These look better, don’t they?
I’m still on a peach muffin mission, but before I tried a new recipe I wanted to go back to this one and get it right. That meant:
A. using properly ripened peaches
B. mixing peach puree with baking soda to get it foamy
C. not accidentally mish-moshing two recipes together
I succeeded on all three counts. These muffins came out a little fluffier, a little prettier, and a little more delicious, but I have to be honest: I still don’t really taste a whole lotta peach. Still, I’ve had trouble holding on to them, as the kids love them and so does everybody else.
This time around I had no trouble getting the skins off. My peaches were getting nice and soft, so I gently scored the bottoms with a sharp knife, put them in boiling water for 60 seconds, then plunged them into an ice bath. The skins came off very easily and left me with some nice, peeled, slimy, slippery peaches.
I chopped them up easily enough, and glopped them into the blender to puree them, then measured out 2/3 of a cup into a small bowl.
The fun step that I missed the last time I made these was turning the puree into foam. I put a teaspoon of baking soda into the bowl, and stirred. Fun!
Next I put the butter, yogurt, and brown sugar into the stand mixer and had at it.
I added the eggs, beating after each one, then the vanilla.
I whisked together whole wheat white flour, wheat germ, and salt, then put that next to the stand mixer along with the foamy peach puree, so I could alternate adding them to the bowl and mixing. I went back and forth as smoothly as I could.
Last to go in, the poppy seeds. I love poppy seeds. I don’t eat bagels regularly anymore so I’m always happy to throw them into a muffin. I started out using the mixer, then removed the bowl to fold them in more gently.
Mmm…poppy seeds.
I scooped the batter into muffin cups as evenly as I could.
There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of it, but I did the best I could. I scraped out the bowl as much as humanly possible.
I put them in to bake, they were done in just shy of 20 minutes. They didn’t flatten out like the last batch, which was a nice bonus.
Well…they still tasted sweet and crunchy and delicious, and the texture was fluffy and substantial at the same time, but did they taste peachy? No.
I still have to figure out the peach thing.
In the meantime, we’ll all just keep gobbling up these sweet fluffy crunchmuffins.
My version of Peach Poppy Seed Muffins (adapted from cooks.com)
ingredients:
2/3 cup pureed peaches
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2/3 + 1/4 cup whole wheat white flour
1/3 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
3 tablespoons poppy seeds.
directions:
Heat the oven to 375, you will reduce the temperature later. Grease or line a 12-cup muffin tin.
Add the baking soda to the peach puree and stir. It will foam up, so make sure the bowl you’re using will accommodate.
Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter, yogurt, and sugar. Once smooth and creamy, beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Whisk together the flour and the wheat germ.
Alternately add the peach puree and then the flour mixture, going back and forth between the two until everything is in. Beat gently but thoroughly.
Stir in the salt, vanilla, and poppy seeds by hand.
Distribute the butter as evenly as possible into the muffin cups. Reduce oven temperature to 350, then bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them sit in the pan for another five minutes, then move to a wire rack.
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