Mighty Muffins Sally Campbell
Here’s another real food recipe adapted from the repertoire of the late great painter Georgia O’Keeffe. In her earlier years, she spent a lot of time at the family property of her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, in upstate New York, where they had an apple orchard. She painted, preserved and baked with apples “in a kind of apple fever” according to Stieglitz. I recognize that fever when our 3 apple trees are ready for harvest. The thought of all those lovely containers of applesauce in our freezer, apples peeled, diced and rendered down to sauce with only a little water and some cinnamon, is thrilling to me. Abundance! And to be able to actually include homemade applesauce in a recipe is really something. If I don’t have any in the freezer, I just simmer down a few diced apples on the spot, no need to even peel them.
They add a lovely natural sweetness, just like the dates. In these deeply disturbing and intense times, we need to continue to savour life’s sweetness.
Here’s my slightly revised version of Georgia’s Apple Muffins. 1 ½ C whole wheat flour*
½ C rolled oats (soak in the buttermilk while gathering other ingredients)
1 t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ t. nutmeg 2 t. cinnamon
¼ C brown sugar
1 C shredded coconut (optional)
½ C (8) Palestinian dates, pitted & chopped
¼ C pumpkin seeds, lightly roasted (optional) 2 + (depending on size) apples, cored & diced
1 C buttermilk
½ C applesauce
1 egg, slightly beaten
¼ C olive oil
Combine wet and dry ingredients separately, then add all together and stir just until everything is well-mixed.
Bake @ 375 for 20 or so minutes. Makes a dozen delicious muffins. Enjoy!
*Lately I’ve been baking a fair bit with Red Fife heritage whole grain flour which is grown on Vancouver Island and milled at Nootka Rose Milling, in Metchosin. (info@nootkarose.ca) Deluxe.
