Blackberry Corn Muffins

Oh hai Tuesdee. Thanks for being a lot nicer than Monday. And thanks, Technology, for finally deciding to cooperate. Here's what I planned to tell y'all about yesterday. 

Sunday was quite a gray day. Cold and rainy and mopey. Know what made it worse? I had to be at work at 8:30 AM. For a meeting. Double yuck. 

8:30 am Sunday meetings should be illegal. It's cruel and unusual and downright inhumane. Such is the world of retail, I suppose. To ease everyone's pain, I decided to bring my coworkers some muffins to nosh on as we all miserably watched too many poor-quality corporate videos through half-open eyelids. 

And, like I often do, "maybe i'll make some muffins" turned into a muffin-palooza. 3 batches, 36 muffins. (There's not even 20 of us that work there). I wish I had taken a picture of the basket-o-muffins. It was pretty ridic. 

I stuck with my standard vegan banana muffins, half with and half without nuts, for one batch. They're a crowd pleaser. And some of my co-workers are pretty picky. 

The others, I figured I'd just see what was good at the market. I went to the Whole Foods on South Street, and they were having some kind of earth day festival on the block with lots of eco-friendly vendors and live music. Very nice. Once inside, I found some delicious smelling strawberries on special, and some (slightly beat up) rhubarb hanging around, so I decided to attempt a strawberry rhubarb muffin. They were OK, but mostly disappointing. A little dry, and not sweet enough. They've got potential though, so I'll try again and report back at another time.  

And then I saw some blackberries for real cheap, and got it into my head that blackberry corn muffins would be AMAZING. And they were. 

Oh lordy, are these babies delicious! 

I'm a pretty big fan of a sweet corn muffin. The gritty, but soft texture makes me feel a little naughty. But I didn't have a standard corn muffin recipe. I've made sweet potato corn bread, but not a regular, simple corn muffin recipe with which to play with. So I hopped over to the post punk kitchen, to see what Isa (of Veganomican and VCTOTW fame) had to say about them. This recipe got great reviews, and since she's yet to steer me wrong, I ran with it. 

Let me warn you guys, these things are like crack. They're a little sweeter than I'd normally like and I'll probably cut back on the sugar next time, but otherwise they're perfect. The texture is great, soft yet slightly gritty. They're crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and not too crumbly. And the bit of lemon zest added at the end makes all the difference. Dreamy, really.  Just like Andrew McCarthy in Pretty in Pink or Mannequin. 

These muffins got a one-way ticked to the "make as often as possible" list. For realsies. 

Blackberry Corn Muffins

adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup corn or vegetable oil

3/4 cup soymilk

2 tablespoons soy yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/2-3/4 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat oven to 400. Line muffin tins, if you plan to do so, now. In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through sugar). In a seperate bowl, wisk together wet ingredients (oil through vanilla). Fold wet into dry, halfway through mixing add lemon zest and blackberries and distribute well.

Spray muffin tins w/ non stick cooking spray if not using liners. Fill each tin 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm. 

If making in advance, you can warm these up in the microwave later for about 10-15 seconds, and they're still as tasty. (Don't microwave them for any longer, especially not a whole minute, or your whole apartment will smell like burnt muffins for at least 2 days. Ken, I'm looking at you.)