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Monday, June 16, 2014

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday}

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday}

Roasted beets and strawberry jam provide the red, while white chocolate chips and blueberries round out the trio for a festively-colored and tasty snack

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday} | Farm Fresh Feasts

It always bugs me, as someone who thinks local produce tastes better than stuff trucked in from Off, to see Red, White and Blue recipes using fresh strawberries alongside fresh raspberries and fresh blueberries.  Why?  Wherever I've lived, those berries are not simultaneously in season.  Late spring is the time of the strawberry, and the raspberries and blueberries come along later in Summer.  If I'm going to combine berries, I'll need to use some that are put up (by freezing or by jammin') so that I can get the best flavor.

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday} | Farm Fresh Feasts

Beets are one of the vegetables that we don't devour within days of getting them in the farm share [beet greens, however, I adore and gobble up ASAP]. Beets are long-storing, though, and freeze beautifully after roasting, so in the winter I'll often grab a bag of roasted beets out to thaw and then decide what to do with them. 

Adding roasted beets to muffin batter makes a naturally vibrant result [even in savory form]. I wanted to make a colorful muffin so a beet base seemed like a good way to start. Strawberry jam for summer flavor, plus blueberries and white chocolate chips, make this muffin on the sweet side for my baking--but with only ¼ cup sugar it's still a snack I'm jiggy with feeding my kids.

For other recipes using beets, please see my Beet Recipes Collection. For other recipes using blueberries, please see my Blueberry Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. After typing so much to give you A Peek into My Process I'm going to jump right to the recipe.

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday} | Farm Fresh Feasts
partial view of ingredients--just the special ones
Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday} | Farm Fresh Feasts

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday} | Farm Fresh Feasts
untouched photo--this is a naturally crazy color indeed

Red, White & Blue Muffins

½ cup roasted beets, mashed with a potato masher
¼ cup strawberry jam
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ cup milk
1 egg
1⅔ cups unbleached all purpose flour (about 7 ounces)
½ teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup frozen blueberries
¼ cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray a 12 hole regular muffin tin with oil spray or line with paper liners. In a large bowl [and using a whisk for best results] combine beets, jam, oil, sugar, milk and egg.  Toss the whisk in the sink, you're done with it.  Dump dry ingredients (flour through baking powder) on top of wet mixture.  Stir until nearly combined, then fold in blueberries and chocolate chips. Scoop** into prepared pan.  Bake for 18 minutes, then cool in pan 5 minutes before removing from pan and cooling on a rack.  Serve warm or room temperature.
**My scoop holds 3 Tablespoons (1 ½ ounces) by volume, though the muffin batter is mounded in the scoop so I'm pretty sure I'm putting a good 3 ½ Tablespoons into each muffin well.  The muffin wells in my regular muffin pans each hold 3 ounces by volume.

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday} | Farm Fresh Feasts

I'll close with a photo tip.  With bright summer sun lightening up my kitchen for more hours in the day, I'm finding I need to use a diffuser (lace curtain, thin white sheet, or the official diffuser that's lurking naked under my reflector).  Here's the difference in photos with and without a diffuser (sunlight streaming in from the window to the left):

Red, White & Blue Muffins {Muffin Monday} | Farm Fresh Feasts

23 comments:

  1. First- I love the idea of Muffin Monday! I definitely need to make some muffins up today :) Second those beets make such an amazing color- perfect to celebrate, no need for red #40 or anything fishy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sherri,
      I'm always amazed at the shocking color beets give to my muffin batter or pizza dough. Every once in a while I've taken a stab at a red velvet cake, but the inside always bakes up kind of a yellow-orange. Tastes fine, misses the mark of brilliantly-colored naturally red cake though.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  2. I've never been big on red, white and blue food, but I love the idea of these muffins, especially with a bit of beet for color and flavor!

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    Replies
    1. Lydia,
      Blue food gives me pause, primarily because I think of those blue raspberry slurpee frozen drinks at the convenience stores. I can get my head around white food though--cheese, rice, alfredo sauce all are right up my alley!
      Thanks!

      Delete
  3. You can absolutely tell a difference using the diffuser and not. I've actually been trying to move my food into the shade so I don't get direct sunlight. That's when I'm photographing outdoors.

    I may have to try cooked beets again seeing as how none of your muffin recipes have ever led me astray. In fact, I've been craving your savory butternut squash ones lately. I think I still have some frozen shredded squash so it might be possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meghan,
      I got beets in the farm share this week (along with seven different types of greens!) and I'm having an internal . . . well I guess now it's out in the open . . . debate about cooking them or eating them raw. Got to deal with the greens first, it's all I can focus on to be honest.
      I also need to defrost the fruit & veg freezer to see what lurks in there. I could go for savory squash as well.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  4. The white chocolate chips just make the cupcake. ;-) Just kidding. Seriously, I have a question about your measure. You say a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Since you specify kosher which is courser grained, if a person was using table salt should they use a scant 1/2 teaspoon measure? We use kosher all of the time for cooking but for baking I was always taught to use table salt. Just wondering...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather,
      Your suggestion of white chocolate chips is a brilliant one--I'm glad I listened to you!
      If you are using table salt I'd use a regular ½ teaspoon since I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make an overly salty muffin. The original recipe book of muffins that I got my initial proportions out of many years ago probably used table salt, so if anything my muffins are slightly under-salted. Still enough salt for the chemical reactions, though.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  5. Amazing cupcakes!
    Thanks for bringing it to the FF party!
    - Anjana.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anjana,
      I am sure there is a rule book somewhere that defines what's a muffin and what's a cupcake--but since I'm not frosting these nor do they contain much sugar, I'm going to stick with muffins. I could try an hybridize a name, but cup-kins sounds weird, and muff-cakes takes this in a direction I do not intend to go in.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  6. Beautiful cupcakes! And thank you too for the photo tip, it's definitely good to know that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Loretta,
      I am a visual learner, and when I can see a clear difference in photos I figure I'll help out fellow visual learners like me.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  7. I've never seen beets used in a muffin recipe, but it looks like they do indeed contribute such a vibrant color to the batter and finished product! What a timely recipe to bring to FF :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maia,
      Wow, this is actually my second beet muffin recipe on the blog--first the savory horseradish ones and now this sweet version.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  8. Oh do these look delicious! Hanging my head in shame...I am one of those people who will eat blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries together... :-) But back to the muffins... I love the color of them... they're so festive... so happy! I'm always looking for something to whip up to just grab and go for work, and these look like they would be the perfect thing for that! Thanks so much for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Prudy,
      Never hang your head in shame! If someone fixed me one of those pretty mixed berry concoctions you bet I'd eat it! I just can't find flavorful berries around here--except the ones from the farmer's market.
      In fact, now that I think on it--this morning my spouse and I walked down to the farmer's market where we bought local blueberries and could have bought local strawberries. Our raspberry bushes are ripening more berries each day, so it's totally possible--today at least--to have a flavorful mixed berry concoction in my house. Hooray!
      As for taking them to work--I did that the other week and got a thumbs up from my coworkers.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  9. This is so festive! I just love it! Thanks for the photography tip as well, even though I take pictures of food for my blog, I don't know the first thing about photography. Happy Fiesta Friday! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kaila,
      I'm continually learning to improve my food photography--and it's spilling into other types of photography as well. Most of it I've learned from my spouse--he takes terrific photos--but there's so much more to learn.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  10. Delicious cupcakes:) without using food color adding bbeetroot s nice thought

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    Replies
    1. Vidya,
      I know there can be a time and a place for food coloring, but not these muffins. Not when I've got beets from the farm share!
      Thanks!

      Delete
    2. Vidya,
      I know there is a time and a place for food coloring, but not these muffins!
      Thanks!

      Delete
  11. These look amazing! I love the idea of using beets in mufffins!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad to find like minds regarding beets in muffins. I keep trying new variations!
      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete