Blueberry Season Muffins

July is the time for fresh blueberries in my neck of the woods. One of my favorite ways to enjoy blueberries is in a soft, fragrant, delicious muffin. They don't take long to make or bake and you can enjoy them warm.

A good muffin is tender and has a fairly open crumb, so they aren't really like a cake. Although it helps to have room temperature eggs, you melt the butter so you can decide to have muffins and then make them in a shorter time. Plop the eggs in some warm water while you melt the butter, let the eggs warm and the butter cool a bit while you prep the dry ingredients, warm the buttermilk on low in the microwave just enough to take the chill off, and you are good to go. A small amount of both whole wheat flour and rolled oats make these just a bit heartier than those with just all-purpose flour, plus the flavor improves...a win-win.

I like to sprinkle some sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins before they go into the oven. It adds some sweetness and different texture and is pretty, but it really is optional.

Usually I also include lemon zest for sparkle but didn't have one this time and they were still delicious!

Hearty Blueberry Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup rolled oats
1 cup granulated sugar
½ tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons egg substitute (or 2 medium eggs)
¾ cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberries
sanding sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the middle of the oven. Grease 8 muffin cups or line 8 cups with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl combine the flours, oats, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt with a whisk.

In another bowl whisk together the melted butter, room temperature eggs, and buttermilk that is at room temperature.

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 blueberries 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. Batter may come to top of cups.

 If desired, sprinkle a bit of sanding sugar (less that 1/4 teaspoon for each muffin) on top of each muffin's raw dough.

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 blueberry 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 6-8 muffins

Joy of Cooking Muffins

I've been baking from The Joy Of Cooking cookbook for longer than I can remember. This is one of those full compendium type cookbooks and it's from before there were photographs with recipes, although there are some line drawings here and there.

Another feature is that the recipes are written as directions, with the ingredients and amounts coming as part of the recitation of oven temperatures, bowls to use, pans to bake in, etc.

I prefer a recipe where the ingredients are listed first so that I can make sure at a glance that I have the stuff I need to make the item(s). Since I have a well-stocked kitchen it is very likely that I'll have the pan or pot or implement needed, but missing an ingredient is often a reason I decide to not make something.

Recently I made some healthy-ish muffins based on a recipe in the Joy of Cooking book. The recipe was for Cooked Cereal Muffins. Mine also included added nuts and seeds, plus dates.

The key thing to remember for this recipe is to cook the cereal (I used oatmeal!) far enough in advance that it can cool to room temperature. While it is cooling, the melted butter can also cool a bit. The egg and milk can use that same time to warm up a bit closer to room temperature. While those things are cooling or warming, you can chop the nuts and seed and chop the dates. After that it all goes together pretty quickly. I did use brown sugar instead of white, for flavor, and added a bit of baking soda because the muffins were baked in two batches in 8-pan tins.

This past weekend we had some major storms, including a cyclone. The winds toppled trees all over the county and beyond, which meant that many electrical wires also came down. There are still areas and thousands of customers without power today. Fortunately we were only without power for about 30 hours. We have generators which we ran for a couple hours twice a day to keep frozen stuff frozen, but not a lot more. The local internet provider also lost lines so it was even longer before that was back. Still, we were lucky that there was no damage to our property and only a few pretty small tree limbs came down.

Fortunately I had made these muffins the night before, so at least we had yummy date-walnut-oatmeal-seeds muffins to enjoy. I hope that you enjoy them, too.

Cooked Oatmeal And Seedy Muffins With Walnuts and Dates

Joy of Cooking variation

2 eggs at room temperature

½ cup rolled oats cooked in 1 cup water, then cooled to room temperature

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons milk at room temperature

4 Tablespoons/4 oz./ ½ stick butter, melted and cooled

1 ½ cups all- purpose flour

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup walnuts, chopped

¼ cup pitted and chopped dates

1/3 cup King Arthur Baking Harvest Blend mixed seeds

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 16 muffin cups – baking spray works well.

 
Crack the eggs into a medium bowl, then mix the eggs with a fork to break them up a bit. Add to the cooled cooked cereal gradually and use the fork to break down any lumps as you combine the eggs and cereal. Add the milk and melted butter and combine.

