It is finally that time of the year: summer has gone, leaves are becoming yellow and red, and we start using again the rouge noir nail polish, as our skin become paler and paler.

The warm in the house is on and I love the yellow lights that surround the kitchen, on late afternoons, when finally back from work, you turn on the oven again and you are ready to cook and bake the most wonderful indulgence that, comes rain or comes shine, must be cozy enough to keep you with enough calories to face the cold outside.

Last night, since my fiancé is away for the weekend, I lost myself searching on amazon where I could buy a fire place to put in our new home – this is how I adore the feeling of cozy and warmth that just Autumn can give. And then cozy jumpers that can actually be showed off as we can use those like and instead of coats – wanna talk about the perfect cozy uniform that Stella McCartney created and showed in last season show?Or the amazing jumpers that Miss Phoebe created so far and just want you to move straight to the mountain and light a fire, wile popping pop corn and chestnuts?

My little brother, who is now 14 years old, as the school starts, every year, he ask me for this muffins: he is just crazy about those.

I must say that everyone needs to find a proper recipe that can be handed down and preserved through generations and I think i totally found the mine one. My love for muffins came since when I was living in NYC: back to the years, I was walking down Gramercy Park, all through Irving Place and I was used to stop at this super cozy coffee shop – the Irving Farm – to buy orange juice and cranberry muffin to go, as I was running to work – call me Miss Always Late.

Soon, I realized that those little sweets were just perfect: perfect amount of butter, perfect balance of sugar. So each detail so perfect that I could just fix my alarm 10 minutes before each morning to taste with calm that beauty of flavor.

 

The years went by and only thing I could do was trying to re bake that perfection: i had to try several recipes before finding this one that satisfy so well either my brother, either my fiancé, either my best friends.

And it’s like a tradition so far: I turn on the oven again – back to summer hotness – just to inaugurate with my muffins.

NB: you must choose – and I want to underline this – YOUR butter. And stick with tag, after ou found the best one that suits your taste the better. As well for the flour: must be bio, coming from genuine source. Ingredients are all, when you cook and bake. Do not go cheap on this!

This is my chocolate version – I used a special cocoa powder I got in Arles this past summer, violette chocolate. But you can substitute it with vanilla and add fruits to…so let the fantasy rules!

The Harvest Muffins