Blackberry and Cornmeal Muffins

It’s been one of those weeks. A pipe burst in our apartment, and we have had severe damage to our floors and walls. Nothing like inept handymen sent by your landlord to further make a mess of the situation. Apart from that, it’s been rainy, cold, and I’m kind of homesick.

That means it’s time for me to get baking, and make some feel good treats for breakfast so I can get my butt to the gym, whenever these lovely men think they’ll finish making holes in our floor!

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes cookbook. I love the taste of blackberries, but don’t really enjoy eating them raw. They are way too grainy and seedy for me, and store-bought always seem to be incredibly tart! I always dream of walking through some field, and picking them off their bush, and taste the sweet ripeness that only the sun can provide. Alas, the only time I have had contact with any wild blackberries is when my daughter brought back silk worms from school as a project. I had no idea that they only ate blackberry leaves, so I had to hunt out a tree and pick the leaves so they wouldn’t die. Even though I ABHOR any type of worm. But, I just can’t let a living thing die, disgusting or not.

Today we found an array of berries at the market, and I love me some blueberries for breakfast, but picked these up thinking I would make the muffins I saw in Martha’s book. Brought them home, picked up the book, read the recipe and then realized I don’t have any cornmeal. I only had Arepa flour. (Arepas are Colombian cornmeal patties- delicious!) Even though in Martha’s book it stated for cornmeal, I swapped it in, lessening the amount of sugar that the recipe originally called for. The Arepa flour that I have has some sugar already in the mix. I didn’t want them to be overly sweet, either, and I wanted to be able to taste the tartness I find unappealing in the raw berries. It worked perfectly. Nice and cornbread like, soft, fluffy, and moist, berries bursting when you take a bite. Definite “picker upper” on a cold rainy day!

So here’s what you’re going to need:

Adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Makes 12-16 muffins

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup fine ground yellow cornmeal

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

7 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1 -2 containers (6 oz each) fresh blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190C). Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs and melted butter, pour over flour mixture, whisking to combine.

2. Fill each lined cup with a scant 1/4 cup batter. Top batter with blackberries (3-4 berries per cup), then sprinkle evenly with remaining sugar.

3. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until evenly browned on top, 20- to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before removing muffins. They are best eaten the day they are baked, but will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

From my kitchen to yours,

Carla