Peach Muffins — The World Is Sweet If You Let It Be

August. The hottest month. The construction site is a kiln and my back is a constant editorial on the subject of aging. I'm fifty and I feel fifty in every vertebra, every disc, every nerve that fires down my left leg at random intervals like a broken doorbell. The crew is young. They drink water and sweat it out and keep going. I drink water and sweat it out and think about sitting down but don't because foremen don't sit and Hensleys don't quit and the house needs to be framed by Friday.

Amber is deep in her ER externship. She calls every few days with stories that are simultaneously horrifying and inspiring. A man who came in with a nail through his hand (carpenter, job site, no gloves — I winced through the entire story because I know that job site). A woman who had a heart attack at the Walmart and was revived by the Walmart greeter, who happened to be a retired paramedic. A teenager who overdosed on pills and was saved by Narcan and cried when he woke up because he hadn't wanted to wake up. Amber tells these stories with clinical precision and human tenderness and I listen and I think: she is going to save people. My daughter. The first Hensley to go to college. She's going to save people for a living.

I want to cook something happy this week. Something that doesn't carry weight. Something that's just food, just flavor, just the simple pleasure of eating something good. So: peach cobbler. Because peaches are in season and cobbler is the food of happiness, the food you make when you want to remember that the world is sweet.

Slice four cups of ripe peaches. Toss with a half cup of sugar, a tablespoon of cornstarch, a squeeze of lemon, a pinch of cinnamon. Pour into a baking dish. The batter: same as the blackberry cobbler from last year — one cup flour, one cup sugar, one cup milk, a third cup melted butter, baking powder, salt. Pour over the peaches. Bake at 350 for forty-five minutes. The batter rises and the peaches sink and bubble and the top turns golden and the kitchen smells like a promise that August is keeping.

I ate cobbler on the back porch in the evening when the heat finally broke and the fireflies came out and the yard was quiet. Connie sat beside me with her own bowl. The fireflies blinked. The cobbler was warm. The peaches were sweet. For thirty minutes, nothing was wrong. For thirty minutes, the world was just sugar and crust and a woman beside me and a boy somewhere in Georgia getting strong. Thirty minutes of peace. I'll take it.

The cobbler got me through that Friday evening, but I had peaches left over—three more sitting on the counter, just past perfect, the kind that bruise if you look at them wrong. I wasn’t ready to be done with them. Something about working with peaches felt like the only honest thing I could do after a week of concrete and rebar and Amber’s ER stories. So Saturday morning, before Connie was up, I made muffins. Same fruit, different form—a little quieter, a little more breakfast-shaped, something you could wrap in a paper towel and eat standing at the counter before the day asks anything of you.

Peach Muffins

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 37 min | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh peaches, peeled and diced (about 2 medium peaches)
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar (for topping)

Instructions

1. Preheat. Heat oven to 400°F. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt until evenly combined.
3. Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla until smooth.
4. Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until the flour disappears—a few lumps are fine. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough.
5. Fold in peaches. Gently fold in the diced peaches with a spatula, distributing them evenly through the batter.
6. Fill and top. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Sprinkle the tops lightly with the remaining tablespoon of sugar for a little crunch.
7. Bake. Bake for 20—22 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Cool. Let muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Best eaten warm, the same morning, with coffee or without.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 195 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Carbs: 31g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 165mg