There’s not many tastier fruits than ripe and juicy nectarines. The ones you can only get in the height of summer.
The other day I thought I had gotten my hands of some of them but unfortunately, they were not the ripe and juicy nectarines I was expecting. And there is not much worse than those unripe and hard nectarines you usually get, when it’s not the height of summer…
Rather then eating them raw I decided to bake with them. I am not sure I had ever baked with nectarines before but saw a receipe for nectarine and blueberry muffins and thought, I can’t really go wrong with that as there’s always the blueberries for flavour that should make the muffin tasty enough, even if the nectarines are rather dissappointing.
And the muffins came out really well! The nectarine flavour was intensified through the baking and when I brought them to a picnic everyone seemed to like them, as they were “…so light” and “…super fruty”.
I think they were even better the next day but they may not last that long, of course.
For 12 muffins you will need
- 1 1/2 cups plain flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup oil (with a neutral taste, such as sunflower oil)
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- grated zest of 1 lemon, and some of it’s juice too
- 1 1/2 cups blueberries
- 2 big nectarines, cut into chunky pieces
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/ 375 degrees F / 190 degrees C and line your muffin tray.
As with pretty much all muffins, the most important thing is not to over mix the dough! It’s always the same idea – mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, mix the wet ones in another then bring them together and fold the fruit in but don’t whisk or stir it, like you would a sponge cake.
So start by combining the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda, using a spoon (or balloon whisk) in a big bowl.
I another bowl mix the eggs with the greek yoghurt, oil, lemon zest and a generous teaspoon’s worth of the lemon juice, using a balloon whisk.
Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ones and combine them with a fork or spoon, until they are just combined enough (you will still see bits of flour but that’s good).
Fold the fruit in – again until just combined – and then add about 1 1/2 tablespoons worth of the mix into each muffin case and bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
Let them cool down on a wire rack completely before tucking in.
