Tates Bake Shop Double Berry Crumb Muffins and a Bonus Tea Loaf

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What a wild week it's been with my hectic work schedule!  Next Tuesday, I begin my vacation until January 3rd.  Today, I managed to get the tree and house decorated.   I was feeling a time crunch to write a review for Artisan Bakeware and for Tate's Bake Shop.   Last week, I received a lovely small unglazed loaf pan from Artisan Bakeware.

I have only a few pieces of stoneware, and I have to say that I liked the feel of this American hand-painted baking product.

Right after Thanksgiving, I received this lovely package in the mail, from Tate's Bakery:

...and I also received:

 ...a copy of Tate's Bake Shop owner, Kathleen King's, cookbook.   I bookmarked a dozen recipes.  It's a lovely cookbook, indeed. 

Alas, the cookies are all gone and I didn't have time to blog my own giveaway as quickly as I had hoped (as so many of my fellow food bloggers have).  I ate two each of the chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin and macadamia nut (in a three-day period).  I'm going to talk more about which cookies we liked best when I do post a Tates Bake Shop giveaway (my next post, I promise) and that is when I will give one lucky reader a chance to win the same cookie package, and cookbook,  for your  own home. Today, I want to be fair to Artisan Bakeware, by focusing on reviewing how their product worked .  Fortunately, I found a recipe for Double Berry Crumb Muffins on page 14 of the Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook.  I decided to double the recipe so that I could bake a "tea loaf".

Since I live in California, we grown our own olallieberries in our backyard.  I also buy extra from a local farm stand, and then freeze them in 2 cup increments.  Chinese take-out style boxes are perfect for this:

 I do a quick thaw with running water...

(There will be a printable recipe at the bottom of this post.) 

 Here are the dry ingredients:  unbleached flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  I reserved some of the flour and sprinkled them over the berries.  I do this so that the berries won't sink to the bottom of each muffin.

 

Melt 1/2 cup of butter.  (You see two sticks, because I'm doubling the recipe.)

The streusel has chopped pecans, brown sugar, flour, butter and fresh orange zest.  Set that aside.

The wet ingredients are milk, eggs and the melted butter.  Whisk them together, and add to the dry ingredients.

 Mix the wet and dry just until combined; don't over mix.  Gently fold the berries in.  You can grease a muffin tin, but I decided to use muffin liners. This is my large muffin tin, which makes six at a time.

 Top each muffin with the streusel. NOTE: Next time, I'll add double the amount of streusel.

Bake at 400F for 20-24 minutes.  My muffins were extra-large, so they took a little extra time.  A tip I learned from King Arthur Flour-- tip the muffins to one side so that they don't become soggy on the bottom.  After a few minutes, move them to a cooling rack.

 ... and here's the muffin recipe as a sweet loaf of goodness.

Taking a deep breath, I rotated the pan and the loaf slipped right out!  For the final test, I wondered how easy this unglazed loaf pan would be to clean...

Effortless!  Just like new!

POTTERY REVIEW:  I strive  to be respectful to my planet, my country and my health.  Emmerson Creek Pottery is American made. Their products are lead-free and they're hand-painted.  This loaf pan retails for $11.00 on their website.  My wish list-- and that means I'd love to own more of this product-- would be the larger loaf pan, that retails for $19.00.  If wishes were fishes, I'd want the unglazed deep dish pizza pan, retail price $23.00.  I spent some time perusing their website, and I took a particular liking to their lavender hand painted design.  I think that any of these pieces would make a beautiful heirloom that will last for many years to come.

Recipe Review:  I love to bake homemade muffins for breakfast.  I was able to make this batter in 15 minutes, plus take photographs.  This recipe is easy enough for beginner bakers.   The texture of the muffins were moist and very tender.  There were a LOT of berries, so decrease the amount if you prefer more muffin to berry ratio.  My husband adores berries, so he was very happy with the way I made them.  The cinnamon is very subtle, and the sweetness was just right.  I would definitely layer more streusel on top (which explains why I had some leftover), and maybe chop my pecans not quite as small as I did this time (I cheated and used a mini-chopper).  I loved the orange zest, which complimented the cinnamon and berries perfectly.  The "tea loaf" was equally moist.  On a five star rating, this earned a 4 1/2 by my husband, son and me.  I ate one, thank you very much. How's that for willpower?  The boys will devour the rest, no doubt.

I'm baking another Tate's Bake Shop recipe, as I type this post.  I will queue that post, next, and tell you how you could win an assortment of Tate's Bake Shop Cookies and a cookbook of your own.  So, if you didn't win on the multitude of other bloggers who had this giveaway-- maybe this is your lucky chance!

Here's the recipe, and  I hope you try these!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.