 
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda and salt. Stir in the chopped walnuts, dates and the seed mixture. Pour in the liquid mixture and use the fork to stir until just combined.

 
Scoop batter into the muffin cups to about 2/3 full. If any of the cups are left unused, add a tablespoon of water to that cup instead.

 
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown and spring back when you push down gently.

 
Serve at once. Butter goes well with these muffins which are hearty and delicate at the same time.

 

Muffins with Quince and Pecans

When I realized that I still had poached quince in the fridge and that it needed to be used, I went to various cookbooks and then to the index for this blog. It's easy to access the Index...just click on the photo of the table set with a rust tablecloth. It's on the right in the web view of the blog.

In the section with the oldest recipes I found Playful Banana Muffins and, after reading the recipe, I decided that this recipe, which had already had a big makeover, would get another makeover...this time with quince!

This is a lovely muffin. It's moist from the fruit, laced with chopped pecans and small pieces of quince, fragrant with the quince and orange zest and vanilla, and it has a nice crumb. I'm so glad that I made this recipe. It makes a full 12 muffins, plus a small loaf pan's worth of deliciousness. One of these muffins and a cup of tea go really well together.

No quince? You can substitute ripe pear and it will work just fine. Peel and core the pear, making sure to also remove the stem parts. Dice the fruit and make sure you have 2 cups worth. Pears range in size so much that you will probably need about 6. The same is true for the quince...about 5-6 will work. I boiled mine for about 10 minutes to soften the skin, peeled and cored them, then poached at a simmer in water which also had 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cinnamon stick and two whole cloves. Be sure to drain and then chill the poached quince.

I do hope you make these muffins with either quince or pears for a celebration of fall bounty!

Quince Pecan Muffins
Based very loosely on Raisin Bran muffins in the King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion

2 cups poached quince, diced small (about 1/2-inch)
1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin and a mini-loaf pan by spraying with baking spray or by greasing and flouring them. Set aside.

Check the quince for liquid. If necessary, dry with paper towels. Set aside.

In a large mixing owl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs, brown sugar, molasses, vanilla and orange zest. Add the quince and pecans and stir to combine.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and oats.

Quickly, with as few strokes as possible, us a large spoon, wooden spoon, or large flexible spatula to mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, just until combined.

Fill prepared muffin cups with the mixture, filling each cup almost to the top. Pour the rest of the batter into the prepared mini-loaf pan, using a spatula to clean the bowl of batter.

Bake in preheated oven for 14-18 minutes for the muffins, or until they spring back when pressed lightly in the middle, and for about 25 minutes for the mini-loaf pan quince bread, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove when ready from the oven. Cool on a wire rack 5 minutes, then turn out of the pans and let cool until ready to serve, or serve at once. If desired, serve with butter, cream cheese, or apricot jam.

A Muffin To Welcome 2021

Happy New Year! 

I try to bake with seasonal foods, I really do. But sometimes there will be an item at the market that just calls out to me. That happened when I passed the produce section of Whole Foods on my way to get some non-dairy ricotta filled tortellini (they are the only local store that carries this item as far as I know). The fresh raspberries were so beautiful and red and juicy looking that I couldn't resist.

To make up for failing to use seasonal, I did use lots of Meyer lemon zest and juice, along with the raspberries and  non-dairy ricotta cheese (Kite Hill makes a delicious ricotta), to make these light and bright muffins. You can, of course, use regular lemons and regular ricotta cheese. That dollop of sweet lemony creaminess hidden toward the bottom is such a joy to discover as you eat the muffin! The fragrance is amazing, too. The raspberries are a bright color note and provide natural sweetness, too. By putting them into the top batter, it helps them not sink to the bottom. Try them yourself and see if you don't agree that straying from seasonal now and then is delicious.

Raspberry and Meyer Lemon Muffins
Makes 12

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
finely grated zest of one Meyer lemon (or regular lemon if Meyer unavailable), divided

2 eggs, beaten 

1/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, melted and cooled

juice of 1 Meyer lemon, seeds removed

1 cup soy creamer or whole milk or buttermilk

1/4 cup ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon milk or soy creamer
2 teaspoons powdered sugar

1 heaping cup fresh raspberries, washed and drained
about 1 tablespoon clear sparkling or sanding sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with baking spray (I used a six pan oversized muffin pan). Set aside.

