden Valley Ranch in Petaluma, CA. Originally it was a railroad stop and some of the buildings have been around since the 1900s.

 It's been owned for years by rosarian Ray Reddel, but was purchased just a year ago by a trio or sisters and they have made some amazing and lovely changes.

There are still acres of roses to admire and rose plants to purchase,

but there is also a 'secret' garden with fountain, plenty of other blooming and budding plants and lots of gravel paths to stroll along. If you are ever in the area on a weekend, or looking for an event space in Sonoma County, check it out.

Mother's Day Almond and Fresh Raspberry Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup almond flourGrated zest from ½ a lemon
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted non-dairy margarine (or butter), melted and cooled a bit
or 2 medium eggs, slightly whisked
¾ cup soy creamer (or milk)  at room temperature
1 cup fresh raspberries (rinsed and dried gently with paper towels)
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the middle of the oven. Grease 12 muffin cups or line 12 cups with cupcake papers. I only ended up with 11 muffins and filled one cup with some water since it had no batter.

In a large bowl combine the flours and almond flour. With your fingers, rub together the lemon zest and the sugars until fragrant and combined. Add the baking powder, baking soda and salt with a whisk.

In another bowl whisk together the melted margarine, eggs, and soy creamer.

Add the wet ingredient mixture to the dry ingredient mixture, stirring with a fork for a few strokes; just enough to incorporate 90% of the dry ingredients into the wet.

Add the raspberries and continue gently mixing just until ingredients are combined. Immediately scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, dividing the batter as evenly as possible among the cups. Sprinkle tops of batter with the sliced almonds and then with the granulated sugar, dividing as evenly as possible among the cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan half way at 10 minutes. Muffins are done when the tops are golden brown and when a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean (well, there may be raspberry juice clinging to it, but no uncooked batter, OK?)

Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool some more if you can wait that long. Enjoy these muffins while still warm or serve within 12 hours for the moistest muffins. Wrap any remaining muffins airtight and store in the fridge.

Makes 10-12 muffins