The Sunday Breakfast Tradition

Long before we lived here at Wildflower, my husband and I traveled the world. We lived in Canada, in Vienna, and passed through a number of other places. Most of them places I was unable to work as an American. So we lived on one income, an academic’s income from post docs. It wasn’t always easy especially when we were doing it… It was well into  the 2000s. Dr. Farmer Moomin, is and was well respected in his field. He worked hard and we got by because of how darn good even incredible he is at what he chooses to do. Bush Jr. had just gutted American science, and many of our best and brightest left this country and never looked back. University funding was no longer subsidized by the government as it was when my parents were young. We couldn’t have survived in this country. So when Dr. Farmer Moomin got a job in Canada… We went. Then we went to Vienna. In Vienna, we started a tradition we call Sunday Brunch. We had to be very careful what we spent. So, we bagan making a lot more for ourselves. One of the highlights of our week was eating out on Saturday night (the only night a week we ate out,) and Sunday Brunch.

We would make bacon, and some other delicious thing. These brunches were the highlight and sometimes the greatest or even only joy of our week. Being an immigrant in a foreign place… It isn’t an easy thing. I have been one. I understand completely what it entails. We delighted ourselves in bacon and various baked breakfast goods weekly for years. When we returned, we had a situation with my sudden onset of strange allergies. It created issues our traditions screeched to a halt and we moved out to the middle of nowhere to do food ourselves. So I am still at home. Doing food, growing it, maintaining the home. Today this is not a hardship in large part because we traveled when we were young in support of my husband’s career. But as the tradition meant so much to us… And we are still the two crazy kids that popped the dog in the car along with the cockatoo and the cats, and drove cross country to Canada, and then left for Vienna within weeks of our wedding…. Well, I really wanted to bring the tradition back. It meant so much to us once I think it can again. So, yesterday I made some beautiful raspberry spice muffins.

Part of what gave our brunch tradition meaning was that we were producing our food at home together. It also helped to create a weekly routine. It also created over time a familiar moment in a place where the familiar was a million miles and an ocean away. When all else falls to the wayside creating and holding onto some core foundational pieces of a routine can be everything.

Living again back in the US, about to watch everything get defunded…. It’s scary, but it is what people voted for. Now more than ever I am grateful to be on a small farm doing food myself. Perhaps the allergies that brought me here were a blessing. When you deport the farm labor… Not enough food makes it to store shelves. I fear what is about to happen to the already high price of eggs and everything else…. Coming back to the familiar has also up ended our old routines Covid, also was not helpful with their maintenance… With what is coming, I think we are stronger when we maintain them. So I have decided to resurrect sunday brunch. When bad things happen, a routine offering some little bright spot to life can be so important to self care and to surviving a dark or difficult time.

You will need 2 bowls one for flour and one for liquids, a large wooden mixing spoon a knife and cutting board to cut up berries, a muffin tin and muffin paper if you want it, and a timer.

Set up your muffin tray by  popping muffin wrappers in each muffin hole or grease the sides and the bottom of each muffin hole so they don’t stick to the pan.

 Mill your flour.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Next wash then chop your berries to a size you are happy with so you can add them to your batter as soon as it is mixed. This step is optional skip if you wish and just add whole berries.

Into your liquids bowl:
6 tablespoons water (omit if using eggs) or 2 eggs
1/4 cup of fresh goat’s milk, cow milk raw or not raw, almond milk or soy milk (if choosing raw milk do your homework! Know your vendor and his vetting practices as you should only be consuming milk that is safe for human consumption, not all cow illnesses are visible some are only caught through blood work. Make sure your vendor is doing all due diligence with exceptionally and extremely high regularity. Many vendors of raw milk are excellent. Some…. Not so much so be cautious and careful if using raw milk for this recipe or in general.)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use the vanilla I make myself in a large mother jar, but store bought is fine.)
3/4 cup maple sugar or standard white sugar (maple is better for diabetics and those at risk of developing diabetes. No sugar is perfectly safe for diabetics! It is also the solution early settlers used when taxes on sugar coming from England was too high in early New England. Maple sugar offers a flavor and a warm coziness to these muffins that standard white just doesn’t. But either one works as a sweetener.)
Mix these together well.

In your dry stuff bowl:
2 and 3/4- 3 cups of self ground soft white wheat flour (or 2 cups standard white store purchased flour.)
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 liberal tablespoons of egg substitute (omit if using eggs in with the wet ingredients.)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
Mix your dry ingredients gradually into your wet ingredients.

Berries:
1-1 and a 1/2 cups of fresh berries

Optional ingredients for garnish topping:
Vanilla sugar (Vanilla sugar is made by dehydrating a vanilla bean or several until they crunch when broken and kinda snap as they are so dry. Next step is to pulverize them in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle until they are powder. Mix the powder into some sugar, I like about half a cup or soish per vanilla bean.) Dehydrating vanilla beans can take time…. Serious time. But vanilla sugar should stay good for several months and you probably won’t use it all on just this project. You can also sometimes find it for purchase or order in different places.

Mix your wet and dry ingredients together well, then add in the berries. I used raspberries, but you could do black berries, blue berries, strawberries, or even peaches or pears or apples, or banana, or really any fruit that does well baked.  Mix the berries in to the batter.

Using your wooden mixing spoon or a different spoon if prefered, load each muffin hole of your muffin tin with batter 2 thirds of the way full. Sprinkle the top of each as of yet unbaked muffin with vanilla sugar. Bake at 400 for 30-35ish minutes. Allow to cool for several minutes. Then enjoy.

Creating food on a homestead is a whole production. Especially to do it as naturally and free of garbage as possible. It involves a lot of care for where you obtain your ingredients. A lot of effort in creating many of your food products. For many this is too much headache in our modern world. Most don’t have time for all that is involved. Which is why I also write recipes in a way that makes them more accessible for those with lives that are more modern.

I hope you enjoy these muffins.
We certainly did.
Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm