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Fruit puts red, white and blue in breakfast

Recipe: Ricotta muffins feature strawberries and blueberries

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JUN 9, 2019

This muffin is a great use for fresh summer fruit. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Fresh local fruit is so wonderful in baked goods. I'm always looking for new ways to feature it, especially in quick recipes that don't require much time in the kitchen on warming-to-hot day. That's why I like baking for breakfast or weekend brunch: I'm done long before the temps are unbearable.

This recipe, adapted from "Bake From Scratch: Volume 3," by Brian Hart Hoffman, gives a fruit muffin an intriguing tang by including ricotta cheese. I've used strawberries and blueberries here because that's what I had on hand, but I could see it working just as well with blackberries, cherries or the peaches that are just coming to market.

Note: This makes a lot of batter. I chose to bake 12 extra-large muffins in a regular muffin pan, but you could use two pans to make about 16 regular-size muffins, or put the extra in a mini-muffin pan for snack-size muffins.

Ricotta muffins with fruit
Makes 16 regular or 12 extra-large muffins

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup ricotta cheese (whole-milk or low-fat)
2 large eggs
2/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup canola or other neutral vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup diced fresh strawberries
3/4 cup fresh blueberries, checked for stems, washed and gently dried
Confectioners' sugar, for finishing

Instructions :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the muffin pan(s), either by spraying with cooking spray or lining with paper liners.

Combine in a large bowl the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

These muffins are done, even though they're hardly brown at all.

In a medium bowl or large glass measuring cup, stir together the ricotta and eggs, then add the milk. Stir in the oil and the vanilla extract.

Add the ricotta mixture to the flour mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon or flexible spatula until just combined. Gently fold in the prepared fruit.

Divide the batter among the prepared cups. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes for regular-size muffins or 25 minutes for larger ones.

Note: The muffins do not brown much, if at all, so don't use their color as an indication of doneness.

Remove muffins from oven and allow to cool 10 minutes. Garnish with confectioners' sugar before serving. Store any leftover muffins covered, in the refrigerator. (They reheat well in the microwave.)

Variations:

Substitute 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups peeled diced peaches (pat fruit pieces with a paper towel if the peaches are very ripe) or pitted chopped cherries in place of the berries, and use a combination of 1 teaspoon almond extract and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

For blackberry muffins, use 1-1/4 cups washed fresh berries and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon lemon or lime zest if desired.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

baking recipes gardening Sacramento berries farmers markets summer fruit produce management farm to fork

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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Aug. 18: Pollinators adore scabiosa, aka pincushion flower

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July 28: Naked Ladies put on summer show

July 21: Thank Luther Burbank for these long-lasting beauties (Shasta daisies)

July 14: How to keep hydrangeas happy

July 7: Grow these bright cosmos for bees and butterflies

June 30: Agapanthus adds blue fireworks to the garden

June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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