June means wild blackberries
The wild blackberry bushes that grow around our property are scraggly, thorny, unfriendly things for most of the year, but in May we always get excited to see them decorate themselves with little green, tight clusters of would-be berries.
Come June, most afternoons are punctuated with a wild thunderstorm. In the frenzy of heat, light and water, the berries turn from sour red to deep, sweet purple.
On these hot afternoons, it is likely enough to find three sweaty little children in the kitchen presenting their hard-won bounty of blackberries.
It is a deposit which must be returned with interest.
Of course, the berries are perfect as they are: fresh and raw, and those who gather enjoy the perks. But isn’t everything made better with butter?
(It’s a rhetorical question.)
balance & texture
These whole wheat blackberry muffins are balanced and dynamic. Sourdough discard and sour cream keep them wonderfully tender, while bringing depth of flavor. The bursts of berry and citrus are the perfect acidic counter-part to the sweet, crunchy, sugary streusel. Each bite is tangy and bright, sour and sweet, warm and soft, velvety and buttery!
freshly milled whole wheat
If you’re familiar with cooking with your own freshly milled whole wheat (FMWW), you know it behaves a little differently. It has more complex flavors, is always thirsty and each variety of wheat gives a different “crumb” or texture.
my personal baking blend:
In this recipe (and for most cookies and cakes) I use a 1:1 combination of soft white wheat (which is a low gluten, light flour but can be dry) and Khorasan (which is nutty in flavor and moist to the point of lacking structure). Combining them brings out the best of both breeds, resulting in a nutty, loamy goodness.
sourcing wheat berries
I source wheat berries from Azure Standard since we have a convenient local drop point in town. I know Pleasant Hill Grain and Bread Beckers are also good sources. Let me know if you have found other good ones…
what about using conventional flour?
To be honest, I haven’t tried these muffins with conventional flour. But I can hypothesize that using a cake flour or an all-purpose would be ideal and I would use slightly more than is called for in the FMWW version… I would go with 160g or about 1 1/2 cups.
how to muffin:
work backwards
The best way to start these blackberry muffins is at the end. The last thing you’ll want to do is bake them, so first, preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
streusel
Next make your streusel. Why? Because you need cold butter and lemon zest. And soon you’ll need lemon juice, and if you have a choice, juicing a zested lemon is more fun that zesting a juiced lemon. Trust me.
Note: Turbinado sugar = texture.
I use my zester to zest the lemon, obviously, AND to grate the cold butter ANNDDD, later, to juice the lemon over which strains out the seeds. Super handy!
Just mix up the streusel and set it in the fridge for now.
mill + stir
Now is a good time to get your flour milled and the dry ingredients added to it. Be sure to give it a quick stir so everything is evenly distributed.
cream for texture
The order of these steps is crucial for the resulting texture of your muffins.
You’ll want to “cream” your softened butter and sugar together… which basically means it’s whipped beyond recognition into a light and airy, granulated cloud of fat.
Add in your eggs and the other wet ingredients: sour cream, lemon juice + zest, sourdough discard, etc.
Be sure these are all entirely and evenly mixed together before proceeding, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. It’s important to do this now because at this point you can mix and stir all you want, but once the dry ingredients are added, you must work tenderly and minimally.
Why? Because working flour with moisture develops gluten, and gluten makes things dense and chewy. Awesome for pizza. Sad for muffins.
When you feel that the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and zest, sourdough and sour cream have become a fragrant and airy batter, it is time to add in the flour mixture -a little at the time – GENTLY AND SLOWLY – as if we’re doing chemistry. As soon as it has come together, stop.
Fold in your berries with motherly tenderness.
and bake
Now fill your (lined) muffin tin with twelve even scoops of batter and load each one with the aforementioned streusel topping until they look audaciously gaudy, and bake!
350°F for 20 to 24 minutes (?) … just keep an eye on them at the twenty minute mark, every oven is different.
P.S.
This recipe is just as delicious with blueberries!
Happy baking,
-Courtney
Blackberry Muffins made with Freshly Milled Whole Wheat Flour
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350° F and prepare a muffin tin with liners
- Measure 160 grams of wheat berries and mill, or measure out about 1 1/3 cup of milled grain if you do not have a scale. Alternately, measure160 grams of conventional flour (about 1 1/2 cup) into a large bowl.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a large bowl with traditional beaters, cream 1 stick of softened butter and ¾ cup of sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Meanwhile, make the streusel topping …
- For streusel: Combine 2 tbsp of cold, shredded butter, the zest of 1 lemon, 2 tbsp of flour (any kind) and 4 tbsp of turbinado sugar in a small bowl, stirring and pressing with a fork until it looks a bit like sand and pebbles, then set back in the fridge until needed.
- Once the butter and sugar have whipped together in the standing mixer, reduce speed and add two eggs. Mix in well. Follow up with ½ cup of sour cream, juice of ½ lemon and ⅓ to ½ cup of sour dough discard, if using, and 1 tsp vanilla. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
- Stirring by hand now, add in the flour mixture a little at the time, stirring only as much as is necessary.
- Gently fold in 1 to 2 cups of berries while scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Drop equal sized portions of batter into a lined muffin pan. The batter will be thick. This is typically enough to make one dozen standard sized muffins.
- Do your best to equally distribute your streusel topping onto each of the muffins. Save yourself the frustration and just use your fingers.
- Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes. Check the muffins at the 20 minute mark, inserting a fork to see if it comes out clean. (Be sure to insert your fork on the side though, not through the streusel topping, as it will stick to the fork and give you an “inaccurate reading”).
- Let them cool. Or don't. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk and a friend.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.