Chunky Peach Berry Muffins

This post should have been full of gorgeous pictures of jewel colored berries, juicy golden peaches, and puffy muffin goodness. Alas, there are actually only 2. A few things conspired against me.


1. It's time to confess that I hate my kitchen, which sucks because I really love to cook! But I rent, and I'm moving, so this all will change soon. But for the time being I'm working with fluorescent lighting, which is terrible, and there's only one window that faces a 6 foot high concrete wall (ah, the joys of city living), and I really hate it. But since I know I'm moving I decided that I didn't have to try and fake it this time, or settle for crappy pictures, because in a little over a week's time I'll have a completely gorgeous light-filled kitchen to take pictures in!

2. I wanted to use up the fresh fruit I had picked over Labor Day weekend, but had a million other things to do on Saturday morning, so, I didn't have time to stop during each step of the process and snap a photo. Also, see point #1.

3. At the very least, I had planned on taking pictures of the final muffins. But I couldn't. Because they were all gone before Saturday afternoon!!

Which leads me to these muffins. Man, are they good!! I riffed on a recipe from Vegan Brunch, wherein it says that frozen berries are okay, but if you can still get your hands on fresh blackberries and raspberries I'm telling you it's the only way to make these muffins. I threw in some peaches because I had them and because they are delicious baked in stuff -- in this particular recipe they add a nice balance to the tartness of the blackberries.

Delicious hot, they are even better if they're let to sit for a while. I had one for breakfast this morning (okay, so I lied about them being all gone, there were 3 left at the end of the day) and it was amazing. The flavors of the berries mellow and become more distinct at the same time, so in one bite you can tell whether you're eating a raspberry or a blackberry. I'm going to stop talking about them now, and just give you the recipe so that you can see for yourself!

Chunky Peach Berry Muffins
Adapted from Vegan Brunch

Ingredients

½ c. blackberries, halved

½ c. raspberries, halved

½ c. peaches, chopped

2 c. flour

1 TBSP baking powder

½ - ¾ c. sugar (I did something in between, so the addition of peaches wouldn't be too sweet)

¼ tsp salt

½ c. almond milk

½ c. soy yogurt

½ c. vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in medium sized bowl. Make a well and add the almond milk, yogurt, oil, vanilla extract, mixing until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Gently fold in the fruit, but don't be too shy -- a streaky batter is pretty and flavorful! 

Bake for 26-28 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. If you can, save a couple muffins for the morning after and I promise you won't be disappointed! But I completely understand if you can't wait.

 

Blackberry Peach Plum Cobblerrumble

Sometimes it's really hard to eat all of the things. The fruit things especially. I bought a giant container of plums last weekend, only to be kind of sort of really disappointed at how bland/tart they turned out to be. I slogged my way through them as best I could this past week, but I know myself well enough to know that pitted against the market's latest bounty of fresh fruit, these lack-luster plums would probably whither in the fridge if they didn't get used up soon. As in, immediately.

I couldn't resist throwing in some of the aforementioned bounty, creating a fabulous  late-summer fruit cobblerumble. 

Cobblerrumble? Yes, about that...




There is, as I learned, a difference between a cobbler and a crumble. Unfortunately my impatience got the better of me, and my crumble topping got hand-mashed into a dough. After freezing it, the dough crumbled into chunks. The recipe outlines how the crumble topping is supposed to come out, but know that if you, too, get impatient the topping will be still be delicious. And on top of it all, I got to invent a pretty catchy portmanteau (if I do say so myself). So. Are you ready to cobblerrumble?!

Blackberry Peach Plum Cobblerrumble

Ingredients

For the topping:

½ c. almond meal

¼ c. all-purpose flour

½ c. light brown sugar

¾ c. rolled oats

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ c. cold butter (1 stick)

Pinch of salt

For Filling:

2 large peaches
½ pint blackberries, cut in half

6-7 small purple or red plums
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1½  TBSP all-purpose flour

2 TBSP of brown sugar (add an additional TBSP if you prefer a sweeter filling)

juice of half a small lemon, or lime

1 tsp. of cinnamon

a of dash allspice or nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To prepare the filling, first pit your stone fruits and cut them into bite-sized slices. In a large bowl combine the peaches, plums, halved blackberries, vanilla extract, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg, and citrus juice. Carefully toss the fruits so that they are evenly coated. Set aside.

For the topping, combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. With a fork or pastry cutter, cut in the 1/2 cup of butter by the tablespoon until your topping looks like pea sized crumbles. I got impatient and dumped the whole half cup of butter in at once, which created a bit globby butter mess. I ended up going in with my fingers, warmed the butter, and got one lump of dough rather than crumbles. Like I said above, if this happens don't panic! Stick the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes, and it'll crumble into clumps again.

Pour the fruit filling into an 8x8 baking dish. Sprinkle your crumble (or clumps) evenly over top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until filling is gorgeous and bubbly. 

I couldn't wait for this to cool before digging in. The filling turned out thick and juicy, the perfect balance of sweet and tart. An excellent reason to buy fresh plums from your local market! My singular regret about this creation that I lacked the forethought to buy a pint of vanilla ice cream to go with it.