How do you take your Sunday paper?



Fig muffins with cream cheese filling

 Reading the Sunday Times is always an event in our house. So is Sunday coffee and Sunday breakfast not to mention Sunday dinner. I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays. In order to forget about the fact that Monday is just a few hours away, I have been known to spend most of the day in and around the kitchen. We always make an event out of reading the paper. Some Sundays are more like a production with a lot of dishes. Not this Sunday. Today I stuck to an easy muffin and strong hot coffee. How do you take your Sunday paper?

For work and pleasure, I have been playing around with a few cookbooks that are new to my collection- Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck, Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison to name a few. I recently made delicious fig muffins pictured above from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. I highly recommend all of these cookbooks for anyone interested in exploring the world of healthy soul-satisfying food.

My tweak to the recipe is in the filling. I used cream cheese instead of goat cheese because the pickiest eater in our house doesn't care for the flavor and texture of goat cheese. Wonder who that could be? One guess and it's not our dog Cal. These chewy muffins with a dreamy cream-filled center are made with whole wheat flour. They are Sunday morning stunners that taste better than any preservative laced coffee shop bran muffin. Bottom line: easy to make + pair well with the paper & coffee = these fig muffins!

Whole wheat fig muffins with cream cheese filling

Filling:
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
zest from one lemon or lemon
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Muffins:
2 cups whole wheat flour (8 1/2 oz if you like to use a scale)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk or 3/4 cup lowfat milk mixed with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice (at room temp)
1 cup stemmed & chopped dried figs*
3 tablespoons turbinado or granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter/spray a standard size 12-cup muffin pan (or use paper liners to line each muffin cup).

Filling: in a small bowl, combine cream cheese, honey/agave, lemon zest and vanilla and blend with a fork. Set aside.

Muffins: in a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center. Meanwhile in a medium bowl, lightly whisk the eggs to blend. Whisk in the brown sugar and vanilla. Then whisk in olive oil and buttermilk until a smooth cohesive mixture forms, about 30 seconds. Add the egg mixture to the center of the flour mixture, and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined; lumps are okay. Don't overmix. Fold in the dried figs.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup halfway full. Add about a teaspoon of the cream cheese filling to the center of each muffin. Top with the remaining batter almost to the rim of each muffin cup. Sprinkle each muffin generously with sugar.

Bake until the edges start to brown and the tops spring back when gently pressed, about 10-12 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in pan before gently twisting the muffins out of the pan. Cool completely on a wire rack or eat warm (my preference).

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for one day or in the refrigerator up to two days. They freeze well too.

*Note: the dried figs could be replaced with dried apricots, dried cherries or dried cranberries.

Makes 12 muffins
Recipe slightly altered from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals