"Just Peachy" Muffins

Unfortunately, I haven't done much baking lately. I did bake banana cupcakes with cream cheese icing a few weeks ago for a party, but they weren't really worth documenting. Although the cupcakes were fine, I was in a rush and used cream cheese frosting from a jar, which I wasn't a big fan of. Once again, homemade is always better.

This week, being peach season in Ontario, I bought a basket of local peaches from the grocery store. Unsurprisingly (since I live alone), I was unable to eat them all before they got really ripe and juicy. This called for something peachy. Being me, the first thing that came to mind was peach muffins. It seems my muffin phase isn't over after all. But who am I kidding? I never really thought it was.

I adapted this recipe from All-Recipes.com, making a few of my own alterations and substitutions here and there to make the muffins a bit more healthy. The results: a moist, peachy muffin with a (strong) hint of cinnamon. (I didn't even alter this part - I was surprised to see that the original recipe called for a whole tbsp of cinnamon).

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2  cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups peeled, chopped peaches (ripe & juicy!)
1 cup mangoes, pureed (I used frozen ones)
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup milk, if needed (I actually didn't measure)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease muffin cups or loaf pan.

Peel and chop peaches. Try to do this over a bowl or measuring cup to catch all the juice!
Using a blender (or food processor), puree about 1 cup of mangoes. Note, I came up with this idea to increase moisture, since I had some frozen mangoes that were nearing a freezer-burned point of no return. I'm sure apple sauce would work well too - I just didn't have any on hand.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, eggs and mango puree (or apple sauce).

Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture. Pour in the wet mixture, and stir until just moistened. Fold in the peaches (the juice will add some moisture to your batter). At this point, I was concerned that my batter was still a bit too thick, so I added a big splash of milk and stirred gently. I think adding another cup of (juicy) peaches might work even better, and would add a more distinct peach flavour to the batter.

Pour batter into muffin cups (the original recipe yield is 16), or 2 loaf pans. I baked one loaf and had enough batter left for 9 good-sized muffins.

Bake at 350F. In my oven, the muffins were ready in about 20 mins and the loaf was ready in about 45 mins. Other ovens may take up to 1 hour for the loaf - my oven always seems to cook things quickly.
Enjoy!