A Perfect Start to the First Morning of Spring - Redbud Muffins - Milk Free Recipe
The Redbud has been one of my favorite trees for years.
It is usually one of the first pops of color in spring and I love the contrast of the pinky purple blossoms that seem to glow against the dark bark of the trunk on cloudy days and when it rains.
In summer, I love the way the heart shaped leaves pile up to filter the sun. You can often find me on my back beneath the trees in the garden watching the light and shadow play of the sunlight and the leaves. In autumn, the ground becomes littered with hundreds of bright yellow hearts, calling to be collected by little hands.
This week I've noticed the redbuds in our garden have started to pop.
Time to head out and forage some flowers for the kitchen.
It was only couple of years ago that I discovered Redbuds were not only beautiful but delicious as well. A member of the legume family, the redbud produces attractive seed pods that have been compared to snow peas. At Trefoil Gardens, we haven't tried the redbud in snow pea form yet.
Usually, we use the blossoms in spring to add a pop of color and flavor to our salads.
It is the first day of spring and we needed a quick recipe for a potluck and my husband found a recipe for a quick bread using redbud blossoms at Southern Forager. It seemed like a perfect way to welcome the season.
I decided to convert the recipe to muffins, because they seem more potluck friendly. The muffins were delicious, so I can only assume it would be yummy in quick bread form too, if you didn't want to make muffins. But come on, who doesn't love muffins?!
If you'd like to try the recipe, and you don't need it to be dairy free, you can combine the ingredients listed at Southern Forager with the last steps of the recipe below to make yummy muffins.
Be forewarned, before using the redbud blossoms you need to remove them from the stem. For the flowers that were still clustered together I just used a pair of scissors to snip the blossoms off. For the flowers that had already released themselves from the cluster, I just made sure they weren't still holding on to any brown bits, those flowers retained more of their pliable stem, but that didn't really effect the end product. This can be a tedious process if you are in a hurry. I recommend sitting down with a nice cup of coffee (or tea), with some nice jazz (or music of choice) and letting it be a zen process instead.
The biggest challenge I faced using this recipe was adapting the ingredients to make it dairy free so our daughter could enjoy it as well.
We've been baking dairy free for years and have become quite adept in just subbing in alternate ingredients to accommodate her dietary needs. The recipes I normally select are not difficult to adjust and generally just call for a substitution of liquid or fat, but this recipe called for sour cream!
In the past, I've simply skipped any baking recipes that call for sour cream or yogurt, and looked for something more easily adaptable, but there aren't really many redbud blossom quick bread recipes floating around. I took a peek at a few other quick bread recipes but the recipes all had add ins like fruit or zucchini. I knew those recipes wouldn't work because my liquid ratio would be off. I have not graduated to the advanced level of baking that would allow be to accurately adjust the recipe to account for those differences!
So I found myself stuck with trying to create a substitute for sour cream. I say this like it's a bad thing but to be honest I enjoy the challenge of trying to successfully adapt a recipe and when it turns out yummy the success is just that much sweeter for the apprehension I had at the start.
I decided to use applesauce to account for the moist but not liquid texture of the sour cream. To bring in a bit of the tangy flavor of the missing sour cream, I added a bit of apple cider vinegar to the coconut milk I was using to sub for the milk. I am pleasantly surprised by the results. It actually turned out really well, so I now have a whole new category of baked good recipes I can consider, which is pretty awesome in my book!
While this recipe goes together rather quickly you will want to take into account the time it will take to remove the redbud blossoms from their stems.
Redbud Muffins - Milk Free
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread melted
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup redbud blossoms (stems removed)
Sugar for sprinkling
Shortening or buttery spread for greasing muffin cups
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
Grease muffin cups using shortening or additional buttery spread
In a small bowl
Combine coconut milk and apple cider vinegar
Set mixture to the side for about 5 minutes
In a medium sized mixing bowl
Combine eggs, honey and sugar
Beat until well blended
Add applesauce, melted butter, vanilla and the coconut milk mixture
Mix well
In a separate bowl
Combine flour, baking powder and salt
Mix well
Add dry ingredient mix to the wet ingredients
Mix until combined
Fold Redbud Blossoms gently into the batter
Distribute the batter into muffin cups filling at least 3/4 of the way
Sprinkle top of muffins lightly with sugar
Bake for 35 minutes or until testing tooth pick comes out clean
Cool for at least 10 minutes
Enjoy!
