Recipe - Brown Sugar Peach Muffins

Hi guys and gals, Happy Monday! Did you all have nice weekends? We met up with some friends on Friday night, went out for a date on Saturday night, and spent Sunday curled up at home watching the 9/11 ceremony and some movies on TV. A pretty relaxing time overall.

The restaurants we ate at this weekend were magical! On Friday we went to Rice, an adorable little place on Elizabeth Street in Nolita. Our friends introduced us to it awhile back and it's been our standard meeting place ever since. Their food is simple and comforting and you get to choose from about 10 different kinds of rice with your main dish! I got an order of the Spinach Rice Balls: rice and spinach formed into balls, then dipped in breadcrumbs, fried, and covered in a zesty tomato/cumin sauce. If I don't have this dish every so often, I'm liable to have a meltdown, so to say I liked it would be an understatement.  Johnny, who usually gets the Chicken Satay, opted this time for the Chicken Kebabs with Lebanese rice, grilled pita and steamed veggies and he loved it all! Other choices around the table were the Vegetarian Meatballs (I've had these before and they're goooood!), Thai Coconut Curry, Baked Black Beans, etc. I highly recommend Rice, it's perfect for a group of mixed eaters.

Saturday we went to the famed Angelica Kitchen in the East Village. I've heard that celebs frequent this spot a lot, but their menu is what tempted me. Since I've been trying to eat cleaner, healthier food, I love that their ingredients are so fresh and non-processed. They are a vegan restaurant that's been open since 1976 and the server told us that they were originally macrobiotic. Over the years they've phased out some of those principles, but they've kept others (like no soda or ice in their drinks, which Johnny was not too pleased about). The restaurant itself is gorgeous and has lots of character, as does everyone who works there. I was noticing they even have a large communal table where parties of 1 or 2 people can sit and chat with strangers while they eat their meal.

But on to the food...  Oh yes, the food... mmmmm. We started with the Agrarian Salgado appetizer, "Baked rounds of mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and herbed seitan, with a basil-walnut pesto center; topped with dill-tofu sour cream & garnished with piquant marinated kale." Sounds fussy, but it was so tasty! Plus, proceeds of this app go to Friends of the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement - what more can you ask for?

For my main, I had one of the nightly specials, a casserole of beets, mushrooms, collard greens, onion, etc. topped with puffed pastry and served on a carrot coulis. It was every bit as yummy as it sounds! I am going to try to recreate it at some point, so keep on the lookout for that. On the side was an equally dazzling green lentil salad with walnuts and roasted cherry tomatoes in a light vinaigrette. This is the stuff of my food dreams! So simple and so satisfying.

Johnny took my suggestion and ordered the Tempeh Reuben Sandwich with a side of Mashed Potatoes in Brown Rice Gravy. (Bless him, he's such a sport!) He liked the sandwich okay, but the bread was not toasted or grilled, so it was definitely the healthiest version of a Reuben I've ever seen. However, he inhaled those Mashed Potatoes like he was in some sort of contest! I managed to steal one bite and they were pretty freakin' delicious. We will definitely be back to Angelica, I'm dying to try their daily Norimaki, their Dragon Bowl, and any of their daily specials. One of their dessert specials tonight is an Apple Chamomile Kanten Parfait with Maple Tofu Whip. How spectacular does that sound?! 

Anyway, onto the recipe of the day. I am still making my way through the fruit we picked at the farm last weekend, so I decided to make the Brown Sugar Peach Muffins from the Post Punk Kitchen. I'm so glad I did! These were easily the best muffins I have ever made. They were sweet, but not too sweet, crunchy on top, moist inside and the warm chunks of ripe summer peaches were just... divine. Since the recipe is available on-line, I will re-post it here with the substitutions I made. These originally called for spelt flour which makes them gluten-free, but sadly I only had regular flour on hand. Let me know if you make these with spelt and how they turn out! Oh, and I thought the recipe made way too much batter at first, but you can really load up your muffin tins with the batter as they don't rise too much.

What a cute couple!

Brown Sugar Peach Muffins

(From The Post Punk Kitchen with changes)
Makes 12 muffins

2 1/2 cups spelt flour (I used 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
3/4 cup brown sugar, plus a little extra for sprinkling
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup almond milk (I used So Delicious Coconut Milk [not the canned kind])
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chopped peaches (I removed the skin, but can leave them on)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly grease a muffin tin or use muffin liners.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. Make a well in the center and add the applesauce, almond milk, vinegar, canola oil and vanilla. Stir with a wooden spoon until mostly combined. Add the peaches and combine until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Scoop batter into muffin tins, they will hold their shape a little bit if you use an ice cream scoop. The batter should almost fill the entire tin. Sprinkle one or two teaspoons of brown sugar on top of each. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until a toothpick or butter knife inserted through the center comes out clean (mine took 32 minutes). Let cool for a few minutes in the tin then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely, or just flip them up in the tin to cool, as shown above.