I had to try one more time. I want a peach muffin without peach pieces, is that so wrong?
Well, it may not be wrong, but I still haven’t achieved it. Not that these muffins are anything but sweet and delicious and good for you, they’re actually quite wonderful. Fluffy, flavorful, sweet, with a nice little crunch from the poppy seeds, a last-minute addition. And they actually do have a hint, a wee whisper, of peach taste. So while I love them and plan to make them again, they are not the peach muffin I’ve been seeking. (“These aren’t the peach muffins you’re looking for,” said the Jedi master.)
They taste damned good, though.
And I’ve got my peach pureeing process down to a science. I scored each peach on the bottom, and put a pot of water on to boil. Once it was all bubbly and crazy, I popped the peaches in there for 60 seconds.
Once my minute was up, I promptly plunged them into an ice bath.
And after about another minute, I removed them and peeled the skin off, just like that.
I chopped them up. With the help of the blender, my peaches went from this:
to this:
That done, I focused my attention the dry ingredients. As always, I replaced all purpose flour with a combination of whole wheat white flour and wheat germ. I added baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, and then the spices, quadrupling the cinnamon, doubling the nutmeg, and increasing the ginger by half.
I whisked.
Then I combined the liquid ingredients: peach puree, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla bean paste, melted butter, and peach Greek yogurt. (I thought that would help increase the peach-y-ness.) It looked goopy. I whisked.
And then I poured the flour mixture into the peach one, which made me think that I should have used the big green bowl for the liquid ingredients and the smaller one for the dry. Oops.
I mixed. Carefully. Thoughtfully. Lovingly.
And then, just as carefully, thoughtfully, and lovingly, I added three tablespoons of poppy seeds. It just seemed like a good idea.
Right?
I tasted the batter, and it most definitely tasted peach-y. I scooped it into muffin cups before I could eat too much of it, and sprinkled some turbinado sugar on top, not that they needed it. (Next time I won’t use as much sugar IN the recipe, which will make the sparkly sugar on top pop a little more.)
They took 23 minutes in a 350-degree oven. I let them sit in the pan for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
And I tasted them as soon as they were ready.
I’ll tell you something; they may not taste particularly peachy, but they are excellent muffins. Dave ate two of them that night alone, since the recipe makes about 20, and maybe, you know, I ate two as well. They’re too hard to resist, as well as unnecessary to resist, since they’re only 3 P+ and I could get that even lower by reducing the sugar next time.
But they’re a real treat to eat, and taste like dessert, and get addictive quickly, so even without the strong peach flavor I’m hankering for, I still think these are a win.
PEACHY KEEN MUFFINS RECIPE (original)
My version of Peachy Keen Muffins
makes 20 muffins
ingredients:
1 1/3 cups whole wheat white flour
2/3 cup toasted wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 1/2 cups peach puree
2 large eggs
1 cup (scant) brown sugar (I will reduce to 2/3 cup the next time)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt, peach flavor
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
directions:
Heat the oven to 375, you will reduce the temperature later. Grease or line two 12-cup muffin tins. (I used two tins but didn’t bake at the same time as I wanted them to be on the middle rack.)
Whisk together the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the peach puree, eggs, browns sugar, yogurt, vanilla, and melted butter.
Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the peach mixture and gently stir to combine, stopping when the flour has disappeared. Fold in the poppy seeds.
Scoop batter into muffin cups. The amount of muffins you get will vary, depending on how much you fill the cups. Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top of each one.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let the sit in the pan for another 5-10 minutes, then move to a wire rack.
These muffins really come into their own both texture-wise and flavor-wise the next day, so resist eating them right away if you can.
Speak Your Mind