Making memories with blackberry muffins

Food has not always been my ally.

I spent many years fighting with food like it was something to be conquered. Over the past few years I have learned, not only can food heal our bodies, it can nourish our souls. Food can be a powerful tool for passing our morals and values along to our children. Food can teach us where we come from and be a vehicle for creating new memories. Food is part of our collective story.

Every other year, since I was in elementary school, the maternal side of my extended family drives south from the Seattle area and north from California to spend a week together in Oregon. The family members who do the planning have fine-tuned the organizing down to a science. In a family of movers and shakers it is a wonder, and a blessing, that everything runs so smoothly.

The few organizers keep everyone in the loop. They email everyone when it is time to rent the houses we will share and follow up with a list of supply and cooking night assignments. The rest of us happily comply in exchange for a week every two years when we don’t have to be in charge.

Smoothly as the vacation runs, we are a family who tries to keep things fresh and new. This year our assignment list came with a note to plan a breakfast dish for a morning potluck. By the next day the emails started humming. One cousin immediately claimed Yummy Potatoes, a favorite family recipe, a second cousin promised to make breakfast strata, and a third fresh scones. These recipes are all foods we love as a family. We have shared these dishes on Easter and Christmas mornings but never with the entire extended family at the same time.

Early in the emails a very specific request was made for blueberry buckle. The blueberry buckle, or coffee cake, is something my dad often bakes for special occasion breakfasts. Before vacations, or trips to our family cabin, he pre-mixes the dry ingredients making it quick and easy to bake wherever we are staying. The original recipe is straight out of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook — you know it by its red and white gingham cover.

Over the years that recipe has become our family’s favorite to the extent that the book now falls open to the batter crusted page even when one is in search of a different recipe.

Dad likes to experiment in the kitchen. He never makes a recipe the same way twice — a technique I have adopted. After starting with the basic coffee cake ingredients he then rummages around for little bits of this and that to throw into the batter. His go-to secret ingredients include bran cereal, a package of instant oatmeal, any fresh fruits, or a sprinkle of unexpected spice in the streusel (or crumb) topping. He likes to quiz us after our first bites to see if we can guess the extra ingredients.

Unfortunately, my dad wasn’t able to go to the reunion this year but my mom took charge of the buckle. Right before leaving she pulled out the flour-dusted BGH cookbook and prepared the dry ingredients and a double batch of the streusel topping (she says the topping doesn’t cover the entire 9-by-13-inch pan unless you double it), then she nested everything in a baking pan and packed it for the long car ride.

The morning of the potluck, my sister and I were up bright and early with our little ones. We let mom sleep in and got to work making the coffee cake. My sister rinsed blueberries and buttered the pan while I mixed the cake ingredients. After she worked the butter into the pre-mixed streusel topping, I wondered aloud if we should add any extra ingredients. I grabbed a container of oats and we mixed those into the brown sugar mixture before sprinkling it liberally over the cake batter. Half an hour later, the coffee cake perfumed our vacation house with the smells of home.

We missed the company of a number of family members who could not attend this year’s reunion. Throughout the week there were a few wish-you-were-here phone calls made to grandparents and cousins. Even more than by phone, our absent family members were present in our stories and traditions.

We laughed ourselves breathless retelling the story of my great-aunt and grandpa answering the door to confused police officers. Apparently the officers received a call reporting someone setting off fireworks. In truth we had 20 people on the back deck clapping in unison to the Electric Slide. No arrests were made and the story has become a classic.

One evening I felt my grandmother’s presence in the simple act of lining wooden serving bowls with paper towels. The bowls held birthday party snacks the night we celebrated my son and nephew who both turn 2 this month. Our children have become the fourth generation to attend our reunions. I can’t help feeling like they are the really the fifth generation among us. Thanks to the frequent sharing of stories even those of us in the third generation are able to contribute details about our great­grandparents, whom we never met but who remain a part of our traditions.

These coffee cake muffins are my attempt to hold on to vacation a little bit longer. I chose muffins rather than a full coffee cake for the portion control and so half can go in the freezer to be enjoyed later. Keeping with the family tradition, the brown sugar topping comes straight out of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook but the muffins are my own re-invention of two other favorite recipes.

Even as muffins, this recipe is right up my dad’s alley, especially the inclusion of blackberries — which I picked minutes before folding them into the batter. He loves picking berries while enjoying time outdoors. It is not at all unusual for him to go into the woods with a canteen full of water and return with the same canteen full of berries.

Food and traditions are about how we feel, and there is no rule that our family recipes must remain stagnant. Blackberry coffee cake muffins made with whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt may not be the Better Homes and Gardens coffee cake, but they are equally enjoyable — and for me taste and smell just as nostalgic.

Updating family recipes is a way for me to tell my children where I have come from and what I value. It also makes new memories for them to cherish later.

Blackberry coffee cake muffins

21/2 cups whole wheat flour (make sure it is fresh)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt

1/2 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup grapeseed oil (may substitute canola oil)

11/2 cups fresh blackberries, roughly chopped

Streusel topping

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Single serving muffins inspired by my family’s favorite coffee cake. Bake a batch for a lazy morning breakfast or to share at a special occasion brunch. Also wonderful with fresh blueberries. Streusel topping from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Place your oven rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners or wiping with a thin coating of oil.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer): beat eggs and sugar on low/medium speed until they become light in color and double in volume. Continue mixing on low speed while adding the yogurt, milk and oil.

Gently mix in the dry ingredients adding 1/3 of mixture at a time. Mix just enough for incorporate the dry into the liquid.

Use a wooden spoon or silicon spatula, and light hand, to fold the blackberries into the muffin batter. Fold the batter over three to five times, just enough to distribute the fruit throughout the batter.?

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon for the topping. Use a fork or your fingers to work the butter into the mixture until it becomes the texture of wet sand.

Portion the batter into the prepared muffin cups so they are approximately 2/3 full — a scant 1/4 cup of batter. Sprinkle the streusel mixture over the muffin tops.

Place the pans into the preheated oven to bake 17 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Let the muffins cool completely before serving. Store any leftover muffins in an airtight container.

Prep time: 20 minutes. Cooking time: 17 to 20 minutes.

Makes 24 muffins.

Approximate nutrition per muffin: 140 calories, 5.7g fat, 158mg sodium, 23g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 12g sugar, 3g protein, Weight Watchers Points Plus 4.