Food Friday: May Day Muffins

It’s a damp and cool May Day here, but that didn’t stop a herd of nursery schoolers in our town from delivering blooming baskets to unsuspecting neighbors all over town.

But before they delivered their wares, they fueled up with these May Day Muffins (it was our day to bring snack). Apricots and butter, yum.

May Day Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour (I used half all-purpose, half white wheat)

1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup)

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

2 large eggs

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 cups dried apricots, diced

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the over to 375 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with muffin papers.

2. Mix four, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk yogurt and eggs together in a medium bowl. Gently fold the yogurt-egg mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in melted butter. (TAKE NOTE: I think I mixed too much, and my crust was SLIGHTLY tough. Definitely don’t over mix.)

3. Use a large ice cream scoop to divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean, with just a few crumbs. Be careful not to overbake. (25-30 minutes)

4. Let muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

(Easily customized, of course. If you don’t have apricots, make lemon-blueberry muffins, adding 1 teaspoon of lemon zest and 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries. Or orange-cranberry. Or lemon-poppyseed. Or raspberry-almond. Or banana-walnut. You get the idea.)

After snack and basket delivery, it was time for the Maypole.

And on a completely different note, a wiser mom than me saw Henry permanently attached to me this morning, noted my frustration about not being able to walk three feet away from him without fuss, and quietly reminded me, “They won’t always need us. Enjoy it while they do.”  Thank you, Amanda. You are so right.

They also won’t always delight in making crowns of ivy and wearing them. I’ll snuggle up with them while they do.

Happy May Day!