Peach Muffins

These didn’t turn out quite the way I’d hoped. I’ve been wanting to make peach muffins for a while, a muffin that would be all crumb but would be full of flavor from pureed fresh peaches. So I started with a Strawberry Mini Muffins recipe I’d made not that long ago and adapted as I went.

I started with the peaches. I read all these blogs & sites that said the best way to peel a peach was to boil it for 60 seconds, then plunge it into an ice bath. I tried that. I even scored the peel first. Alas, it didn’t work all that well, and I’m thinking that’s because the peaches were still a little hard.

(To be honest, that’s how I prefer eating them, as soon as they get soft, which is the way other people like them, I lose all interest.)

I was able to get some of the peel off that way, and after trying to use a knife on the rest, I finally just grabbed my vegetable peeler and finished the job with ease. I cut up the insides, then pureed them in the blender.

In my (wonderful) stand mixer, I beat together an egg, oil, vanilla, milk, and some peach butter I’d picked up on our trip to Pennsylvania.

Separately, I whisked together the dry ingredients: whole wheat pastry flour, wheat germ, cane sugar, salt, and baking powder.

I poured in the peach puree.

Once mixed, it started looking a little bit like cat barf.

Adding it to the bowl of the stand mixer didn’t really improve things until the paddle started doing its work.

The batter was very thin, but I remember it was the same with the strawberry muffins. I spoon-poured it into muffin cups.

(Does anyone know how to avoid those little pinchy corners I get sometimes? I tried fixing each one, but some of them just squinch right back in again and then the muffins aren’t perfectly round. It’s random and irksome.)

I put them in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes, but it was about 25 until they were done, and “done” was a little dodgy. The toothpick came out clean, but it didn’t feel as dry as I wanted it to. And they’d fallen, after puffing up nicely earlier on in the baking cycle. Still, they smelled pretty good. Sweet and peachy.

Sadly, the texture never really settled. They stopped sticking to the paper by morning, but they never got fluffy or soft. They just got gummier. I ate a few of them over the next day or two, then gave it up. The flavor was there but the crumb was crummy instead of crumby.

I don’t think there’s much point in posting the recipe, since I don’t think anybody should try to make these. I have my eye on a recipe for peach poppy seed muffins, so have heart, I will persevere. I promise.