Citrus Zucchini Muffins

/
IMG_8329-2.jpg

August disappeared with the blink of an eye. At the beginning, I was lying in the sun, reading a book, and everything since then has been a bit of a blur. I've been traveling again; this time I spent a week in California and another driving up the coast to Seattle. I'll share the pictures with you once I get settled back in. With school starting this week and fall just around the corner, it all feels too soon. 

For now, I'm going to enjoy the end of summer harvest and hold on to the last of the warm summer days.

The garden at my parent's home grows two vegetables very well—zucchini and rhubarb. Due to a shady tree, the onions stay small, the cucumbers are few, and the cherry tomatoes are nonexistent, but those two vegetables grow so quickly and so large that it is easy to believe they are trying to make up for the other's flaws. My parents kindly let me use whichever vegetables I please, but even I can't find a use for all of the zucchini. 

If you want to lend a helping  hand, do let me know.

Though plentiful in the Upper Midwest, I still have not made my mind up about zucchini. While I could take or leave most savory dishes (except this one), bread is where this vegetable shines. Every year I make loaves of zucchini bread and every year I want to share the same recipe with you again because I love it so. While zucchini bread is wonderful with cinnamon, spices, and chocolate chips, this year I challenged myself to find a new way to enjoy it.

With citrus zest for bright flavor and chopped almonds for a hearty bite, zucchini found another way to capture my heart.

Citrus Zucchini Muffins make for a wonderful end-of-summer breakfast. The muffins are loaded with lemon and orange, a touch of nutmeg, and almonds to make them filling. The muffins are great with a spread of butter, a spoonful of jam, or simply left plain. These muffins surprised me with how much I enjoyed them. The flavors may be simple, but the experience is certainly not.

One Year Ago: Date Flapjacks, Nordic Pancake Cake, and Vanilla Ice Cream Cake
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Cherry Cake, Coconut Scones, Roasted Strawberry Coconut Ice Cream, and Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream
Three Years Ago: Blueberry Hand Pies, Black Bean Salsa, Harry Potter Treats, and Cauldron Cakes
Four Years Ago: Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread, Whole Wheat Wild Blueberry Muffins, and Bittersweet Chocolate Pear Cake

Citrus Zucchini Muffins

Yields 1 dozen muffins

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup (118 ml) vegetable oil
Juice of 1/2 orange
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (about 180 grams) grated zucchini, lightly packed
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (120 grams) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (63 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (113 grams) whole almonds, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with baking cups.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest until fragrant. Whisk in the egg, vegetable oil, orange juice, and vanilla until well combined. Stir in the grated zucchini. Mix in the nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Fold in the flour, mixing until the batter becomes uniform. Mix in the chopped almonds.

Fill baking cups 3/4 full and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the muffins cool briefly before eating. Serve plain or with a spread of jam.

Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins

/
Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins

Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins

I feel restless. My legs want to run when I need to stand still. My mind wanders when I need it to stay here, in this moment. My heart begins to stray when I give it a minute of rest. These disparate emotions become exhausting, pulling me one direction and then the next, placing me at odds with myself.

I think of summer and sunlight and grass between my toes when I look at snow drifts taller than myself outside my bedroom window. I wonder why I live in a place where the winter air physically hurts my face. I dream of running away to Europe, drinking wine and eating cheese, when I permit myself a moment to watch an old episode of No Reservations. I try to imagine what it would be like to actually have free time while I'm at school on a Friday night at 5:30 pm grading papers.

Restless, restless, restless.

Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins

To be truthful, I didn't expect much from these muffins. They were more of a last minute idea, a product of restlessness, than a thoughtful intention. A few forgotten bananas on the counter met some buckwheat flour hidden away in the back of the cupboard. I threw in a handful of cacao nibs as an afterthought, a snack food I recently bought and found too bitter to eat on its own.

When the comforting scent of baking muffins filled the air, I began to think that I may have judged these muffins too soon. In the end, they taste a little like banana bread, but can also hold their own as something unique. While the cacao nibs were too bitter by themselves, in the muffins they lose their bitter tones, transforming into something else entirely. A little like chocolate, perhaps, but with the addictive texture of walnuts.

I ate a dozen over the course of a week (and I would have eaten more if there hadn't been another muffin lover in the house). I may not have believed these muffins would be much in the beginning, but they became something memorable in the end.

Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins

Banana Cacao Nib Buckwheat Muffins are a comfort food for breakfast or dessert. The flavors of banana, cacao, and the nuttiness of buckwheat come together in these muffins. The color may appear dark, as if they are made from cocoa powder, but the shade of brown comes solely from the buckwheat flour and a touch of espresso powder. I enjoyed these with a mug of hot chocolate, to feed the soul while giving it warmth.

Read More

Pear Chocolate Scones

/
Pear Chocolate Scones

Pear Chocolate Scones

The melancholy part of winter has arrived for me. After so many months spent in my small one bedroom apartment, working and sleeping, I feel cooped up without an escape. The weather has been frightful, with temperatures in the negative numbers and windchills even lower. Lately, though, no one bats an eye at the forecast anymore. Perhaps we are becoming one with the arctic.

On days like these I wonder what it would be like to live where winter weather doesn't mean that one needs to bundle up from head to toe to stay alive when they walk out the front door.

Pear Chocolate Scones Pear Chocolate Scones Pear Chocolate Scones

In the summer, the sun casts a golden light on the world. The feeling of the sun on the face warms the skin all the way down to the soul. In the winter, the very same sun has a sharper edge. I no longer welcome the sun as before, wishing for cloudy skies instead. The sun's light is harsh, reflecting off the white ground with a blinding intensity. The sun no longer warms, but leaves a bittersweet reminder of the summer months so far ahead and so far behind.

Oh, those winter blues...

Pear Chocolate Scones

On a snow day from school this week, I made a cup of tea and turned on the oven to bake. With the wind blowing its fiercest, I rolled up my sleeves and mixed up a warming batch of scones. Scones are simple fare and this recipe is no exception. The act of mixing together the ingredients by hand, cutting in the butter and forming the dough with my fingers and palms, have a healing effect.

The melancholy air lifts and, for a few moments, I can enjoy my creation in peace.

Pear Chocolate Scones

Pear Chocolate Scones combine subtle flavors in a breakfast treat. Ripe pears are diced up and folded into a basic scone recipe with a few chocolate chunks. The choice of pear is of little consequence—Bartlett, Bosc, or Red pears will do. When finished baking, the scones emerge flaky and ready for tasting. The scones are best enjoyed the day they are prepared.

Read More