In a bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Add half the lemon zest and stir to distribute.

In a second bowl, whisk together the egg, butter, lemon juice and milk or buttermilk.

Prepare the filling by stirring together the ricotta cheese, milk, powdered sugar and the remaining half the lemon zest in a small bowl until completely combined. Set aside.

Add the wet ingredient mixture all at once to the flour mixture and stir together with a fork, just until all the dry ingredients have been moistened. Don't overmix.

Scoop enough of the batter into the prepared muffin tins to cover the bottom. Dollop about a teaspoon of the ricotta mixture on top. Stir the raspberries gently into the remaining batter, then top the ricotta mixture in the pans with the berry-rich batter, distributing evenly. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired, distributing evenly.

 Bake in preheated oven for 17 - 25 minutes until tops are golden brown and the center springs back when pressed down with a clean finger. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack 3-5 minutes, then removed carefully from the muffin tin and serve.

 

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

Warm Blueberries

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I used to have a muffin company. I baked wholesale muffins for a couple of coffee shops, mostly to keep my brain active when my kids were very young. Although my lemon ricotta mega-muffin was my best seller, the next favorite was fresh blueberry muffins. It's been ages since I baked any kind of muffin, but the blueberries in the produce section called to me this week, so on Saturday morning I baked up a batch of fresh blueberry muffins, with some Meyer lemon zest since they go so well with blueberries. When I ate my first bite, the muffins still had warm blueberries...a most delicious and decadent flavor. The muffins were not the airy, overly sweet cakey kind that you often find these days. The texture is delicate but firm, the flavors are of the fruit, lemon and butter, and they were gone in a flash.

One of the keys with muffins is much the same as with most quick breads...delicate care in handling the batter. If you whisk together the dry ingredients, toss in the rinsed blueberries, then toss gently to cover them with flour, all you need to do when you add the mixed wet ingredients is to barely combine the ingredients. Do have your pans prepared and your oven hot. In no time you will have delectable warm blueberries in a lightly lemon, buttery muffin. What a lovely way to start the day.

Blueberry Muffins

based on Basic Muffins in Marion Cunningham's The Fannie Farmer Baking Book

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1 cup firm fresh blueberries, rinsed
2 eggs, slightly beaten, at room temperature
1 cup milk, at room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick or 1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons white sanding sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin pans or line with paper baking cups.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add the lemon zest and whisk to combine. Add the fresh blueberries and toss to coat lightly with the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In another bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredient/blueberry mixture. Pour in the egg mixture and stir to combine, just long enough to blend. Batter will not be smooth.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup about two-thirds full. If desired, sprinkle sanding sugar on the tops of each muffin.

Bake muffins for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pans and serve warm.

Makes 12 muffins

With the unseasonable weather we have been having the seedlings in the sunspace are growing very rapidly. All of the squash seedlings are now in larger peat pots, having outgrown the cell they started in. Some of the squash seeds wrapped in damp paper towels didn't germinate in time to be put into the cells, but are now large enough to go right into the pots! That is vigorous sprouting! I expect great things of these squash plants once they are settled into the garden once the soil warms enough. That might be a while...we have been having frost most nights, even if the days are warm and sunny. Some peopel are yammering on about not enough rain, but we had far more than needed in the fall and early winter, so this is just balancing things out. Bet that March is rainy again.

How About a Muffin?

When the kids were still at home I used to whip up a batch of muffins about once a month. Savory ones to go with soup for dinner or sweet ones for a weekend breakfast were something I just baked without thinking much about it.

Muffins really are quick breads...you combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another, make sure the oven is hot and the muffin tins are greased and it's only a few minutes later that the muffins are in the oven. By the time you've cleaned up they are just about done and the kitchen smells heavenly!

