Last weekend, I had my mother, my future mother-in-law, and one of my oldest friends come over to practice flower arranging. I’m doing our wedding flowers myself, and while I’m super excited about it, I also want to make sure that I at least sort of know what I’m doing before the big day. My current daydream profession is to be a flower farmer – have you seen the gorgeousness that is Cut Flower Farm? – so this played nicely into my fantasies of being continually surrounded by fragrant pink garden roses.

Since I had buckets full of roses and a fancy bottle of champagne, I couldn’t resist turning the morning into a little photo shoot before my guests arrived. The sun was streaming through the window and it gave me a chance to show off our newly finished guest room. When you only have one finished room in your house you’ve got to flaunt it so that people won’t notice the holes in the walls in all the other rooms.

To top off the morning, I made a batch of Rhubarb and Rye Streusel Muffins and served them with a bowl of pink Rhubarb Curd. Flower arranging is hard work, you know? Got to stay fortified. I adapted the muffins from Deb’s Rhubarb Streusel Muffin recipe, replacing some of the whole wheat flour with rye flour. The muffins are lovely – a little bit hearty from the rye and not too sweet or cake-like. The rhubarb for the curd was such an amazing shade of fuchsia while I was cooking it. But then the moment I added it to the custard the curd became a sort of pinkish gray. I have to find a way to make a curd that keeps that beautiful hot pink color! Luckily it tastes lovely either way.

The flowers turned out beautifully, even the practice bouquets. We’re using peach and pink garden roses, cream spray roses, eucalyptus, hypericum, and thistle. I’ll also be growing dahlias – but not counting on them. They’ll be more like a nice surprise if they work out. As a bonus, our house has been absolutely filled with roses all week and smells amazing. It’s going on day 8 since they arrived in the mail and they are just starting to fade. Wedding flower fears allayed – it’s going to be beautiful.

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Rhubarb and Rye Streusel Muffins

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen. Makes 10-12 muffins.

For the streusel:

• 3 TBS all-purpose flour
• 3 TBS rye flour
• 2 TBS granulated sugar
• 2 TBS light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 TBS butter, melted

For the muffins:

• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c. light brown sugar
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 5 TBS salted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm
• 1 c. sour cream
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. rye flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 c. diced rhubarb

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or melted butter and set aside.
2. To make the streusel: mix all of the dry ingredients together in a small bowl, then add the melted butter. Use your hands to mix the streusel until medium-sized crumbs form.
3. To make the muffins: In a large bowl, whisk together egg and the sugars until smooth. Add the melted butter and whisk to incorporate, then add the sour cream and whisk to incorporate.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, rye flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently, just enough to mix together. Gently fold in the rhubarb and about a third of the streusel crumbs.
5. Divide the muffin batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle some of the streusel crumbs on top of each muffin, pressing gently to get the crumbs to stick to the tops of the muffins. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of each muffin comes out clean, about 17-20 minutes. Serve with rhubarb curd.

Rhubarb Curd

Makes about 2 cups. Adapted from Foodess and Food 52.

• 1/2 pound rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (choose the brightest red rhubarb you can find!)
• 1/4 cup plus 3 TBS sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• 4 TBS salted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1. Add the rhubarb, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and the water to a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer until the rhubarb is very soft and falling apart. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice. Use an immersion blender to blend the rhubarb into a paste – it should have the consistency of a thick jam. Do this while the rhubarb is still hot (but be careful of splatters!)
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, egg, and the remaining 3 TBS of sugar until very smooth. Slowly pour the hot rhubarb paste into the egg yolk mixture, whisking the eggs vigorously as you do so. This should temper your eggs. Pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan and return to medium-low heat. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until it thickens enough to be spoonable. This should take 5-8 minutes. Remove the curd from the heat and stir the butter into the curd one piece at a time, stirring to melt the butter in between additions. If the curd is free of lumps, transfer to a bowl, cover tightly, and chill until ready to serve (at least 2 hours). If there are any lumps or bits of egg, strain the curd through a fine mesh strainer before chilling.

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We are definitely still in transition mode as we attempt to settle into our new house. Our official move date was 13 days ago, but, as always, unpacking is a slow, painful process. The kitchen, in particular, is a disaster zone, and we have yet to do anything other than pour wine and open beer in it. We’re still waiting for a fridge (worth the wait since it’s free!) so our only cold storage is the wine fridge, which is not that cold, and also mostly full of wine. The result? We’ve eaten 100% of our meals at restaurants/cafes/the Wholefoods hot bar for the past two weeks. It has been kind of fun to explore the new places around us, but I am starting to miss cooking (and vegetables). The upshot of all this is that the blog might be quieter than usual this month, but after that, expect the recipes to come back full force.

