Ever have a scuffin? If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s the brainchild of Frog Hollow Farm, purveyor of the sweetest stone fruits I’ve sampled. The hybrid concept was new to me until last weekend, when a friend mentioned it while strolling by Frog Hollow Farm Cafe in the City.
Since there were no scuffins to be found at the Ferry Building that day, I took matters into my own hands and baked a batch using a jar of Blenheim apricot jam that was sitting in my pantry.
I’ll admit I was a little disappointed upon removing the scuffins – aka hockey pucks – from the oven. They were flat, dense and unattractive. So I was pleasantly surprised when I bit into one and enjoyed the taste and texture. Don’t get me wrong – apricot jam scuffins are quite dry and crumbly, but they go down easy when served with cold milk or hot coffee.
Recipe adapted from NYT Cooking.
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup flaxseeds
- 6 tablespoons Turbinado sugar, divided
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ⅓ cup vanilla almond milk (see notes)
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- 1 egg
- ½ cup apricot jam
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with 1 tablespoon melted butter.
- In a large bowl, combine the flours, flaxseeds, 4 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. Add remaining 4 tablespoons melted butter and mix with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- In a separate bowl, combine the almond milk, heavy cream and egg; mix well.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until just combined. Transfer one-quarter of the dough to a small bowl and set aside. Divide the remaining dough evenly among the muffin cups.
- Using your fingers, create an indentation in the center of the dough in each cup. Spoon 2 teaspoons of apricot jam in each indentation.
- Squeeze off chunks of reserved dough and distribute evenly over the jam. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let scuffins cool in the pan; then remove from the muffin cups.