It is usually one of the first pops of color in spring and I love the contrast of the pinky purple blossoms that seem to glow against the dark bark of the trunk on cloudy days and when it rains.
In summer, I love the way the heart shaped leaves pile up to filter the sun. You can often find me on my back beneath the trees in the garden watching the light and shadow play of the sunlight and the leaves. In autumn, the ground becomes littered with hundreds of bright yellow hearts, calling to be collected by little hands.
This week I've noticed the redbuds in our garden have started to pop.
Time to head out and forage some flowers for the kitchen.
 |
| Gathering Redbud Blossoms |
It was only couple of years ago that I discovered Redbuds were not only beautiful but delicious as well. A member of the legume family, the redbud produces attractive seed pods that have been compared to snow peas. At Trefoil Gardens, we haven't tried the redbud in snow pea form yet.
Usually, we use the blossoms in spring to add a pop of color and flavor to our salads.
It is the first day of spring and we needed a quick recipe for a potluck and my husband found a recipe for a quick bread using redbud blossoms at Southern Forager. It seemed like a perfect way to welcome the season.
I decided to convert the recipe to muffins, because they seem more potluck friendly. The muffins were delicious, so I can only assume it would be yummy in quick bread form too, if you didn't want to make muffins. But come on, who doesn't love muffins?!
If you'd like to try the recipe, and you don't need it to be dairy free, you can combine the ingredients listed at Southern Forager with the last steps of the recipe below to make yummy muffins.
Be forewarned, before using the redbud blossoms you need to remove them from the stem. For the flowers that were still clustered together I just used a pair of scissors to snip the blossoms off. For the flowers that had already released themselves from the cluster, I just made sure they weren't still holding on to any brown bits, those flowers retained more of their pliable stem, but that didn't really effect the end product. This can be a tedious process if you are in a hurry. I recommend sitting down with a nice cup of coffee (or tea), with some nice jazz (or music of choice) and letting it be a zen process instead.
 |
| Redbud Blossoms |
The biggest challenge I faced using this recipe was adapting the ingredients to make it dairy free so our daughter could enjoy it as well.
We've been baking dairy free for years and have become quite adept in just subbing in alternate ingredients to accommodate her dietary needs. The recipes I normally select are not difficult to adjust and generally just call for a substitution of liquid or fat, but this recipe called for sour cream!
In the past, I've simply skipped any baking recipes that call for sour cream or yogurt, and looked for something more easily adaptable, but there aren't really many redbud blossom quick bread recipes floating around. I took a peek at a few other quick bread recipes but the recipes all had add ins like fruit or zucchini. I knew those recipes wouldn't work because my liquid ratio would be off. I have not graduated to the advanced level of baking that would allow be to accurately adjust the recipe to account for those differences!
So I found myself stuck with trying to create a substitute for sour cream. I say this like it's a bad thing but to be honest I enjoy the challenge of trying to successfully adapt a recipe and when it turns out yummy the success is just that much sweeter for the apprehension I had at the start.
I decided to use applesauce to account for the moist but not liquid texture of the sour cream. To bring in a bit of the tangy flavor of the missing sour cream, I added a bit of apple cider vinegar to the coconut milk I was using to sub for the milk. I am pleasantly surprised by the results. It actually turned out really well, so I now have a whole new category of baked good recipes I can consider, which is pretty awesome in my book!
While this recipe goes together rather quickly you will want to take into account the time it will take to remove the redbud blossoms from their stems.
Redbud Muffins - Milk Free
 |
| Yummy Redbud Muffins! |
 |
| Fold the redbud blossoms into the batter |
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread melted
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup redbud blossoms (stems removed)
Sugar for sprinkling
 |
| Redbud Muffin Batter |
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
Grease muffin cups using shortening or additional buttery spread
In a small bowl
Combine coconut milk and apple cider vinegar
Set mixture to the side for about 5 minutes
In a medium sized mixing bowl
Combine eggs, honey and sugar
Beat until well blended
Add applesauce, melted butter, vanilla and the coconut milk mixture
Mix well
 |
| Fill the Muffin Cups |
Combine flour, baking powder and salt
Mix well
Add dry ingredient mix to the wet ingredients
Mix until combined
Fold Redbud Blossoms gently into the batter
Distribute the batter into muffin cups filling at least 3/4 of the way
Sprinkle top of muffins lightly with sugar
Bake for 35 minutes or until testing tooth pick comes out clean
Cool for at least 10 minutes
Enjoy!
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