We did get a brief reprieve from moving chaos last weekend, when we went up to visit my family in Maine for the 4th. With everything going on this year, I’m not going to find a full week to spend up there, but I’ll take what I can get. It’s so lovely and relaxing to be there – no alarms, no to-do lists, just sleeping in, refreshing swims, naps in the hammock, and huge family dinners. I took advantage of the working kitchen to do just a little bit of cooking, making muffins for my family early one morning. This is the first year that our currants have really been productive, and I wanted to make sure the gorgeous, pucker-inducing little berries got put to good use. The lavender up in Maine is also in full bloom, so I combined the two in these sweet, floral little treats. I used my favorite muffin recipe as a base, replacing the sugar with lavender sugar and the strawberries with the currants. They were lovely.

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Lavender and White Currant Muffins

Adapted from The New Best Recipe. Makes 12-16 muffins.

• 2 c. AP flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 c. sugar
• 3 TBS fresh lavender buds
• 1 egg
• 4 TBS butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 1/4 c. sour cream
• 1 1/2 c. fresh white or pink currants, removed from stems

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper muffin cups or grease with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Add sugar and lavender buds to a food processor and pulse several times, until lavender buds are fully blended into the sugar. In a large bowl, briefly whisk egg until pale yellow. Scrape the lavender sugar into the egg and mix until slightly creamy. Whisk in melted butter in 2 additions. Whisk in sour cream in 3 additions, until batter is just uniform in color and texture. Try not to overmix.
3. Add currants to the flour mixture, and toss gently to incorporate. Now add flour and currants to wet ingredients, and gently fold together until just combined. Some remaining clumps of flour are OK, and the batter will be quite thick.  Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling almost to the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until they are a light golden color and a toothpick comes out clean.

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Although I know making a big long list of resolutions is somewhat out of vogue, it’s something I still enjoy doing. Even if I don’t accomplish everything (or anything) on my list, I like to sit down and reflect on what I want out of the year, to think purposefully about change and direction. Plus, I just like making lists. I’m happy with 2013, and I’m excited for 2014, but one area of my life I’m going to need to be diligent about is fitness. I know it’s cliche to make health and fitness resolutions at New Year’s, but hey, anytime you can recommit to healthy living is a good time. Last year I was really good about exercising for the first half of the year – I was consistently working out 5 times a week, was loving my Nike Training Club strength workouts, and even got my 5K time under 24 minutes for the first time in years. Then July happened, we moved (away from my lovely bike path running route), I started going to Russia every month, and exercising just fell by the wayside. I haven’t gained any weight back since then but my fitness levels are just abysmal – doing 10 push-ups makes my ribcage ache and and I’ve been defaulting to pathetically short 2 mile runs instead of my typical 3 or 4. So, it’s time to bite the bullet and get back into it – even though I know the first few weeks are going to be torture, I also know how great being in shape again will feel.

Instead of making one big weight-loss or fitness goal for the whole year, which is an easy way to throw yourself under the bus with overly aggressive or too-distant goals, I’ve decided to commit to giving myself an achievable but challenging fitness goal every month this year. And, going against that not-so-tiny, lazy voice in the back of my head, I’m going to share them here for added accountability. Plus, I know you all like healthy recipes and this means I’ll post at least one a month. For January, my goal is to make it to the Y at least 10 times. I have a two-month trial membership there, but I have a history of paying for these things and then never using them. I’ve been an outdoor runner since I was 13, and going to the gym instead always feels a little bit like torture, but in January and February in Massachusetts, it’s really the only option, since I know from experience that convincing myself to go for a run after work, in the dark, in freezing temperatures, is much harder in practice than in theory.

In the vein of fitness and taking care of your body, I’m also gearing up for this year’s winter cleanse. Finding healthy snacks that will really fill me up in the afternoons is always a challenge, so I’ve been on the lookout for recipes that will make a satisfying replacement for my typical latte and chocolate cookie. I tried out these savory corn muffins from Vegetarian Everyday without letting my hopes get too high – while it’s a great cookbook, gluten-free baking can be really hit or miss in my experience. Luckily, these were a happy addition to the “hit” category. While certainly not calorie-free, these are pretty virtuous for muffins – no gluten, no butter, no sugar – and they have tons of flavor without being dry or crumbly. I’m warning you now that these are going to feature prominently in this year’s cleanse – as a mid-morning treat to have if my green smoothie leaves me hungry (usually), crumbled on top of hearty soups, toasted up for salad croutons, and of course, tucked away in my purse to satisfy those 3PM cravings.

So wish me luck with my exercise goals! Do you have any fitness-related goals for the new year? Please share if you do, and here’s to kicking off a happy, healthy 2014.

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Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins

Adapted very slightly from Vegetarian Everyday. Makes 15 muffins.

• 2/3 c. raw millet
• 1 c. cornmeal
• 1 c. rice flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 c. Greek yogurt (about two 5-oz containers)
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• One 6-oz. container of crumbled feta cheese
• 25 pitted kalamata olives, halved
• 2 TBS fresh thyme leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bring a small kettle of water to a boil, then pour 1/2 c. of boiling water over the millet in a large bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes, then drain the millet and rinse with cold water. Add the cornmeal, rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the millet and whisk to combine thoroughly.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until fluffy. Beat in the yogurt and olive oil until thick and smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine thoroughly. Add the feta cheese, olives, and thyme leaves and stir to combine.
3. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners. Spoon batter into cups to fill just to the top. Bake the muffins for 20-22 minutes, until golden brown and crusty on top. Best served warm.

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I’m pretty pleased with how these Monday morning resolutions are going. What I started on kind of a whim I’ve actually been able to stick with!  I haven’t eaten a single piece of chocolate from the chocolate box at work for 5 weeks now (huge accomplishment), and I haven’t skipped a day of walking the extra 15 minutes to my office in at least one direction, rain or shine. I’ve been slightly less consistent with some of the eating stuff – getting four green salads in per week has been surprisingly difficult. But what I think I’m proudest of is the strength training. Although I got off to a rough start during Thanksgiving week, over the past two weeks I’ve actually started to look forward to my daily 10 minutes of strength and stretching, and some nights, I’ve even managed to do 20 minutes. While I haven’t lost any weight in pounds, I definitely feel stronger and more flexible – last night I did 25 push-ups in a row (probably an all-time high for me), and I’ve been holding my balances much longer in ballet. It’s really encouraging.

So, as promised, I’m sticking with it. This week’s new resolution is inspired by Hannah of All Things Lovely‘s comment last week: to have a hearty, healthy breakfast at home each day. To kick things off, I made a batch of healthy whole wheat muffins from Maria Speck’s Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. With dates, apricots, orange, and pistachios, they remind me very much of Christmas sugarplums (which I need to make a batch of soon…).  They’re packed with good stuff, and have plenty of natural sweetness and flavor, but I did find them a little dry. I’m going to tinker around a bit with adding buttermilk or Greek yogurt to see if that moistens them a bit – until then, I’m leaving you with the original recipe. Let me know if you try it out! And as usual, please share your resolutions in the comments if you want to play along.

That’s all for now. I’ve got a bunch more Christmasy recipes to share with you over the next few weeks, so stay tuned! Also, Trevor and I are halfway through this year’s gingerbread house (see last year’s model of the Zakim bridge, and 2010’s gingerbread treehouse to get a taste of what your’e in for). I’ll hopefully be back with pictures of the finished product by the end of the week!

P.S. Other healthy breakfast recipes from Katie at the Kitchen Door:

• Apple Quinoa Cake
• Baked Eggs with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Kale
• Breakfast Polenta with Honeyed Yogurt
• Carrot and Apple Muffins
• Shakshuka (Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

Healthy Orange-Date-Apricot Muffins with Anise

Adapted slightly from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck. Makes 12 regular muffins.

Note: As mentioned above, I found these muffins a little bit dry as written. I’m still tinkering with the recipe, but the original (below) still makes a very healthy muffin with great flavor and natural sweetness. I’ll update the recipe below if I find a way to make them less dry. Also, Maria calls for a topping made of 2 TBS sugar, 1/2 tsp ground anise, and 3 TBS chopped pistachios – I opted to top these with pistachios only.

• 2 c. white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground anise seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. chopped dried dates
• 1/4 c. chopped dried apricots
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/3 c. olive oil
• 2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
• 3/4 c. freshly squeezed orange juice (from ~2 medium navel oranges)
• 1/2 c. + 3 TBS chopped roasted pistachios

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a standard-sized muffin tin with muffin cups or grease the pan itself.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, anise, and salt. Add the chopped dates and chopped apricots and stir briefly to coat the fruit with flour.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs. Add the honey, olive oil, orange zest, and orange juice, and whisk until smooth. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to fold the two together until just combined – do not overmix. Stir in the 1/2 c. chopped pistachios, and add a heaping 1/4 c. of batter to each muffin cup. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the remaining 3 TBS chopped pistachios. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until domed and golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack.

