Black Raspberry Muffins

We just got back from a whirlwind two weeks of traveling. We spent a weekend in Indianapolis celebrating my goddaughter Maggie's half-birthday (necessary every year, with a birthday only days after Christmas). Then we flew to San Francisco for a magnificent 5 days of coastline drives, catching up with dear friends, stone fruit (a couple weeks early! such a treat!), and not enough sleep. We were home just long enough to unpack, do laundry, and re-pack, and then headed up to Traverse City for a week. We packed in all of the things a summer in Northern Michigan is made of: a hike in the Sleeping Bear Dunes to a spectacular Lake Michigan view, bonfires, fireworks, the Cherry Festival, ice cream, s'mores, swimming, paddleboarding, and cherry picking. On our last night, we sat on the dock, leaned back, and stared at the sky, velvety black and full of stars.



Our neighborhood farmers market happened during the two days when we were home in the middle, so I had to stop by. Thank goodness I did, because black raspberry season is incredibly short, and there they were, plump and perfect. I picked up two pints and dragged them home, and got to work making them into delicious goodies. My priorities are suspect, sometimes. I really needed to be cleaning and packing. But you know what? Black raspberries only happen once a year, and I needed to celebrate their magic while it lasted.



I have no regrets.



Black Raspberry Muffins

I made these with red raspberries a few weeks back, so feel free to substitute your favorite berry. The lime zest is the thing that sets these muffins apart. You could use lemon or orange, but the lime is really unusual and special. You could also sub in ricotta cheese or plain yogurt for the sour cream.

3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup sugar
Zest of a lime
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups black raspberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and butter a standard-size muffin tin. Whisk together the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Add the melted butter. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and lime zest and use your fingers or a fork to work the zest into the sugar, releasing the citrus oil (and flavor). In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lime sugar. Add the wet ingredients, and fold together until barely combined. Don't over mix! Fold in the berries gently.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins, and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if you like. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the tins and cool on a rack. Serve warm.

Makes 1 dozen. (When completely cooled, these can be frozen. Your future self will thank you for the quick and easy muffins!)

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

I'm not sure what I love most about the pre-baby maternity leave that I'm currently enjoying. Is it the fact that I can go run errands around 10am, when there is no traffic, and no line at the grocery store?  Is it the daily baking?  The freedom to see friends for two-hour lunches, and to take naps?  The couple of hours a day spent knitting and watching TV? The fact that I have energy at the end of the day to make a nice dinner and eat with my husband? I don't know, it's all been lovely. Absolutely lovely.



I started baking treats because I loved the idea of bringing a little edible gift to the nurses in the maternity ward at the hospital - a little bribe for quality care can't hurt, right? And then I thought, why stop there? So after I had a dozen chocolate chip cookies and eight cheesecake-marbled brownies chilling out in the freezer, I just kept going! I had a couple of past-prime bananas on the counter, so I made crackly banana bread, and stashed most of it in the freezer pre-sliced. Then some everything cookies, which I just realized I've never told you about. I will, I promise. Then on to roasted pear and chocolate chunk scones, frozen unbaked for a warm breakfast treat in December or January. I have elaborate visions of myself all calm, holding my newborn baby girl, pouring coffee and pulling freshly baked scones out of the oven for a friend who came over for breakfast. Who knows if that's anywhere close to reality, but I have high hopes. And I just made it a million times easier for myself, since the only thing I'll actually have to do is turn on the oven and put the scones in. Perfect!



I've also been doing what I can to prepare for life after baby. There's only so much you can read about childbirth, breastfeeding, and newborn care before the words start swimming before your eyes and you worry about how you're ever going to remember it all, so yesterday I headed over to the library and picked up some fiction. I've also been thinking about how isolated new moms (actually, moms in general) can become in our culture, and seeking out ways to prevent myself from feeling that way all winter long. There used to be so much community for raising babies; women banded together and all pitched in where they could. In a city this size, I know that feelings of isolation are easy to come by, but with so many people so close, there's really no reason for that. Enter the "village" of the 21st century, Meetup.com. I've already found 2 or 3 promising communities of women with small kids who I'm really excited to connect with. They host playdates and book clubs, meet for coffee and walks, and from what I can tell, generally support each other.  I look forward to meeting some new friends.



