I love surprises. Let me change that. I love good surprises. And when a surprise is food related I can’t say enough to cheer about it. Some time ago a blogger created a muffin filled with my Black & Blue jam and the creation stuck. I now make these filled beauties (sometimes with Black & Blue and sometimes with another flavor – here I used Apricot Orange) on many Sunday mornings when the weather begins to turn cool in the fall and I continue right through the winter until the warm weather drives me outdoors.
I suggest making the muffins with a little ballast with the addition of corn meal. A pure corn muffin will do too but replacing just a bit of the corn meal with flour works to keep the muffin “cakey” and delectable.
A warning about making the muffin batter: don’t over mix! Mix the wet and dry ingredients together very briefly so the batter will turn into a light airy confection.
Ingredients:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter Muffin tin or line with paper.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
4. Mix milk, eggs and melted butter together very briefly – a few lumps may remain. (Note the eggs – here is a little attention to my local egg source: Sofra, Anna Sortun’s excellent little outpost a couple of miles from my house/kitchen!)
5. Place one to two heaping tablespoon of dough into the muffin tin.
6. Press the mixture down a little and add a tablespoon of jam onto the hollow of the dough.
7. Lightly lay the final layer of batter on top of the jam to just below the rim of the tin. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if used.
8. Continue this to fill in the rest of the tin.
9. Bake until golden and the mixture springs back slightly when pressed – about 25 minutes.
