Tender Whole Wheat Muffins

August got heavy. I don't mean just the heat, though the heat was serious—I mean the weight of the summer had accumulated and by August we were all carrying more of it than we'd expected. The pandemic was not ending the way the spring optimists had said it might. School was doing some version of hybrid that satisfied no one. Hannah was back in her home office for another stretch. Kai was bored and seven-year-olds do not handle boredom with grace.

I took on more cooking as a way of anchoring the days. Something structured and productive that resulted in dinner. Kai helped more because there was more time and I made it more interesting for him—I started calling him the sous-chef, which he found very funny and also took seriously. His knife skills were improving. He could slice an onion with supervision. He understood the difference between low and medium heat after one incident with burnt butter that he found genuinely upsetting.

Made a big batch of bread this week—a simple sourdough starter I'd been nurturing since April finally started behaving consistently. The first few loaves were dense and sad. By now it was making bread I wasn't embarrassed to serve. There's patience involved in bread that I find meditative: the long ferments, the folds, the overnight proof. The loaf doesn't care about the pandemic. It just rises or it doesn't based on whether you did the work correctly.

Caleb texted me a photo of a chair he'd built—actual furniture, not just repair work. I called him immediately. He said he'd been watching videos and just decided to try it. I said bring it over and I'll make dinner. He did. The chair was solid and well-made and he clearly felt good about it. Sometimes that's the whole story.

All that time spent with the sourdough starter — the folds, the overnight proofs, the waiting — had recalibrated something in me about what baking was for. When Caleb came over with his chair and I needed something easy to put on the table alongside dinner, these whole wheat muffins felt right: the same honest ingredients, the same quiet discipline, but without the long timeline. Kai helped measure. He took it seriously, the way he’d learned to take the butter temperature seriously. Some evenings that’s exactly enough.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 18 minutes | Total Time: 28 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey

Instructions

Preheat. Heat oven to 375°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners.
Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly mixed.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, vanilla, and honey until smooth and combined.
Fold together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined — a few streaks of flour are fine. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough.
Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 16—18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are lightly golden.
Cool. Let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Tender Whole Wheat Muffins — Something Simple to Bake When the Days Get Heavy