Berries for Sal

A bug has been going around my office.

I have been feeling it a little bit too but I thought I would be nice and bring some baked treats for people to have with coffee this AM. Unfortunately, Sara already had the idea to bring in doughnut holes from Sarah Jane's bakery so no one really wants a muffin.

That's cool, I had to do SOMEthing with my blackberries anyway.

Cardamom Muffins with Blackberries and Almond - Makes 12

Sift together in your dry ingredient bowl:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
roughly a teaspoon of freshly ground green cardamom pods

Whisk together in your wet ingredient bowl:
2 whole large eggs
1 cup milk
between 4-6 tablespoons of melted butter depending on WHEN you will be eating these. If you plan to serve them right out of the oven, you can use just 4 tablespoons of butter or vegetable oil. If you plan to serve them the day after, add an additional two tablespoons to ensure they won't be dry.
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons of sour cream (optional)

In two shifts, add wet ingredients to dry ingredients being VERY CAREFUL to not overmix. Muffins will be tough, dry, and "tunneled" if you try to beat the batter until it's smooth. Muffin batter should be a little lumpy.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and fill muffin cups a little less than 2/3 full of batter. Place about a tablespoon of roughly chopped fresh blackberries (or whatever you have - and you can leave them whole, depending on the size of the berry), in the middle of the cup and then cover with an additional spoonful of batter. If you add berries to the batter in the way you would add chocolate chips to cookie dough, you will end up with greyish muffins. Truly unappetizing.

Sprinkle the very top of the muffin with raw slivered almonds and cardamom sugar.

Bake about 25 minutes. Take an Airborne.