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Brown Butter Nectarine Muffins

Corrie Anderson

Food for Comfort 

For me, making food is kind of a neutralizer. Or maybe, normalizer is a better way to say that. In stressful situations it makes me feel like I am doing the following:

a)    being productive

b)    providing something healthy and nourishing for someone

c)    showing my family and friends I love them

If you follow me on Instagram (which you probably do because it is the only place I have passively mentioned this website unless you are my mom or friends with my mom), you’ve probably noticed that Lainee has been extremely ill. Lainee was diagnosed with Evans Syndrome, which is a combination of Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia (immune system attacking her platelets, no platelets means your blood cannot clot and therefore spontaneous bleeding) and Auto Immune Hemolytic Anemia (immune system attacking her red blood cells). After 8 days in the doggie ICU, she was home for about a week only to be admitted again last night. Her red blood cells were down to 10%, her platelets are down a little bit, and she was just plain lethargic. (NOTE: if you ever notice that your dogs gums are a weird super pale pink color, please take them to the vet asap!) The vet says she is probably bleeding into her GI tract, so we are cutting back her steroids a bit to see if that alleviates anything. The risk there is that with the reduction in steroids, we could also see a reduction in platelets. She said we could do a blood transfusion or if we were too emotionally exhausted, we could just wait it out.

UM. What?? Too emotionally exhausted?? To help our baby girl? Really? We knew this would be a rollercoaster and that when we took Lainee home we were not out of the woods. To be honest, I was hoping that meant we’d have to play with her meds, not that we’d be in danger with her red blood cells decreasing and in need of a blood transfusion. To be even more honest, I think in the pit of my stomach I knew we should be open to the possibility of the worst case scenario.

My first instinct in these situations is, how can I fix this? I know I can’t fix this specific situation, not by myself. The next best thing I can do is make food right?

So I made these muffins. I made them with the intention of bringing them to the emergency vet to say thank you, but also maybe as kind of a bribe… You should make these muffins too because they are super delicious.

Healthy Benefits of this recipe:

  • Nectarines: I used Zee Fire nectarines, which have the highest levels of phytonutrients among all stone fruits.

  • Flour: I used a mixture of whole-wheat flour, oat bran, brown rice flour, and a small amount of regular flour to make these muffins a little bit heartier so they stick with you longer. (if you don’t have those ingredients, you can use regular flour, they will be just as delicious!) 

Go make these muffins with any fruit you can find in your fridge or countertop. You could use peaches, strawberries, blueberries, apples and even plums! Take a picture of your creation, post it on instagram, and tag #itsallofit. Make sure you're following me at @corrielanderson! Next step, wake up tomorrow and have a delightful breakfast to kick Monday's butt!!!! 

Brown Butter Nectarine Muffins

Recipe adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Serves: 6 – 8, makes 12 – 18 muffins

Printable version here! 

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 cup milk ( I used buttermilk and a little bit of water)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/4 cup oat bran
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • OR 1 cup all purpose flour if you don't have brown rice flour or oat bran
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 nectarines, chopped into bite sized peices 

Crumble Topping:

  • 2 tablespoons butter, cubed
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 cup oats, brown rice flour, and whole wheat flour 
  • OR 1/2 cup flour 
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • dash of salt 

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat your oven to 375°. Prepare muffin pans by lining them with paper baking cups or greasing them.
  2. Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Shortly after the butter has melted, it will start crackling and little brown bits will appear. Once the butter is browned, remove the pan from heat.
  3. Whisk the egg, egg yolk, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl. Add the brown butter and stir to combine.
  4. In a medium bowl, mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the milk/egg/butter mixture and stir. Slowly add in the nectarines and stir until they are fully incorporated into the mixture. If the mixture is hard to stir, add a little bit more milk or water.  
  5. Distribute the batter evenly among muffin cups. 
  6. Next is the topping!! Combine the butter, coconut oil, sugar, oats, brown rice flour, and wheat bran (OR ½ cup all purpose flour), cinnamon, and a dash of salt. Mix together with your hands until crumbly. Sprinkle topping over muffin batter.
  7. Pop those muffin tins into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. The muffins will brown ever so slightly and should spring back when you tap them in the middle. Suggested cooling time is 10 to 15 minutes, but I’ve never actually waited that long. Enjoy!!