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September has gotten off to a really busy start.  (Is it OK to say “start” when you’re two thirds of the way through the month??)  Busy in a good way – two trips back down to Durham for recruiting – and for snagging a quick lunch with Marco; a quick weekend in Chicago to run my first ever half marathon and see Steph; a visit from the lovely Phoebe; celebrating the arrival of my friends Dave and Noah in Boston with not one, not two, but three different parties; a tequila-pairing dinner at Lolita with out-of-this-world-good food; visits to Andover to work on the “farm” (more on that soon!); and all the other regular things that make life busy.  I’m not at all complaining, but I am glad that the next few weeks will be a little bit quieter and give me time to enjoy the beginning of my favorite season.

One thing that I’ve been meaning to do since the beginning of the month is make these muffins.  As soon as that crisp note filled the air and pumpkin beers started to line the shelves of every liquor store, I thought about them.  Sweet and savory at the same time, with just the slightest hint of heat from the cayenne, these might just be my favorite muffins ever.  (Well, maybe not better than my mom’s pumpkin muffins… I don’t think I’ve ever eaten less than four of those in a sitting.  Hey, they’re small.  I should get the recipe for you guys.)  These are great either for breakfast – I’ve even used them as the “sandwich” around a fried egg – or for a mid-afternoon snack, with a hot cup of coffee.  The recipe is adapted from Baked Explorations, and makes me think that Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito might just be geniuses.  In fact, now that it is decidedly baking season again (my coworkers are gonna be so excited), I’m hoping to try a few new recipes from this gem of a book.  Caramel apple cake, anyone?

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins

Adapted slightly from Baked Explorations.  Makes 12 muffins.

• 1 c. canned pumpkin puree
• 3 TBS sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick butter, melted, then cooled slightly
• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 5 oz. extra sharp or raw milk cheddar cheese, grated

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Line muffin tin with paper muffin liners and set aside.
2. Mix together pumpkin and sour cream until evenly combined.  Whisk in eggs and butter until mixture is smooth, and set aside.
3. Whisk together flour, pepper, baking powder and cayenne until evenly combined.  Whisk in brown sugar, then pour wet ingredients into dry and stir to combine.  Batter will be fairly thick, not runny.  Stir in 3/4 of the grated cheese.
4. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling to the top.  Sprinkle each muffin with some of the remaining cheese.  Bake for 17-20 minutes, until golden-brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean of any batter (it may have melty cheese on it, but you don’t want still wet batter).  Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pan.  Serve warm!

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I haven’t shared a ton of baking recipes recently.  Not much since Christmas anyway.  I think the last two baked goods I wrote about here were these plum squares and these cinnamon pumpkin rolls (way back in the beginning of December!).  This is partly because I haven’t been baking a ton (much to my coworkers’ chagrin), and partly because I’ve been trying to focus on healthy recipes of the sort you might be inspired to whip up for dinner on a weeknight.  Come to think of it, I was also out of town for 11 days in February, including most of the weekend days, which certainly cut into time I might otherwise have spent enabling my cookie habit.  But I truly love to bake – particularly on a sunny weekend morning like this past Sunday – and so I am here with these healthy carrot and apple muffins from Anja’s Food 4 Thought.

If you’re into healthy but interesting food and you haven’t checked out Anja’s blog, I highly recommend it.  Whenever I visit, I find myself bookmarking another handful of recipes to try – like broccoli, almond and tahini salad, quinoa-granola bars, or  zucchini-chickpea-feta fritters.  Maybe we just like the same foods, but I think almost everything she posts sounds totally delicious and intriguing – and there are a lot of foods out there that don’t hold a ton of appeal for me.  Anyway, check it out.

These muffins, which have only 230 calories per pop with a good amount of vitamins (and decent protein and fiber), surprised me with their moist, light, sweet flavor.  I mean, I’ve never made healthy muffins that really tasted good before.  Like, think the opposite of bran muffins.  (Not a big fan of bran).  These are full of good-for-you ingredients, like apples, carrots, dried fruit, greek yogurt, sesame seeds, and oats, and use olive oil and maple syrup to replace the more typical butter and sugar.   It’s a little bit time consuming to prepare all the parts, but I think they would just be good without the nutty-crumble topping, if you’re feeling lazy.  One of these muffins and a cafe au lait was an excellent, and almost guilt-free start to my week.

Carrot and Apple Muffins

Makes 15 standard muffins.  Adapted from Anja’s Food 4 Thought.

For the muffins:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 6 oz. greek yogurt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and grated
• 2 medium apples, peeled and grated
• 1/2 c. dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries)
• 1/2 c. quick cooking oats
• 2 c. whole wheat flour (I subbed AP with fine results)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt

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Strawberry-Sage Muffins

Adapted from The New Best Recipe.  Inspired by these biscuits.  Makes about 18 muffins.

• 2 c. AP flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 c. sugar
• 4 TBS butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 1/4 c. sour cream
• 1 1/2 c. diced fresh strawberries
• 6-8 large leaves of fresh sage, finely minced

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Line muffin tins with paper muffin cups.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, briefly whisk egg until pale yellow.  Whisk in sugar until slightly cream.  Whisk in melted butter in 2 additions.  Whisk in sour cream in 3 additions, until batter is just uniform in color and texture.  Try not to overmix.
2. Add diced strawberries and sage to the flour mixture, and toss gently to incorporate.  Now add flour/strawberries to wet ingredients, and gently fold together until just combined.  Some remaining clumps of flour are OK, and the batter will be quite thick.  Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling almost to the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until they are a light golden color and a toothpick comes out clean.

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I wasn’t planning on writing anything for a while.  I felt a little bit guilty about abandoning this blog just like that, but I’ve been adjusting to some fairly major changes in … my plans? my life in general? my world view? my sense of self?  Wherever the changes really are, they’ve left me feeling uninspired, and not energetic enough to do more than try and sort myself out.  Certainly not enough to create.

So I was planning on letting this blog rest, at least until I got to Maine, where everything always seems fresh and calm.  But then a really good friend who knew I was dealing with some blah stuff dropped off a package that included cream soda, key lime pie, fresh mozzarella, and three beautiful, beautiful pints of raspberries.  (How did he know???)  And when I saw these raspberries, I was so suddenly and forcefully relieved and inspired, that I just started to smile.  And I knew that I had to use them and share them and maintain the part of myself that loves to do that.

Ironically, I already had a blog post written and ready to go when said major changes occurred, and that blog post promised you two things: one, that I was imposing a ten day baking ban on myself, due to the overload of delicious but highly fattening recipes I seem to have been making lately, and two, that the next three recipes I posted would be healthy.  Errrrrm… I made muffins with the raspberries.  I swear, I searched and searched for savory raspberry recipes but didn’t really want to write about something as mundane as a salad dressing and didn’t want to go out and buy meat to go under a raspberry sauce.  So I told myself that muffins were an OK compromise – they’re not really dessert, and they don’t have that much sugar, and they have lots and lots of healthy berries.  And I actually had gone exactly ten days without baking, I just hadn’t ever made it official.  And muffins are just good to have around when you’re at risk of waking up sorta sad and discombobulated.  Or really any day, actually.

These muffins were yum.  But, they were not sweet.  At all.  In fact, they’re very tart, which actually makes them feel healthier and, I dunno, more muffin-y, less cupcake-y.  However, if like me, you like most food that you consume to be noticeably sweet, I have three options for you in terms of these muffins.  1.  Do not make them.  Adhere to your own personal baking ban instead.  2.  Add 1/4 cup of sugar to the recipe as it’s posted below.  3. Add chocolate chips to the batter.

I made half of them with chocolate chips.  It was the right choice.  It made them perfect.  It made them just like my favorite muffins in the world, the raspberry chocolate chip muffins at Perfecto’s.  If you’re ever in Massachusetts, and you drive by a Perfecto’s, you should really stop.  Their muffins are epic.  Anyway, I’m glad I made these.  I’m glad I’m writing.  And I’d like to thank you, Marco, and really all my friends, for being around and being supportive … and for bringing me raspberries!  Friends rule.

Raspberry Buttermilk Muffins

Adapted from a combination of the recipes from Joy of Baking and “The Berry Bible”

Makes 12 muffins

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• zest of one lemon
• 1 egg
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 2/3 c. canola oil
• 2 c. raspberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 c. dark chocolate chips (optional)
• turbinado sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line muffin pan with liners, or grease muffin cups well.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and lemon zest. [Note: I was out of AP flour and used 1 cup of cake flour mixed with 1 cup of bread flour – the results were very good, the texture was slightly denser than a regular muffin but not too much so.]
3. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and canola oil until well blended.  Pour buttermilk mixture over flour mixture and stir just to combine.
4. Add raspberries, and chocolate chips if desired. Stir to incorporate.  If you stir vigorously, the raspberries may break up, giving the muffins a lovely pink tint, but losing the concentrated raspberry flavor in a single bite.
5. Fill muffin cups full with batter.  Place one whole raspberry in the center of each muffin and sprinkle turbinado sugar on top.  Bake for 20 minutes.

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