Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins (vegan)

It's Muffin Time

Do muffins have a season?  Seems like when the weather turns cool, I spend more time in the kitchen, and when the editor of Vegetarian Journal asked if I'd be interested in doing an article on muffins, the prospect intrigued me.  I haven't baked muffins for years, but I was suddenly hungry for muffins.  What a great excuse to warm the kitchen and infuse the house with the aroma of baked treats

I've written for the Vegetarian Journal for year.  In fact, I recently got all the old magazines that had articles I wrote out and covered my living room floor.  It always seems like they've covered everything and then suddenly a new idea pops up.  I've done some quirky articles in the past including, Vegan Cowboy Cuisine, Secrets of the Seasonal Vegan, and Super Savory Pancakes.  Many of these vegan recipes went into my cookbook. 

Most recipes can be made into vegan versions but vegan baking can be tricky. Every ingredient interacts with every other ingredient and if you change too many ingredients at once a muffin can turn into something with a hockey puck texture, if you you aren't careful.  

I figured I should start with something I really liked, so I crafted a blueberry muffin recipe from a number of recipes I found.  I didn't want to try gluten-free or low fat yet.  Just get the feel for what a muffin should be in this first baking round.  

The Joy of Cooking cookbook gives these general muffin baking tips:

• Hold the mixing to an absolute minimum--from 10 to 20 seconds.  Ignore the lumps.
• Good muffins should be straight sided and slightly rounded on top.  The grain of the muffin is not fine but uniform and the crumb is moist.
• Fill oiled tins 3/4 full before baking. And put a few tablespoons of water in any empty muffin tins while baking.
• Leave baked muffins in tins for a few minutes and they will be easier to remove from the tins.

I didn't add enough flour in the beginning.  As you can see the result was a flatter muffin.  After I noticed how these weren't rising enough, I added more flour and got a better rounded top for batch number two.

I can tell already, this is going to be one fun article to complete.  I won't give all the secrets to good muffins away, you'll have to stay tuned to Vegetarian Journal and find out the end of this story.  

Anybody else hungry for muffins?

Straight sides, rounded top--these are the second muffins that I baked with more flour.

Inside the crumb was delectable.

Vegan Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

(Makes 12 muffins)

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

3 tablespoons water

1 cup soy or rice milk

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup unbleached flour

1/2 to 1 cup cornmeal

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup canola oil

Blend flax seeds and water until thick and frothy.  Set aside.   In a small bowl, add lemon juice to soy milk and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400F.  Oil 12 muffin tins or line with cupcake papers.

Blend flour, cornmeal, baking soda, lemon zest, sea salt and sugar in a medium mixing bowl. (Make sure there are no small lumps of baking soda.)   In another bowl combine flax seed mixture, milk and oil together.  Whisk to combine thoroughly.  

Add blueberries to the flour mixture then add the milk mixture blending just enough to form a batter.  Do not over mix.  The consistency should be somewhere between a pourable cake batter and a thick cookie dough--not too thin and not too thick.  

Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned.  Gently tap the surface or use a toothpick to confirm the muffins are done.

Less than six degrees of separation

The urban dictionary defines the six degrees of separation as "The theory that any two people in the world are connected in some way by no more than six people." I wondered if this theory held true for books.

One of my favorite books in the last decade is the Omnivore's Dilemma (right) by Michael Pollen. In particular I liked his chapter called "The Ethics of Eating Animals" with "The Steakhouse Dialogues." Pollen wrote about reading Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation while enjoying a steak decades ago. He went on to say how most of us would rather not be reminded what's involved in bringing that steak to the table and then he pondered Singer's philosophical arguments. Do animals reason? Do we have the right to raise them for food? And how exactly do we justify killing animals for dinner. Presenting the other side, Pollen suggested we've lost something by being vegetarian; we've alienated ourselves from cultural traditions that involve eating meat.

Singer's book from the 1970s hooked me, too, but then I'd hated eating meat, poultry and fish ever since I can remember. As a child my father forced me to cut up the leathery stuff on my plate and I swore when I grew up I wouldn't eat the stuff. My father was an excellent fisherman but boning trout, pounding abalone until it was tender and watching lobster boil for dinner, never made me hungry. When I met my husband Tom, he was raising pastured beef. Killed humanely, it was still beef to me. My culinary preferences remind me of my sister-in-law's aversion to strawberries. She can't stand them in anything, even the smell makes her nauseous. This culture doesn't ostracise people for the fruits or vegetables they won't eat, but many people get offended or don't know what to cook for people who don't eat meat. "You'll like our meat," I've heard farmers say. No I won't. Singer's book was right on and it gave me the excuse I was looking for to give up meat entirely and not feel bad about hurting some chef's feelings.

To get back to my title post, what's a vegetarian doing promoting books about pastured meats and how are these books related to my vegetarian cookbook? Okay, here it is: world traveler and writer Sharon Morris, Jo Robinson's sister, is in my writing group. Jo Robinson, New York Times best selling author of Pasture Perfect has spoken about book publishing and writing to our group. Her book is also sold at the farmers' markets by farmers who raise pastured beef. Jo has a website that I've mentioned before http://www.eatwild.com/ One of the farm profiles in the revised version of my book, Winter Green Farm in Noti, Oregon http://www.wintergreenfarm.com/ , has a link to Jo's website because they also sell pastured beef. Also, meticulous researcher Jo Robinson, contributed a great deal of information to Michael Pollen's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, check the aknowledgments. There you go, less than six degrees. Maybe next I'll find a link to Julia Child.