peaches and cream muffins

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cooking, food, fruit, muffins, peaches, recipe, summer

I don’t know about you guys, but I am clinging to this summer like my life depends on it. This time of year seems fleeting and fragile, and I want to hold on to it for as long as possible.

Peaches are one of my favourite summer fruits. I believe their lusciousness and fragility warrants only eating them when they are in season and perfectly ripe, and so at this time of year I eat as many as I can. The Italian peaches available here pale in comparison to the juicy Oakanagan orbs I grew up with, but they’ll do with no other choice nearby.

These muffins were part of a brunch spread I made for a dear friend’s wedding earlier this summer. Made with a combination of three flours, the muffin base is sturdy and nutty, yet surprisingly delicate. Sour cream provides a bit of tang, and a touch light brown muscovado sugar sweetens the mixture just so. It’s not often I find myself licking muffin batter out of the bowl, but there it was.

Peaches appear twice. First, they’re finely diced and stirred into the batter where they mellow into little pockets of peachiness once baked. Then, they’re thinly sliced and draped across the top of each unbaked muffin, the red and yellow crescent moon caramelizing ever so slightly as they bake.

I’d highly recommend you make a batch of these while the season’s peaches are still available. And since muffins freeze so well, you could be enjoying peaches and cream muffins weeks beyond the last fresh peach.

Two years ago: Carrot and Quinoa Salad
Three years ago: Crispy Skillet Tofu (yum!!!)
Four years ago: Wheatberry Salad with Eggplant

Peaches and Cream Muffins Recipes:

If peaches aren’t handy, I’m sure these muffins would be amazing with other summer fruit. Blackberries especially come to mind. To make oat flour simply whirl rolled oats in a food processor or high-speed blender until a sandy-fine  flour is formed.

Makes 10 muffins. Adapted from Good to the Grain.

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2 ripe peaches, one diced, one thinly sliced
1 cup oat flour (see headnotes)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup light brown muscovado sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsps (90g) butter, melted
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg, lightly beaten

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Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F. Line 10 muffin cups with muffin cases, or grease the tins.

Prepare the peaches. Slice each in half and twist to remove from the stone. Dice one peach into small (about 1cm) dice. The other, thinly slice. Set aside.

Sift oat flour, all purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a medium bowl.

In a small bowl combine melted butter, milk, sour cream, and the egg and whisk well to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until just barely combined. Fold in the diced peach.

Spoon the batter evenly into 10 muffin cases, and top each with one or two thin slices of peach.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan once. The muffins should be slightly puffed and golden on top, and a toothpick inserted towards the center should come out clean. Remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Power to the peach! Peaches are native to China, spread to the rest of the world along the Silk Road, and are in the rose family along with nectarines, plums, and almonds. Fresh peaches are low in calories and rich in dietary fiber, especially if you consume the fuzzy skin. They contain a moderate amount of the antioxidant vitamin C, vitamin A, and beta carotene. There is some evidence that eating fruits rich in vitamin A may be protective against some cancers. Peaches also contain flavonoid polyphenolic antioxidants which are protective against free radicals and reactive oxygen species.

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2014

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your nutrition questions – what about fruit?

Tags

food, fruit, health, nutrition, sugar

Sugar is a hot topic in nutrition right now. So many people are either off added sugar or off refined sugar, and I can’t even tell you how many recipes I’ve read that exclaim to be sugar free and then call for honey or maple syrup. That right there tells me how confusing this subject is for most of us.

The trouble is, there are as many opinions as there are experts, and this is a big topic. Far too big for just one post, so I thought I’d start with a question I get fairly frequently – what about fruit?

Let’s break it down.

Fruit contains carbohydrate, mainly in the form of the naturally occurring sugar, fructose. Vegetables also contain carbohydrate, but typically much less than fruits, and they therefore contain fewer calories.

The idea that fruit is loaded with sugar needs to be put into perspective. Yes, there is sugar in fruit, but it’s not like it’s a sack of empty calories.

That naturally occurring fructose is coupled with fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds that help guard against disease. The soluble fiber in fruit helps lower cholesterol; the insoluble fiber helps moderate the absorption of sugar into the blood stream, stabilize blood sugar, and keep you satiated.

Not all sugar is created equal, my friends. One medium banana has 27 grams of carbohydrate and 105 calories. Compare that to a 100-calorie pack of Oreos or one of those teeny 100-calorie tins of Cola, and tell me the banana isn’t the better choice.

Current recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption in the US is for 2 cups of fruit a day and 2.5 cups of vegetables. In Canada the recommendation is 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetables (a serving is half a cup) with no guidance on how much of that should be fruit. In the UK the recommendation is 5 x 80g portions of fruit and veg a day, though new research points to bumping that number up to 7 a day.

So when we’re looking at a serving (1/2 cup) of fruit, how much sugar are we talking about? Well, a 100g banana has 14g of sugar (about a tablespoon). An average orange has about 12 grams, and a cup of strawberries has only about 7 grams of sugar (less than two teaspoons). Plus, you’re getting fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and a range of minerals along with that sugar. 105 calories from the banana, 47 from the orange, and 49 from the cup of strawberries together adds up to only about 10% of your recommended daily calorie intake.

The reality is, the majority of the population struggles with meeting the recommended daily intakes of fruit and veg. About 50% of Canadians and 70% of Americans don’t meet the daily minimum. That in mind, most of us don’t need to worry about whether we’re eating too much fruit, but whether we’re eating enough.

Of course there are some health concerns related to fruit. If you’re diabetic or pre-diabetic you’ll need to limit your fruit intake to manage your blood sugar levels. If you have high blood triglycerides, extra sugar from any source can exacerbate the problem. Some people who have hereditary fructose intolerance can’t properly digest fruit.

Choosing foods that are low on the glycemic index can help with managing blood sugar problems. Although fruit contains sugar, most fruits are surprisingly low on the GI. Fruits low on the GI (release their sugars slowly) include berries, cherries, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, and figs.

For the general population, however, my advice is to eat your fruit! If you’re aiming for 10 servings (5 cups) of fruit and veg each day, I suggest you have 3-4 servings of fruit and the rest vegetables. Even better, eat your fruits together with vegetables – the extra fiber will help to moderate the absorption of sugar into your blood stream even more than the fiber from fruit alone can.

The bottom line is that whole fruit (we’re not talking about juice!) is a nourishing food and for most of us there is no reason to avoid it.

Recipes to try:
Breakfast Salad
Green Smoothie

Got a nutrition question? Email me!

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2014