muffins

Last night I was seized by the urge to bake. I haven't baked anything in awhile, for some reason or another. I think my roommate baked, which made me want to make something too. It was a little dumb, since she offered to share her baked goods with me, meaning that I would only be adding to the already pretty exciting level of baked goods available for consumption in our apartment, but I forged ahead through the stupidity. I had some leftover buttermilk from a previous baking attempt (browned butter and rosemary bread that did not taste like browned butter at all) and so I revised this recipe to make do with the ingredients I had.

If you want to replicate my baking experience as closely as possible, add these additional steps:

• Forget whether you have added in baking soda or not, and then decide to add in 1/4 tsp. just in case you didn't put any in at all, but only that small amount so that they won't explode if you already did put some in.
• Ponder whether you have early-onset dementia.
• Find that the results are inconclusive of whether you had too much or too little baking soda in the batter. Shrug your shoulders and eat extra muffins to compensate for your confusion.
  

Mango Buttermilk Muffins

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup rolled oats, uncooked
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

1/2 cup chopped dried mango
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans



Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Combine liquid ingredients in small mixing bowl. Stir liquid mixture into dry mixture just until all dry ingredients are moistened. Gently stir in mango and pecans. Fill paper-lined 2 3/4 inch muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Serve warm or cold with butter*.

Note: Muffins can be prepared ahead and frozen. Reheat in microwave ‹ one muffin on High (100%) for 30 to 45 seconds.



Yield: 12 muffins