Not very many people know it, but I had a muffin business in the East Bay when my boy was a baby. I called it Mega Muffins and I filled the cups of the muffin tin all the way up so that the tops practically met on the muffin tin top. This was before super sized muffins became popular (see, I'm ancient). I called the scone trend before it happend, too. Too bad I have no desire to run a big baking business...I might even know the next thing that will become big in the personal baked goods area. Cupcakes are almost over so you know something else (besides whoopie pies) is coming :)

But today's topic boys and girls is muffins. Last month Lisa of Parsley Sage Desserts and Line Drives did a contest and I won a gift certificate from OhNuts! Thank you Lisa and OhNuts! One of the items I ordered was a dried cherry and almonds trail mix that also has dried candied pineapple and golden raisins (plus some little chocolate ovals which I removed for the muffins).

Sweetie ate some and declared it a good mix, but I wanted to use it in muffins, too, so he kindly hid the bag until I could bake muffins...otherwise the whole bag would have been snacked on. He also really enjoyed their cashews for snacks. I was very impressed with the freshness of their products. (Yes, I did order more than the gift certificate amount, but it was too hard to choose because so many things looked ...and were...good!)

You can use any combination of your choice of dried fruits and good nuts. I used 1 cup of the mix, but a cup and a half would have been even better.

Some hints for successful muffins: In order to have your muffins be moist and tender, use as few strokes as possible to combine the wet and dry ingredients. Then scoop the batter into the muffin tins right away and get the tins into the oven right away, too. Since this recipe used both baking powder and baking soda (to react with the acid fo the buttermilk) you'll get the best oven spring if the oven is preheated so its good and hot, and if you get the muffins in the oven quickly.

The flavor of these muffins depends totally on the ingredients (there are no spices or extracts or citrus zests to hide behind) so use fresh nuts, milk, eggs and butter. Check to make sure that your whole wheat flour is also fresh smelling before using it. If your dried fruits are really dried out, you could soak them briefly in hot water then drain well on papertowels before using.

I'll bet you are going to love these muffins. They don't even need butter! Of course if you like your nice hot muffins with butter, who am I to tell you no?

Fruity Almondy Muffins

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled
1 cup dried fruit and nut mix, large pieces and nuts chopped roughly (I used OhNuts! Cherry Almond Trail Mix, but removed the chocolate pieces)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (optional)

In a medium bowl combine the first 6 ingredients (dry ingredients). Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the next 4 ingredients (wet ingredients). Set aside.

Add the roughly chopped fruits and nuts to the dry ingredient bowl and stir to coat the added ingredients with the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well of the dry ingredients. With a fork quickly, with as few strokes as possible, combine the wet and dry ingredients. Scoop roughly 1/4 cup of the batter into each cup of a 12-portion muffin cup pan where the cups have been sprayed with baking spray or greased with oil or butter. Cups should be about 2/3 full.

If desired sprinkle the tops of filled muffin cups with the granulates sugar. Bake in preheated 400 degree F oven until golden brown, about 14 - 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Hearty Fresh Blueberry Muffins

As we head toward the longest day of the year it gets light earlier and earlier and stays light long into the evening. One of the side effects is that I often wake up much earlier than I do when days are shorter. The birds around here start singing about 5 am these days, including the annoying peacocks a few blocks over. Despite being tired from all the unusual physical labor necessary for the remodel my eyes seem to pop open sometime between 5 am and 6 am with little hope that I'll be able to get any more sleep.

That's what happened yesterday, so I decided to make good use of the early hour by baking something for breakfast. There were fresh blueberries on sale at the market and we had not had fresh blueberry muffins for a long time, so I scrounged in the baking pan cupboard and came up with an 8 hole muffin tin. Further search would have waken Sweetie, so the recipe would have to be adjusted to the smaller pan.

I love blueberry muffins! The lemon zest perks up the flavor, they have less sweetness than some for the batter so that when you bite into a warm, juicy berry you really taste that awesome blueberry flavor.

I've been reading a great cookbook called The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread and decided to jump off from their recipe for French Blueberry Muffins. I like oatmeal and brown sugar in breakfast foods, plus whole wheat flour for flavor and heartiness, so the dry ingredients changed a fair amount. Since I had brown sugar, I also included some baking soda not in the original recipe. The molasses in the brown sugar interact with the baking soda to make the muffins lighter. Egg substitute was easier to measure for the reduced amount of egg, but I think that 2 medium eggs would also work. Their recipe called for whole milk but I had 2% in the fridge, so that was changed, too.

