Receta Green Tomato Muffins and the Birth of a Blog Post
Sometimes I get a great idea, or find an inspiring recipe and it’s tested, cooked, photographed and posted in just a few days. Other times….
Not so much.
Follow along as I travel from this recipe’s conception, through the labor, and finally to the birth of a bouncing baby food blog post. May you LOL at the bumps along the way.
Sept. 5th: Saw a small basket of green tomatoes at the farmers market. Bought 3 tomatoes. Got home and wondered what the heck to do with them. Found a recipe for green tomato cake and thought about cupcakes. Found this recipe for browned butter frosting.
Sept. 6th – 9th: Life, Labor Day, and laundry happened. Green tomatoes sit on counter next to bananas. Not a smart move.
Sept. 10th: Shopped for ingredients after work. I hate shopping after work. Apparently, so does everyone else at the grocery store.
Sept. 11th: Piles of laundry to fold after work. I am loudly reminded the family needs clean underwear. Lost the natural light so made the executive decision to bake cupcakes tomorrow. I can do that, since I’m the executive chef. It’s my kitchen and I can be executive chef if I want to be.
Sept. 12th: Discovered 2 green tomatoes have turned orangey, thanks to the over-ripe bananas I parked them next to for a week. Farmers market closed, made emergency call to mother-in-law. She only had green cherry tomatoes. Shoot. Decided to make recipe anyway, leaving out the really, really orange bits. Took lots of pictures. Decided cupcakes are really chunky and look more like muffins, so I nix the browned butter frosting. Made a note to figure out what to do with extra-large bag of powdered sugar I don’t need anymore. First batch of muffins turn out ok, I think they could be better. Raised temperature and cooking time on second batch. Much better.
Original recipe muffins: Batch 1
Original recipe muffins: batch 2
Sept. 13th-18th: Crazy week at work (re-occurring theme). At home there is Girl Scouts, fundraisers, and puberty (No, not me; my daughters). Thought about and ate muffins all week. Discovered I’m not 100% satisfied with recipe. Decided I need a really great apple muffin recipe where I can replace the apples with green tomatoes. Found a recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and the original recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.
Sept. 19: Bought more green tomatoes at the farmers market. Put green tomatoes in the refrigerator this time. Also found some great sweet potatoes and discovered there was a bumper crop of tomatoes this fall. I buy a bunch. Will figure out what to do with them before they get fuzzy. I know I will.
Sept. 20th: Green tomatoes are still in refrigerator. Was persuaded to go for a drive with the family instead of baking. I’m such a slacker.
Sept. 21st-23rd: Yet another crazy week at work. Too pooped to bake when I got home. Still must cook and feed the family dinner or they whine and make lots of noise.
Sept .24: Shopped for ingredients after work. Have I mentioned that I hate shopping after work?
Sept. 25: Brother-in-Law’s birthday. No, I did NOT forget it was his birthday, nor did I forget we were going out to dinner on Friday for his birthday. I simply forgot that it was Friday. Got home after dark. Green tomatoes are still in the refrigerator. Too afraid to check on them. Go to bed hoping they are still green.
Sept. 26: Cleaned and vacuumed the house. Am shocked, as always, at how much fur 3 cats and a dog lose in just a few days. Visited dentist with youngest daughter then spent the afternoon reading #blogherfood09 tweets. Wished I had been able to afford, and get the time off work, to go. No, I’m not jealous and I don’t hate everyone who went. Not anymore.
Sept. 27: Finally got off my lazy butt and baked the freakin’ muffins. Also made Nanaimo bars (future post) and Pork and Apple Stew (yet another future post). Must have found my motivational muse. Or had way too much coffee.
Sept. 28th-30th: Brought laptop to work and did some photo editing over lunch in the staff exercise room because it’s quiet and nobody uses it. Indulged in a quick giggle at the thought of edited muffin pictures in the exercise room. It’s the little things in life.
Oct 1st: Got home from work, which, not surprisingly, was crazy . Decided I really needed to post this since I’m working all weekend and next week is going to be crazy too (need to get a thesaurus and find me some crazy synonyms).
→Coming up:
Sometime Next Week: Sleep.
Green Tomato Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Makes 12 Muffins
Green tomatoes add a surprising and subtle tart bite to these fall flavored muffuns.
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar, packed plus more for sprinkling
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 ½ cups green tomatoes, seeded and chopped
Preheat oven to 450°F. Grease and flour muffin tin or line with paper cups. In a medium bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the egg and mix well to combine. Gently stir in the buttermilk.* Stir in the flour mixture fold in the tomatoes.
Fill the muffin cups with the batter. Generously sprinkle the muffins with brown sugar. Bake for 10 minutes and then lower the oven temperature to 400°F. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more. Muffins should be golden brown and a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin will come out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from tin and cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
*The original recipe warns about mixing gently or the buttermilk will curdle the mixture. I don’t know if my gently stirred mixture “curdled”, per say, but I suspect the straight-from-the-fridge cold buttermilk just wouldn’t mix in very well with the butter. I just shrugged and went with it anyway, and the muffins were just fine.
You might also enjoy:
Chili Egg Bake and my Weekend Horribilis
Crispy Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies
Red White and Blueberry Shortcakes