I love it when fresh cranberries reappear at the supermarket; it feels like the holiday season has arrived! Here are some other ways I love to use them:

Roasted Cranberry-Apple Sauce
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries

Cranberry Orange Muffins

adapted from the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups plain whole milk yogurt
1 pound bag fresh whole cranberries, rinsed and picked over for mushy ones
zest of 1 orange
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two standard muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the yogurt and dry ingredients in 3 alternating additions, ending with yogurt, mixing on low until combined. Use a spatula to fold in cranberries, orange zest, and pecans. Scoop generous amounts of batter into each muffin cup (you have to really fill them for them to get that rounded, puffy muffin top). Sprinkle the tops with a bit of sugar, if desired, and bake about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for a minute or two, and then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Yield: about 18-20 standard-size muffins, or half as many jumbo muffins, or a mix of the two (I got 12 standard and 4 jumbo from my batch).

Toasted Oat + Brown Butter Banana Muffins

I feel a little bad to be giving you this recipe right now. I feel bad because if you're living anywhere near where I'm living, you're in the middle of a relentless heat wave and you think that baking (or really doing anything but sitting in the air conditioning or swimming in a pool) sounds like an absolutely awful idea. And I feel bad because no matter how hot it is, when you hear the words "toasted oat and brown butter banana muffins with pecans," if you're like me, you will preheat the oven. C'est la vie.

My suggestion? Make them early in the morning when it's only like 80 degrees instead of 100. Then after they cool, freeze them, and you can have home-baked treats for days. Of course, if you'd rather not bake muffins, here are some things you might consider adding to your holiday menu this week: Heat Wave Salad, Grilled Chard Salad, or Blueberry Tart!



My parents are coming down from Michigan to celebrate America's birthday with us this week, and I have five lovely days in a row off of work. Bring on the pool time! Here's what we've got planned: fireworks on the beach, grilled flank steak, a trip to the Daley Plaza farmers' market (there will be 6 hands that can hold bags of local produce - how will I keep myself from over-buying?!), grilled shrimp and jicama salad, strawberry-hibiscus granita, an outdoor concert and picnic dinner in Grant Park, corn on the cob, and banana pudding. Most of all, we will enjoy each others' company while drinking cold things and moving as little as possible.

Enjoy your 4th of July! And stay cool, dudes.



Toasted Oat + Brown Butter Banana Muffins

Makes 6 large muffins, 12 standard-size muffins, or one standard 8x4 loaf pan.

6 ounces (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
3 medium bananas, mashed
1 cup toasted pecan halves, chopped (reserve one half per muffin to decorate the top)
3/4 cup toasted old-fashioned rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and coat a muffin tin with cooking spray.

Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat, swirling regularly. The butter will start to sputter and pop. This is good news. Keep swirling the skillet periodically so that the butter browns evenly. When it starts to smell toasty and looks barely brown, pour it into a bowl and set aside to cool. Be very careful - it goes from delightfully brown to burned very quickly.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, yogurt, and mashed bananas, and set aside. In a medium skillet, toast the pecan halves over medium-low heat until they are fragrant, about 5-10 minutes, tossing regularly. In the same skillet, toast the oats until fragrant, about 2 minutes, tossing regularly.  Add the chopped pecans and oats to the flour mixture.

When the butter has cooled, add it to the banana-egg mixture, and whisk to incorporate. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together until all the flour is moistened - be careful not to overmix.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, slightly smooth the tops, and place one whole pecan half in the center of each muffin. Bake for 25-30 minutes (for large muffins), until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly (about 10 minutes) in the pan, remove, and serve warm with butter or cream cheese.

