Fruit Explosion Muffins

I grew up in the west-end of Toronto.  When I was still quite young, my grand-mother (Baba) moved from Saskatoon to Toronto to be near her two children and four grand-children. She moved to an adorable house on Durie street, which was located in the very popular area called Bloor West Village.

It’s one of those neighborhoods that you love to stroll. When I was a child, there were no big businesses located there, just shop upon shop of your small business owner, with their own unique style of goods to sell.  The old movie theatre that had terrible sound, but was a favorite movie hall, the fresh pasta place, the bakeries with the warm ham and cheese croissants, the coffee houses …… and the list goes on.

There were two places I always visited, and they were very different from one another.  One is a bakery that is still in business.  They made the best ham and cheese croissants.  I always made sure to get there early in case they sold out.  They were still warm and the cheese was gooey and on those cold winter mornings, nothing could warm me up faster.

The other was a chain store that sold bakery style muffins.  Like the kind of muffins that are the size of your head.  On the day my ham and cheese croissant was sold out, I went into the muffin shop and ordered a big-as-my-head chocolate chip muffin. I loved that muffin.  I also loved the ignorance I then had, not realizing how many calories were in a big-as-my-head muffin that was made in not the healthiest way.  Ignorance is bliss.

To be honest, I am not a big muffin/pancake/waffle person.  But I do like all of afore-mentioned items once in awhile if they’re special, like when I have waffles with coconut syrup from Maui: I’ll never turn that down, or at a brunch, when it’s your job to eat all these items for hours on end.

This muffin recipe is easy and you can put whatever fruit combination you like.  I usually use whatever is in my freezer, which most often is a bag of mixed berries and my own stash of bananas, but you can use whatever berry you like.   I like to make the muffins bakery style like the picture, but if you make them regular size that’s fine too of course.  It makes 6 bakery style muffins and 12 regular size.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups mixed fruit (I usually use mixed frozen fruit: strawberries, blueberries, bananas etc., no need to defrost)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup oil (or replace with natural yogurt)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.   In a separate bowl, mix eggs, sour cream, oil (or yogurt), and vanilla. Add to dry mixture and mix. Add berries and fold gently.  Fill cups of well greased muffin pan.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool ten minutes in pan. Remove muffins and let cool on rack completely.

Makes 6 bakery style muffins or 12 regular muffins.