Finally, I had fresh blueberries. Having never tried this recipe with frozen ones, I'm recommending that if at all possible, go with the fresh ones. Think of the flavor and anti-oxidants!

These don't need additional butter or anything else, really. They are moist, bursting with blueberry flavor and heartier than some muffins because of the whole wheat flour and oats. They are hardly like the French ones in the book, but the proportions remain the same, for which I thank authors Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree.

With a bowl of fresh fruit and a cup of coffee these muffins make getting up with the sun a fine way to start the day.

Hearty Fresh Blueberry Muffins
based on French Blueberry Muffins in The Sweeter Side of Amy's' Bread

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup rolled oats
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons egg substitute (or 2 medium eggs)
¾ cup milk (I used 2%)
Grated zest from ½ a lemon
1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the middle of the oven. Grease 8 muffin cups or line 8 cups with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl combine the flours, oats, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt with a whisk.

In another bowl whisk together the melted butter, egg substitute or eggs, milk and lemon zest.

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 blueberries 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.

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 blueberry 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 6-8 muffins

Summer Morning with Fog

Summer hearabouts often means waking up to a gray day. It bothers some folks, but I love the fog. A foggy morning means the day won't get too hot, usually. It also means that I can bake something lovely for breakfast and the house will stay cool. Since ours is a solar home, with not central heat or airconditioning, we take that into consideration. A few days ago when the day broke with the sun heating things up right away, not only did I not bake, but we also shut the windows and kept what cool there was trapped in the downstairs. We have a concrete floor and that cools down overnight if we leave the windows open and the night cools down. We've been "green" that way for years, but it does take some getting used to and a little extra thought.

This morning seemed like the perfect time to make some fresh blueberry muffins. The blueberries were on sale at the store, I had bought buttermilk and my brother and a friend were visiting. It was likely that they would appreciate some home cooking since hotel food (and conference hotel food at that) had been their fare for days.

These muffins are so good and very simple. They go together quickly. Melt the butter first, so that it can cool a bit as you measure the dry ingredients and zest the lemon and prepare the blueberries. Blueberries do need to be picked over to remove any mushy ones and any little stems still attached, but even that is faster and easier than peeling and dicing peaches, which was my other choice.

Once baked, these muffins have a soft, tangy interior with juicy hot blueberries, a nice crust on the sides and top and just enough sweetness. Butter was on the table, but these didn't need any. Not a muffin was left by the time breakfast (which also included a fruit compote with lots of fresh melon, berries, and bannanas) was over. Having freshly made blueberry muffins is a great way to start the morning off. Now, where is that second cup of coffee?


Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup sugar
Zest of ½ a lemon
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup blueberries, washed, drained, and picked over

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 12 cup muffin tin. Set aside

On a piece of waxed paper, or in a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Rub together the sugar and the lemon zest and add the mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a fork to combine.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the buttermilk, egg, and butter. Add to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix with a few swift strokes, just until combined. Don’t over mix. Fold in the blueberries and immediately scoop the muffin batter into the prepared pan, dividing evenly among the cups.

Bake in the preheated oven 20 – 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown and a gentle push on the top has the top springing back.

Let cool 2 – 5 minute, then put into a basket lined with a kitchen towel, folding the towel over the muffins to keep them warm. Serve warm.

Makes 12 muffins

Spelt and Bluberries Spiff Up Muffins

When Sweetie and I visited Calistoga for our anniversary last month, one of the places we visited was the Bale Grist Mill a little south of town. A strong volunteer group and lots of enthusiasm and some grants have made it possible for this old mill with a 30 foot water wheel to be restored. It's really fun to see the wheel spinning and the water falling as it turns, and to see the mill stones turning and the milled grain spilling into the bags. Makes you appreciated how easy it is to just purchase flour at the store anytime you want it. The State Park docents are very enthused and explain how it all works, also giving a lot of history and milling terms, like 'nose to the grindstone'. The miller keeps his nose close to the grindstone because if the stones get too close together that can damage the grinding surface...and you can tell only by smell that they are getting to close. If you get to the Calistoga - St. Helena area of Napa, make time to visit if you can.

The day we were there they were milling polenta. In the gift shop I was able to purchase some of the polenta and some spelt flour, too. I've been reading about spelt and wanted to try baking with some spelt flour. Wikipedia gives the following information (through"green grain"):

Spelt, an ancient grain, is pretty healthy. It contains about 57.9 percent carbohydrates (excluding 9.2 percent fibre), 17.0 percent protein and 3.0 percent fat, as well as dietary minerals and vitamins.[9] As it contains a moderate amount of gluten, it is suitable for baking. In Germany, the unripe spelt grains are dried and eaten as Grünkern, which literally means "green grain". It predates bread wheat, which may have been hybridized from spelt.

This weekend is chilly and rainy. We invited Grandma L to breakfast and I made some Spelt Blueberry Muffins to go with the scrambled eggs and fruit bowl and coffee. Since spelt doesn't have a lot of gluten, I used all-purpose flour for 3/4 of the flour and used spelt flour for 1/4. I added some lemon zest and lemon juice, an overflowing cup of fresh blueberries and both baking soda and baking powder, plus egg substitute and buttermilk. The muffins are not very sweet because they only have 2 tablespoons of sugar, so they would be great with the addition of some honey or even lemon curd.

The spelt added a nutty flavor and some nice texture.The muffins were a little flatter than usual, but really delish.

Spelt Blueberry Muffins

makes 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

finely grated zest of one lemon

1 egg, beaten or 1/4 cup egg substitute

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

juice of 1/2 lemon, seeds removed

1 cup buttermilk

1 heaping cup fresh blueberries, washed and drained

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with baking spray. Set aside.

In a bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Add the lemon zest and stir to distribute.

In a second bowl, whisk together the egg, butter, lemon juice and buttermilk.

Add the blueberries to the dry ingredients and gently stir to coat with the flour mixture. Add the wet ingredient mixture all at once and stir together with a fork, just until all the dry ingredients have been moistened. Don't overmix.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, distributing evenly. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes until tops are golden brown.

Eat while still warm. Garnish with butter, honey and/or lemon curd if desired.

Warm Dates for Breakfast

I'm a big fan of dates as a snack food and added to all sorts of dishes, but my very favorite way to enjoy dates is warm for breakfast in Date Nut Muffins. On Saturday I decided to make some to go with the fresh fruit and coffee that Sweetie had made. Since I usually eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, I decided to add some rolled oats to one of my favorite muffin recipes, along with the dates and some pecans. They were delicious!

The basic recipe for Muffins in Joy of Cooking was the starting place for this recipe, but, as usual, I made some changes. Fresh from the oven these smelled wonderful and the dates were soft and warm, the oatmeal gave the muffins character, and three of us managed to polish off nine muffins in hardly any time at all. Don't be surprised if there are none left to photograph or to enjoy with afternoon tea.

A few days ago, when I was completely exhausted from by far the busiest week that has ever happened at work, I found that sweet Mrs. W of Mrs. W's Kitchen had awarded me the 'E for Excellent Award'. Awww, that is so special. I enjoy writing this blog and know that there are folks who enjoy reading it, but had never thought that it was actually excellent. Thank you Mrs. W!

Part of getting the Award is then passing it along. I took some time with that, so here are the Awardees, followed by directions of what they are supposed to do once they get the Award, followed the by Date Nut Oatmeal Muffin recipe.

