Grain-Filled Muffins

Makes 1 dozen muffins  

Recipe from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Husband-Tested in Janet’s Kitchen and Alice’s Kitchen

  

 It was Janet’s birthday, and my husband and I invited her and her husband and another friend, Sandy, over for dinner.  She asked if she could bring muffins to  go with dinner and of course I said yes.  She wanted to bake them at our house so that they would still be warm for dinner. So, she mixed up the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls and then brought them over to mix and bake.        We all agreed that the muffins were delicious. (We omitted the dried fruit.) Sandy thought they’d be great with chili.  Janet thought they’d be great with dried fruit for breakfast. I thought they’d be perfect with a cup of hot tea as a snack.  So there you have it. The muffins were indeed moist and despite having less sugar than most muffins, they were quite sweet. We all thought you could probably omit the sugar and just use the maple syrup as the sweetener and they’d be sweet enough.

   

   1 cup all-purpose flour

    1/3 cup whole wheat flour

    1/3 cup yellow cornmeal

    1/3 cup old-fashioned oats

    1/4 cup sugar

    2 teaspoons baking powder

    1/4 teaspoon baking soda

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    1 cup buttermilk

    1/3 cup pure maple syrup

    2 large eggs

    1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

    3/4 cup quartered moist, plump prunes or other dried fruits (cut up as necessary) and/or   

chopped nuts (optional)

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, cornmeal, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, maple syrup, eggs and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough -- if the batter is a bit lumpy, that's fine. Stir in the fruit or nuts if you're using them. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden (It took about 23 minutes in my oven.) and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes, then carefully lift each muffin out of its mold and onto the rack to cool.