Estimated cooking times for different pans: standard muffins: 20-25 minutes, standard loaf: 45-60 minutes.

Anything-Goes Muffin Mix

Even though both my parents worked when I was growing up, we never lacked for delicious, healthy homemade food.  My mom was constantly on the look-out for ways to save money and time on meals.  She made frequent use of the Crock-Pot, the auto-timer on the oven, and in some cases, mixes.

Homemade mixes!  What an inspired idea.  Mix together all the dry ingredients in a basic muffin recipe, stick it in a container, write the recipe on the lid (GENIUS!), and voila!  Muffins at any time.  This is a great thing to have around as the holidays are approaching, when you have family and guests around more often!  What an effortless way to whip up breakfast for people on the day after Thanksgiving (that is, unless everyone's eating pie for breakfast)!

Mix in whatever you like to make them more special!  Here are a few suggestions:

• 1 teaspoon orange zest, 1 cup fresh cranberries, and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon almond extract, 3/4 cup dried cherries, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, and 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup frozen fruit of your choice, straight from the freezer
• 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut and 1/2 cup diced pineapple
• 1 cup diced apple, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup grated carrots, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1 tablespoon honey

What would YOU mix in?

Anything-Goes Muffin Mix

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cold butter, chopped into pieces

Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  Yield: about 4 dozen muffins

To make muffins:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Beat together 1 egg and 1 cup milk.  Add to 2 1/2 cups muffin mix and stir until barely combined (too much stirring = hockey pucks).  Fold in any mix-ins you like.  Spoon into paper-lined or greased muffin tin.  Bake 15-20 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Each batch yields 1 dozen muffins.

Double Chocolate Muffins

Happy birthday to my husband!

Double Chocolate Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon oil (canola/safflower/vegetable)

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  In a measuring cup, combine remaining ingredients, whisking together to combine.  Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring just until mixed (don't overmix!).  Pour into paper-lined muffin cups, sprinkle liberally with raw sugar, and bake 20 minutes, until tops are dry and crackly, and a tester inserted in the center comes out with only melted chocolate chips, not gooey batter.  Cool for a few minutes in the pan, and then remove muffins and cool on a rack.  Put in a birthday candle, and sing happy birthday to someone you love. 

Yield: 1 dozen standard-size muffins, or 6 jumbo muffins (increase baking time slightly).

Spiced Zucchini Muffins

Anyone else seeing monster zucchini like this one in your gardens or farmers' markets?  I bought this one for a dollar last week!  A dollar!  It's gigantic.  I assume that it was so cheap because the farmers have a harder time unloading the huge ones - maybe people are intimidated by them.  But never fear - now when you're at the market and you see a zucchini the size of your head, you will know what to do with it!

Crystallized ginger!

I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks.  Heidi Swanson is one of my favorite food bloggers.  She takes the most lovely photos, and her recipes are seasonal and delicious.  They're also all-natural and vegetarian!  I'm on a bit of a muffin kick right now, so I adapted her zucchini bread recipe for healthy, satisfying muffins.  As I said before, it is a great treat to make these over the weekend and then freeze them for quick, hearty weekday breakfasts.

Spiced Zucchini Muffins

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups grated zucchini

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour or finely ground old-fashioned oats (you can use the blender or food processor for this)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir together walnuts, lemon, and ginger in a small bowl and set aside.  Cream butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Add sugars and blend until smooth.  Scrape down sides of bowl and add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition.  Add vanilla and blend.  Add zucchini and blend.  Sift together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture in two additions.  Add walnuts, lemon zest, and ginger and mix just until combined.

Grease muffin tins or line with paper liners.  Fill 3/4 full, and bake for 20-25 minutes (for regular-size muffins), or 25-30 minutes (for jumbo muffins), or for 2 loaves, for 45-50 minutes.  The tops should look dry, and a tester inserted in the middle should come out clean.

