Inspired by the fall flavors of Nagano, this muffin combines buckwheat (soba) flour (soba ko, そば粉) with juicy apples for a moist but not-too-sweet (and non-pumpkin-spice) fall breakfast.

I bought my soba flour (why does buckwheat flour sound so weird?) in bulk at Whole Foods in Seattle, but you can also get it from King Arthur Flour or Bob’s Red Mill, which are usually sold in US grocery stores. In Japan, it’s easy to find in most grocery stores. This is a recipe you should be able to make easily in either country.

See notes for Japanese ingredient list and for instructions on how to make cake flour.

Soba Apple Muffins

Adapted from “No. 80: Ham and Cheese Soba Muffin” muffins from She Knows Muffin オリジナル・レシピ集―We Love Muffin!, p. 75.

Yields 12 muffins
Time: 40 minutes
Active: 15 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes

Ingredients

100 g (3.5 oz / 7 TBSP) unsalted butter, softened
60 g (2.1 oz / 1/3 US cup) brown sugar
2 eggs
200 g (7 oz / 2 cups) cake flour*
100 g (3.5 oz / 3/4 cup + 3.75 tsp) soba flour
12 g (3-1/3 tsp) baking powder
140 mL (1/2 cup + 1.5 TBSP) milk
1 medium apple, diced (I like Jonagold or Honeycrisp)

Equipment

-A muffin tin (mafin kata, マフィン型) or silicon muffin cups (mafin kappu, マフィンカップ)

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 180º C (350º F).
2. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and mix well.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder). Alternating milk mixture and dry ingredients into the batter in three parts, gently stir the batter to incorporate. Fold in the diced apple. Do not overbeat.
4. Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Notes

Making cake flour
*170 g all-purpose flour + 30 g corn starch, sifted. See Joy of Baking.

Japanese ingredients

unsalted butter (muen batâ, 無塩バター)
brown sugar (sanontô, 三温糖), brown beet sugar (tensaitô, てんさい糖, 甜菜糖)
egg (tamago, 卵)
cake flour (hakurikiko, 薄力粉)
baking powder (bêkingu paudâ, ベーキングパウダー)
milk: gyûnyû, 牛乳; low-fat milk: teishibônyû, 低脂肪乳; soy milk:tônyû, 豆乳
apple (ringo, リンゴ)
Jonagold (jonagôrudo, ジョナゴールド）