Honey Muffin

Taneasha has been telling me lately that I don't make enough chocolate stuff.

So I made honey-blueberry muffins.

Apparently I'm feeling a little contrary today. Today. Ha.

Honey Muffins with Berries

2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup plain yogurt (greek style if you have it)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (peanut works)

2/3 c berries
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp orange juice

 

Preheat oven to 400°F and line your muffin cups.

Realize there was no honey in your ingredients pic. Honey muffins and no honey...

In a big bowl, combine all the dry stuff: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cardamom, sugar. Yes, sugar. I know it usually goes into the wet stuff, or the butter so it will dissolve first, but, as I said, I’m feeling contrary today.

I’m a little concerned about this recipe because my yogurt is a wee bit thicker than your typical yogurt.

Seriously, you could spread this stuff on a bagel and eat it like cream cheese.

The yogurt, honey, and orange juice can be piled into one cup, measure by displacement.

In another bowl, mix all the wet stuff: yogurt, honey, juice, eggs, oil, vanilla.

Before you mix the wet and dry, make sure your berries are thawed. Even looking at the volume in the second bowl, I was still worried about the liquid content.

So, I added a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of juice to a pan with them, and just melted everything. You don’t want them warm, just melted.

And dammit, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a shot of the orange juice being poured into the pan.

Stir the wet stuff into the dry until it’s just barely mixed. Hm, doesn’t look too dry. This could pass for muffins. But, I’ve got the berries all melted, so in they go.

Again, stir until just mixed. Berries do weird stuff when you mix and bake them. If you stir them too much, they’ll actually turn green. I can't decide if these are green or purple... There's a reason I wear a lot of black.

I had enough for 13 muffins.

The 13th muffin.

I'm still having a bit of trouble with my oven. This time, I erred on the side of too hot - probably at least 425. The muffins were golden on top after only 8 minutes, but still gooey inside. By 15 minutes, they looked like this.

Muffin 13, despite the heat, still lost it's peak in the middle.

I think I need new baking powder.

But heat was definitely a factor in these.

They are tasty though. Very caramelly in flavour as well as colour. And the honey really comes through. I think next time, I'll omit the sugar and add a bit more honey. They're really quite sweet. More blueberries too. Or maybe none?

At least they're not green anymore?

Missing My Mazurkas

Back when I lived in Utah, there was a bakery called Great Harvest.  Well, not only did they have fabulous bread, they had one called savory loaf that had artichokes, sundried tomatoes, parmesan… sorry, I digress.  In addition to those fabulous breads, they also had delicious baked treats.  My favorite was something they called mazurka bars.  Basically, it’s a buttery, chewy, oatmeal cookie bar topped with sweet, juicy berries.  Anyway, I doubt they’ll actually give up the details of their recipe, so I did some playing and came up with my own. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup flour
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1 cup blueberries

As always with cookies, make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature.  If you’ve forgotten to pull something out ahead of time, here’s a tip to get you baking right away anyway.  Before you get started, go ahead and turn your oven to 350°.  Put your softened butter into a mixing bowl along with the sugar. 

Cream those together until they’re nice and light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla.

Mix until the egg is thoroughly incorporated, scraping down the sides at least once. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  A lot of times I don’t bother doing that with cookies, but because there is such a small amount of flour in this, it’s necessary.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. 

Mix just until combined and stir in the oats.  The dough will be very soft and somewhat sticky.  That’s just how you want it. 

Glop the dough into an 8x8 pan.  Don’t worry about greasing or parchment or anything. 

Spread it around until it’s all the way in the corners and level on top. 

Now here comes the fun part.  Sprinkle all those beautiful berries on top.  Yay colors! 

I know you’re thinking that is way too many berries, but trust me, it’s not.  Bake at 350° for about 40 minutes.  You want the bars to be dry on top and a beautiful golden brown.  I’m telling you, magic happens in the oven. 

Now comes the hard part.  Cool them completely before cutting.  If you don’t, they’ll just fall apart.  With the sweet and tart of the berries, the buttery, chewy base and just a hint of cinnamon, these are to die for.  They’re even worth turning on the oven in the summer. 

What special treat does your local bakery make that you just can’t pass up?