Traditional Old Fashioned Homestead Muffins, Wildflower Style!

Trapped like the rest of you due to the situation with the Corona Virus, I have become trail cook so to speak. We homestead folk, like the rest of you are trying as hard as we can not to leave Wildflower, for the moment. I send out my husband type 0 blood, falls in all the low risk categories while I myself fall in most of them... I do have asthma.  I am not playing with this thing that's out there as a result.My goal is to keep us all here as much  as possible except for by weekly shopping trips for cleaning supplies and self care, and food. I also find, we wake up hungry due to the stress from the situation. I am trying to keep us well fed and in some semblance of decency with us at home as we are right now. The struggle is real! Homesteading, can be filthy dirty business... It can also be delicious.

You aren't alone. I am worrying about my family as well. My in laws got stuck in Turkey briefly, but Finland, has since got them home and quarantined. My mum, remains out of state without access to media and doesn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation, my dad, is at his home in total isolation with his girlfriend..... And my sister fled NYC, to head to the family's beach house in what still qualifies as the middle of winter for a New Englander, because few people will be down the cape as we say, in the winter at a time like this. I worry most about my mum, but for a while I was bugged out about my sister.  Now that most are at least where they are safest, I can breathe a little.

The days pass slowly. We watch too much tv, read a lot, listen to music as I clean up constantly and endlessly seem to be at work in the kitchen passing the time. This morning I got up and produced the most incredible muffins of all time. I thought you might want to share some of the wholesome treats we are cooking up here Wildflower Style, while you like us, sit in worry and confusion. At least you won't be hungry too.

A few things to note about the way I cook. I am allergic to dairy and eggs. So most of my baking tends to be vegetarian to vegan. These muffins are vegan. No animal products. You can also substitute 2 eggs where I put down the ingredients 2 table spoons egg substitute and 6 table spoons of water. Or you could try a homestead hack that I have also been known to do, but this  only works if you DO NOT have high cholesterol. If you do, stay away from this one. rather than water and egg substitute or 2 regular sized chicken eggs, you could go with 1 goose egg, or 1 duck egg. I use almond milk but soy works or rice milk works just as well as does any denomination of standard cow or goat milk.

Start  with the "wet" ingedients.

1 cup Shortening
1/2 table spoon himalayan salt
3/4 cup maple sugar
2 table spoons maple syrup in a quarter cup, finish off quarter cup with milk.
1/2 cup additional milk
2 table spoons egg substitute and 6 table spoons of water.
1 table  spoon vanilla extract
1 table spoon baking powder.

Mix together well. Next up is adding the dries.

2 cups and 2 table spoons organic whole wheat flour
1/2 cup organic all purpose flour
1/4 cup Chia Seeds
*Some ingredient to mix in. Today we used chocolate chips, but just as often I use blue berries, black berries, small chopped apple, pear, or mulberries, etc...

Mix the dry flour and chia seeds into the wet ingredients. Get out a muffin tin, make sure the tin is greased, fill up each muffin indentation with fresh muffin batter!

In a small bowl Mix

1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, with 2 liberal table spoons of maple sugar.

Use the small bowl mixture, to garnish the top of the muffins before sticking them in the oven to bake. Bake for 20ish-25ish minutes.... Take them out. Remember to not be like me. Turn off the oven. Put them on the counter to cool, then eat them! So yummy and so deeply inspired by old fashioned traditional New England Homesteading. My recipe, made me 6 giant whopping muffins. We have eaten three, tomorrow we will have the rest with bacon and some kind of fruit. Or perhaps I will do some goose eggs in the cast iron frying pan... It really all depends on my mood.

Why I love these muffins is super simple. First reason is, with chia seeds and whole wheat flour they are high in fiber. And as we are working with maple sugar, these should not be particularly bad for pre-diabetics. I also love them because they are vegan. Another reason I absolutely adore this recipe, is that it is designed around my allergy needs. I love too that it is easy to substitute different eggs and egg substiute to be as homestead hardcore as you like or as allergy kind as you like. Lastly, I love maple. I am a New England girl at heart. I was born here, raised here, and at one time in history this is exactly how it would be done. Why maple sugar rather than regular white sugar? Several reasons. The first being, it is kinder to those of us staring possible diabetes one day in the face, and the other reasons include the wonderful taste of New England, my home. The last reason.... And the largest reason for this being based in historical New England cooking, is quite simply... "The tariffs from England are Too Damn High!" Today, we pay no tariffs or taxes in ridiculous sums to the British crown.... But 200some years ago, the Brits taxed us so badly New Englanders, dressed up as native Americans, and held a tea party on a British trade ship that is still discussed over 200 years later, cuz of the high taxes and tariffs on all products coming to this region from Britain, that included Sugar. Fortunately, the settlers learned from the native population, how to use maple syrup and boil it down into sugar. A final reason would be maple sugar and syrup offer more than sweetness, they offer some actual flavor. The smell of these delicious breakfast treats, makes me feel comforted somehow with all that is going on lately.

I hope they comfort you too.
Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm