HERITAGE RECIPE: Peach Muffins

I'm sure it's no surprise that I chose a peach recipe this weekend from the heritage recipe cookbook. As you know, I bought 38 pounds of Georgia peaches from The Peach Truck a few days ago. I've been letting them ripen on the counter, and today they were perfect! So, I've spent all day up to my eyeballs in peaches--the biggest project is making preserves. The recipe I'm using takes a couple of days--which is a good thing, because I need a break from working in the kitchen!

While I was working on prepping the peaches, I decided that I'd try to find a peach recipe from the heritage cookbook--that way I could use up some peaches and make my weekly heritage recipe at the same time. Unfortunately, there were only three peach recipes to choose from--and one of them called for canned peaches, so that was out. I was left with Peach Muffins or Peach Crisp. The Peach Crisp sounded amazing, but I wanted to do something a little different; peach muffins aren't something you see very often, so I chose that recipe instead.

This recipe was submitted to the Rockwood, Michigan Area Historical Society by Stephanie Metzger.

As always with the heritage recipes, I am typing it out exactly as written in the book; I made this with no substitutions or changes. See my notes after the recipe for anything that may be unclear. The printer-friendly version below is written with any clarifications.

Here is a printer-friendly version!

Peach Muffins

1 egg
1/2 c. sour cream
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1-1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. fresh or frozen peaches, chopped/thawed

In mixing bowl, beat the egg, then add sour cream and oil. In another bowl, combine all dry ingredients, then fold into egg mixture; stir until moistened. Add the peaches and stir lightly. Spoon mix into greased muffin tins, each section 3/4 full. Bake at 375 F for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.

My Notes:

This recipe is really straight-forward. As far as ingredients, I used full-fat sour cream and (obviously) fresh peaches. (I peeled and chopped 1-1/2 peaches to yield 1 cup)

I didn't even get out my stand mixer for this one--it was super easy and fast to throw together. (Exactly what I needed after blanching, peeling, and pitting peaches for what felt like days!)

The texture of the batter was very thick--I thought I had to have missed something, because it seemed TOO thick. But the recipe is so simple that I just went with it and hoped it would turn out. I figured maybe the juice in the peaches would keep it from being too dry. This is how thick the batter was:

I spooned the batter into a greased muffin tin--the recipe didn't say how many muffins it would make, but I got seven (and they were the perfect size).

I baked mine for 25 minutes; I kept expecting to see the tops turn brown, like I am used to seeing with muffins, but they stayed very white. After 25 minutes, they were just starting to brown, but I was afraid to let them go any longer because I didn't want the bottoms to burn.

I was excited to try one; they looked very different from the texture of muffins I'd seen before. The best way I can describe the texture is like a very thick pancake or a fluffy biscuit. (I'm guessing this is due to the sour cream; I don't normally bake with sour cream, even though I know it's commonly used in baked goods.)

The peach flavor was very mild. I love peaches, so I would have liked to taste it more, but Jerry doesn't like peaches and he still really liked the muffins. You really only get a taste of peach when you bite into the little chunks of peaches. The muffin itself doesn't have much flavor--but it's really good somehow! I just kept thinking of how it reminded me of thick pancakes (pancakes don't have a lot of flavor themselves, but somehow they are so good!).

Overall, I really like this recipe, but I wouldn't say that it's super special in any way. Maybe once I'm done making my peach preserves, I can spread it on the muffins for more peach flavor. Regardless, I think I'll circle back to this recipe at some point--I really like the texture of these!