Hope you will visit the Awarded sites to see why I think that they are Excellent blogs and bloggers. There are at least 10 more I could name, but I'll save that for another time. If I have given an Award to a blogger who has already gotten one, well, guess they are super Excellent!

http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/ , Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, this is the blog I check out when I only have time to visit one (a too frequent event these past weeks) because the posts are personal and thoughtful and the recipes are sweet, delish, and the photos usually make me want to lick the screen.
http://workingwomanfood.blogspot.com/, Taste and Tell, Deborah’s posts are engaging, her photos are great and she gives excellent information for the recipes…plus it’s fun to read her blog.
http://llcskitchen.blogspot.com/ La Mia Cucina, Lis is a totally funny blogger and cracks me up with her posts…plus she is den mother to the Daring Bakers along with the next nominee.
http://creampuffsinvenice.ca/ Cream Puffs In Venice, Ivonne’s blog is elegant and inspiring with truly lovely photography. She and Lis (above) began the creation of a wonderful baking community, too.
http://www.jumboempanadas.blogspot.com/ Jumbo Empanadas, Brilynn is unfailingly interesting, totally herself and her blog is delightful to read. Her enthusiasm for baking is inspiring, plus she is funny.
http://www.chezus.com/ Chez Us, Denise writes a thoughtful blog…check out the Ape Diet…also clean and appealing photos.
http://cookbookqueen.blogspot.com/, Cooking the Books, Kelly-Jane blogs about baked goods (my favorite) and main dishes with equal appeal. We often get multiple recipes in one post…and they are all good.
http://www.tasteslikehome.org/, Tastes Like Home, Cynthia could be my next door neighbor, even though she likes hot & spicy foods and I don’t. Her passion for ingredients is awesome and her photos really capture the beauty of those ingredients.
http://www.findingladolcevita.blogspot.com/ Finding La Dolce Vita, Maryann writes so well, it is always fun to see what she is sharing with us. Great recipes and fine photos, too.
http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com/ Technicolor Kitchen, Patricia has such great recipes…pasta, cookies, truffles, ravioli, pinwheel scones, and more. Very inspiring.

There are rules relating to the E for Excellent award*. Here they are:
- Find at least 10 more blogs of any kind which you deem to be excellent;
- Post about which blogs you picked, linking to me and to them;
- Once you've posted, return here to let me know your post is up, and of course let your 10 award winners know, too.
*If you've already received this award in the past, I won't hold you to selecting 10 more.

And now for the Date Nut Oatmeal Muffin recipe:

Date Nut Oatmeal Muffins
Makes 12

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup sugar
1 cup quick cooking oatmeal, uncooked
¾ cup chopped dates
½ cup chopped pecans
2 eggs or ½ cup egg substitute
2 tablespoons melted butter
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Spray the cups of a 12 cup muffin tin (or 2 6 cup muffins tins) with baking spray (or grease with butter or shortening)

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the sugar and oatmeal. Gently mix in the chopped dates, coating them with the flour mixture. Mix in the pecans.

In a smaller bowl, mix together the eggs or egg substitute, melted butter and buttermilk until well combined.

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and quickly, with a few strokes, stir to just mix. Fill each muffin cup about ¾ full. Place the muffin tin(s) into the preheated oven and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

Serve hot. These are delicious eaten plain, but very good, too with some butter.

Cookbook Corner - A Winter Muffin

I suppose that there are plenty of people who love to cook who don't collect cookbooks...but I've never met one. The internet may change things, but for me one of the joys of Christmas is that I usually receive at least one delightful cookbook.

So for todays' Cookbook Corner we are looking at Baking in America, Traditional and Contemporary Favorites from the Past 200 years, by Greg Patent. It was a gift from my good friends Lori and Phil. Since they live near by, they often benefit from my baking adventures, so it is a smart move to get me thinking about what to bake next.

The recipes are broken down by chapter into fairly obvious categories like sweet yeast bread, savory yeast bread, quick breads, a few chapters on different types of cakes, one on cookies, on on pies and tarts, one on fruit desserts. What makes this book so nice is that each chapter bigins with some history. For example, the one on quick breads goes into the substances used as leaveners (other than yeast) in the past and when commercial baking powders became available, and even a tidbit about litigation surrounding baking powders. The recipes are also fun - a combination of favorite traditional recipes and some ones with new twists.

I was happy to see that this author loves persimmons and that there were a number of recipes using persimmons. The last of the ripe persimmons...the ones that stayed on the tree despite gale force winds a few weeks ago...have been calling to me each day when I walked down to get the newspaper in the morning. They look like dark orange lanters hung on the bare branches. The birds have been feasting on some, but there are still a few to bake with. When peeled and mashed, they look like jewels. See for yourself!

