My Morning Chocolate

Today’s guest post comes from Julia Munroe Martin, a writer whose blog, Wordsxo, has become one of my absolute favorite writing blogs.  To get a feel for her style, check out her posts on growing mushrooms and how she developed her love for cooking. 

I love Julia’s knack for storytelling, so I was very happy when she agreed to write about an old bakery that became close to her heart.  And since it’s Blogathon exchange day, I’m over on Wordsxo with a post about using food as a springboard for writing about family. Enjoy! 

When we first got married, my husband and I moved from California to Colorado. We were both students, so we didn’t have a lot of spare money or spare time. Consequently, we didn’t eat out a lot. But we allowed ourselves one splurge a week: a Saturday morning trip to our favorite bakery for wonderful baked goods—all handmade by the proprietor Regina and her adult daughter.

Over two years, we were regulars. Regina got to know us by name and by baked-good preference. For instance, she knew that I rarely like anything very sweet for breakfast so I would tend toward eating something like a ham and cheese or spinach and feta croissant, whereas my husband loved anything sweet, especially the cheese danish and orange-glazed cinnamon rolls. But our absolute favorite—for both of us—were Regina’s blueberry bran muffins!

It was a charming but small bakery with a diverse selection of European-style pastries: scones, danishes, sticky buns, and something new every time we went in. (Not to mention the beautiful wedding cakes—she was renowned far and near for her wedding cakes.) It was always surprising that we could find so many choices in such a small bakery. Only a few tables could fit into the sweet sunny tearoom, and each table had a bright tablecloth and a small vase of flowers picked freshly from Regina’s garden.

But what really made the place special was Regina herself. She loved baking and she loved people, and she always had time to talk. She would come out of the kitchen, wearing slippers of all things—she told us she wore them because her feet hurt (no wonder: she arrived at the bakery at 3 in the morning!). Always smiling, a coffee pot in her hand, flour covering her apron and face and even her slippers, Regina always had a story to tell.

We got to know Regina and her daughter pretty well in those two years. Well enough that when Regina made the tough decision to retire for health reasons, and put her bakery up for sale, we briefly contemplated the thought of jumping in and continuing the legacy. But somehow it didn’t fit with our plans: my husband the engineer and me the journalist—but more importantly we knew we could never fill her slippers.

As the weeks stretched into months, and no buyer came forward, Regina finally decided to simply close the doors to the bakery. It was a difficult for her, I know, to walk away from her life’s passion, but she didn’t feel she had any choice. On the final Saturday, we attended a small casual goodbye party with a few of the other loyal customers, and we all lamented the fact that there wasn’t another bakery in town that could hold a candle to Regina’s.

At that party, with the urging of her customers, Regina promised to share her recipes with her loyal customers. It was in the spirit of Regina’s generosity that she would choose to give away the recipes that had made her business so beloved. So we weren’t a bit surprised but so delighted when, several months later, we received a small but complete printing of Regina’s Bakery recipes—including our very favorite blueberry bran muffins! Every time we make those muffins it takes us back to those Saturday mornings of our student days: a bright table cloth, a little vase of flowers, the sound of Regina’s shuffling slippers, and of course a delightful baked treat.

Blueberry Bran Muffins (Please note: this recipe was developed for high-altitude baking!)

1 cup bran
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour (all white or half whole wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I always use fresh or it makes the muffins a little soggy)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix water and bran in a medium bowl. Then to that mixture, add the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt and mix with a spoon (do not use an electric mixer.

Add and barely fold in the eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter—until just barely moistened. Be careful not to over mix or the muffins will turn out too heavy.

Fold in blueberries and finish mixing until dry ingredients are just moistened.

Grease muffin tins or use cupcake liners; fill almost to overflowing for large muffins (makes 12) or just under rim for smaller muffins (makes 18).

Bake 20-25 minutes for large and 15-20 minutes for small muffins. Bake until tops are lightly browned.

Julia Munroe Martin lives in an old house on the coast of Maine. She has a degree in journalism and works as a business and technical freelance writer in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. She also writes fiction and creative nonfiction and a blog at www.wordsxo.com (which roughly translated means “love of words”). She started her blog to get herself writing everyday and as an experiment to see if she liked it–which she does, especially the part where she meets new writers like Jen!