Cool for a couple of minutes in the pans, and then remove and cool completely on racks.  Spread with cream cheese and enjoy!

Monday Morning Muffins

As I've said before, I have a lot of beliefs about breakfast.  I believe that breakfast is one of our inalienable rights, and should not be denied.  (Sorry, we've been watching John Adams.)  Seriously, though, I love breakfast.  I rarely eat the same things two mornings in a row, and while I do have some old standbys (yogurt and granola, avocado toast, leftover veggies and scrambled eggs), I like to try new things.  But last week, when I stopped to treat myself to a muffin on the way to work, I was pretty disappointed in the cakelike, sickly-sweet banana nut muffin I got saddled with.  I made it my mission, right then and there, to create for myself a worthy banana counterpart.  And friends, I have succeeded.

Behold, the perfect Monday (or any other) morning muffin.  It has:

• 100% whole wheat flour,
• oatmeal,
• walnuts,
• bananas,
• ground flaxseed,
• raisins,
• and love.

Enjoy!

Monday Morning Muffins

I actually made these muffins on Saturday night, because I'm really cool.  Who needs to go out to a bar when you can watch TV on the couch and bake?  Once the muffins are fully cooled, you can freeze them, and then take them out one at a time each night so they'll be fresh and ready for you in the morning.  If you have one of those coffeemakers with a timer, it's almost like someone else made you breakfast.  And what could be better than that on Monday?

Note: I made jumbo muffins, but if you're making regular-size ones, you might need to decrease the baking time a little.  Check them after about 18-20 minutes.

2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 large, overripe bananas, smashed
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 cup raisins, soaked in hot water and drained (to plump 'em up)
1 cup chopped nuts
3/4 cup oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray muffin pans with cooking spray, or line with paper liners, or if you want loaves instead of muffins, grease and flour 2 standard loaf pans.  Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and beat.  Add bananas and milk and mix.  Add remaining ingredients, and mix until just combined.  Spoon batter into tins, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  For loaves, the cooking time will be between 45 minutes and an hour. 

Yield: 8 jumbo muffins, 16 regular-size muffins, or two loaves.

Rhubarb Streusel Muffins

To close out Rhubarb Week, I have a few little rhubarb-related tidbits to share with you.

First, this:

and this:

And I baked some muffins!  I baked them last night, because I'm leaving on an early flight to see my family and go to my cousin's wedding (whoop!), so heads-up, family!  I'm bringing muffins!  :-)

I'm very excited to get out of Chicago (where it was rainy and 45 degrees yesterday!  ick!), and go to Virginia, where today's high temperature is a toasty 90 degrees!  Did anyone else catch that?  THAT IS TWICE AS WARM!  I'm all about it.  I've got an adorable new vintage-inspired bathing suit, a big floppy hat, sunscreen, espadrilles... bring on the summer! 

I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Whole Wheat Rhubarb Streusel Muffins
adapted from Deb's recipe at smittenkitchen.com

I expected these to be a heartier breakfast muffin, because of the use of whole wheat flour, but they are surprisingly light!  Next time around, I might add in a little something else for heft - oatmeal or ground flaxseed, or walnuts.

Streusel:

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffins:

1 large egg
1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup diced rhubarb, in 1/2-inch pieces (from about 6 to 8 ounces of stalks)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 12 muffin cups.

Make streusel: In a small dish, stir together flours, sugars, spices and salt. Stir in butter until crumbly. Set aside.

Make muffins: Whisk egg in the bottom of a large bowl with both sugars. Whisk in butter, then sour cream. In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking powder and baking soda and stir them into the sour cream mixture, mixing until just combined and still a bit lumpy. Fold in rhubarb and 1/3 (feel free to eyeball this) of the streusel mixture.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle each muffin with remaining streusel, then use a spoon to gently press the crumbs into the batter so that they adhere. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean. Rest muffins in pan on cooling rack for two minutes, then remove muffins from tin to cool them completely.