The Truth About Muffins

Muffins are one of those foods that people eat because they are sweet without being a pastry or dessert and often have a healthy component, so they can’t be that bad for you. Sorry to break it to you, but muffins are really just cake without the frosting. Actually – fun fact here – commercially produced muffins are often worse for you than cupcakes – yes even “bran” and “corn” muffins. As a result, I only eat muffins if I baked them myself (or if my mom did – hers are excellent). So – this week, I made “muffins” – otherwise known as vanilla cupcakes with raspberries and rhubarb.

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
5 tablespoons of butter – melted
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberries
1 stalk rhubarb, chopped

Muffins are super straightforward to put together: you throw all the ingredients except the fruit into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer until smooth. You can, of course, use all white flour, but I’ve been trying to add more whole wheat flour when I can so I tend to mix the two. Once the batter is smooth, fold in the raspberries and rhubarb. Plop into a muffin tin lined with muffin cups and bake for 25ish minutes at 350. Yep, mix, fold, plop, and bake. That’s it.

These muffins were yummy – particularly the first day. You couldn’t really taste the rhubarb in it though, so add more if you want your muffins to be more rhubarb-y. You can taste the whole wheat flour, but it doesn’t overpower anything. Otherwise, it just tastes like what it is, vanilla cake with some fruit tossed in. A slight warning – these lose awesomeness over time. I froze them, but they still declined as time went on. So eat them as close to when they were baked as possible. Since this post is about truth (sorta), here is a minor confession: I love Kelly Clarkson. Particularly Angry Kelly. So in honor of that, this week’s song is “Never Again” Final truth of the post: I completely forgot to take any pictures and didn’t realize it until just now so, I’m sorry for this picture-less post.