Ginger Peach Muffins

Wow, our posting has really slowed down since fall semester started! Who'd have thunk it?

I'm supposed to be working on screening documents this weekend, and I swear to God I have been. But I need the occasional break. Also, I had a very vivid dream last week about ginger peach muffins, which I'm sure I had never eaten before--or even seen, although a quick scan of the interwebs tells me that they are not unknown.

The ginger peach muffins in my dream (which had flavors. I don't often have dreams with flavors) were laced with a gingery swirl, sort of like the marzipan swirl in Ben & Jerry's "Mission to Marzipan" ice cream, a flavor which Amber and I have discussed in some detail. But I don't know quite how to make ginger-flavored marzipan in the first place, let alone how to put it into a muffin. However, I did have a basic muffin recipe from The Joy of Cooking, and some ideas about how to make the muffin taste good even if I couldn't recreate the swirl from my dream. So, moving on!

The next problem I encountered was the Inferior California Peach.



Look at that. That is a ripe yellow peach. That is the best ripe yellow peach I could find (at a reasonable price). I usually don't think of myself as Southern, but I did grow up in Georgia, and damn if I can't tell a Superior Georgia Peach from an Inferior California One.

The peach was so wimpy that I decided to saute it first.



Because a combination of:
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon

is guaranteed to improve almost everything, including:
1 ripe yellow peach, peeled, pitted, and finely diced

Saute it until the peach is soft and the syrup is syrupy (around 5 minutes), then remove from heat and let cool. Meanwhile, whisk together in a large bowl:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

And in another large bowl, whisk thoroughly:
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp amaretto (optional. I have a bottle from the cupcake experiment, so probably a lot of things I bake over the next couple of months will have amaretto in them.)
Cooled peach mixture

Make a well in the dry ingredients, then add wet and blend quickly, with only a few strokes. The batter should still be lumpy. Spoon into a cupcake pan - you'll want paper liners.

Before baking, sprinkle a few tiny pieces of diced candied ginger and about 1 tsp quick-cooking oats over each muffin. Like so:



Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.



They puff nicely.

Option: If you like ginger more than I do (I don't love ginger so much, really), you could finely dice more candied ginger and add that to the batter. It does turn out that finely dicing candied ginger is hella annoying, because it goes all soft and sticky as soon as you try to manipulate it.

I also wish these were a tiny bit peachier. Or maybe my sample muffin just got short shrift on the peach bits. But I might try this with two (small) peaches next time.

Media Pairing: Sing it with me! "My muffin top is all that, whole grain, low-fat..."