Here is what I did with the last persimmons of the season. This muffin is moist, just slightly sweet and does not need a thing (including butter) added to it. It was good warm, but I liked it best at room temperature along with a cup of hot tea. The perfect winter snack could just be this Persimmon Pecan Muffin. I have to confess, however, that I couldn't find the pecans so I used chopped walnuts and the muffins were wonderful.

Persimmon Pecan Muffins

1 ¾ cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 large egg
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe Hachiya persimmon pulp (from 2-3 persimmons)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
½ cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake papers, or grease lightly.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice together into a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg, sugar, and vanilla together for 1 minute. Whisk in the persimmon pulp and the melted butter. Scrape this mixture over the flour mixture, add the chopped nuts, and fold together with a rubber spatula just to moisten the dry ingredients. Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and spring back when gently pressed. Cool the muffins in their cups for 1 minute, then carefully transfer them to cooling racks. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. Makes 12 muffins.

Ooooh! Muffins

Half the fun of blogging is trying out new things and sharing the experience. When Elena of Experiments challenged us to come up with muffins that had the 'ooooh' factor, something out of the ordinary, for Muffin Monday2, I looked on it as an opportunity to play in the kitchen with muffins.

I've always loved buttermilk muffins. Just like buttermilk biscuits, the addition of buttermilk adds a tang and moistness. With the addition of baking soda, you also get that acid/base reaction that can give them lightness. So I started with a Blueberry Muffin recipe that used buttermilk.

Next I decided that I wanted to have a surprise inside the muffins. First I tried chocolate covered caramel candy kisses, but the caramel just melted in and didn't really add much. Then I went with solid milk chocolate Hersey kisses, frozen, then chopped. They still sink to the bottom, making it tricky to remove the muffins without leaving some muffin (and chocolate chunk) on the pan, but they surely are a yummy surprise when you bite into a muffin that looks pretty healthy.

Another change was replacing some of the flour with toasted pecan meal becasue I thought it would go well with the chocolate. At Christmas I've made cookies by grating nuts in a cheese rotary grater, so I tried that, too. The toasted pecans add lots of flavor and they also offset some of the reaction between the buttermilk and the baking soda. These are not sky high muffins, but the crumb is lovely and having grated nuts gives them a wonderful texture. It does go really well with the chocolate, too. If I make these again, I might grate the chocolate instead of chunking it and fold it into the flour.

The last change, except for proportions of the baking powder and soda, was to substitute brown sugar for white sugar. I tried mixing some with the butter and melting it, but that just congealed when I tried to mix it into the egg mixture, so for the next batch, I just mixed the brown sugar right into the egg and buttermilk mixture.

This was a fun experiment process and leaves me really appreciating cookbook authors who have to make recipes 3-6 times, or more to get it all right. If I were going to include these in a cookbook, I'd play with the proportions more, but, as is, they are pretty damn good.

By the way, the photo below is of another weird looking great kitchen gadget that is essential for this recipe...the rotary grater used to grate those nuts into a flour like meal.

Toasted Pecan Surprise Muffins
Makes 1 dozen
Based very loosely on a Blueberry Muffin Recipe
In Jim Fobel’s Old Fashioned Baking Book

½ cup milk chocolate kisses (about 16), frozen, then chopped roughly
¾ cup pecan pieces, toasted, then grated (see below) and measured to make 1 cup grated pecan meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted


Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a 12 pan muffin tin with cooking spray, or line with muffin papers.
Freeze the milk chocolate kisses. Unwrap them and chop roughly, set aside.
Toast the pecan pieces. Using a rotary cheese grater, grate nuts into a fine powder. Measure 1 cup of the grated nuts. Set aside If there is extra, reserve for another use.
In a large bowl, mix together lightly the grated nuts, the flour, the baking powder and baking soda, and the salt.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, the brown sugar, and the vanilla extract. Whisk in the cooled melted butter.
Mix wet mixture into dry mixture in a few strokes. Blend in the candy quickly. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until muffins are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed in the center.
Cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pan. Serve warm or cooled.