HEARTSTONE MUFFINS

The Heartstone Inn is located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We have personally never stayed there but have driven by. At an estate sale I found their cookbook and since I love cookbooks from inns and bed and breakfasts, I bought the cookbook for a dollar. I have so many recipes marked in the cookbook and have made a couple of them. 

Before COVID our church offered donuts and coffee in the dinning room between the two services on Sunday morning. As you might have guessed, it was a very busy place in the church between 10:30 and 11:00 every Sunday. Then COVID hit and the Bishop closed all of the United Methodist Churches in Missouri. Now that we are finally back to our pre-COVID Sundays, you hear people asking when are we going to bring back the donuts. Not the coffee, just the donuts. (There has been a pot of coffee available upstairs in the education building for people attending Sunday school classes for quite a while, but only recently has their been coffee available in the "Cafe" outside the Worship Center.)

Back in the fall there was a sign in the Cafe asking for volunteers to bring treats to share between services. I was told no one stepped forward. I offered to bake treats but said someone would have to serve them because I was in Sunday school.  Still no one stepped forward. They did put out a sign-up sheet for serving the coffee so I asked about the treats. Since no one had offered, I decided I would hopefully get the ball rolling and offered to bring mini-muffins which I did yesterday.

Of course the first place I went to search was the cookbook from the Heartstone Inn. There are so many pages marked  and pages that should be marked but this recipe for the Heartstone Muffins was on the opposite page of an applesauce muffin recipe that I had marked. (I did make the Applesauce Muffin for diabetics that I will be sharing later but the Heartstone Muffin was such a big hit I had to share it first.)

I did make a few changes which I noted at the end of the recipe. I printed the recipe as they make it. There personal note on the recipe says that it is the most requested recipe they get. 

You do prepare the batter the day before you want to bake them so the ingredients have time to interact with each other. I ended up making seven dozen  mini-muffins so I don't have as much batter left as I figured I would have. I just didn't have any idea how many I needed to make. If there were any left, it wasn't very many. After the 11 o'clock service the pastors had a Meet & Treat in the Cafe for visitors, etc to get to meet the pastors and learn more about them. They were enjoying them when we left the church.

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 HEARTSTONE MUFFINS

5      cups flour

3      cups sugar

12    oz raisin bran cereal 

1      cup golden raisins 

5      teaspoons baking soda

2      teaspoons salt

1/2   teaspoon allspice

1      teaspoon cinnamon

4      beaten eggs

4      cups buttermilk

1      cup oil

(For best results, prepare the batter the day before baking.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. when ready to bake.

Mix all dry ingredients (first 8 ingredients) together in a BIG bowl.

I had to weigh out 12 - oz of the bran flakes

before I added them.

(I use my big yellow Tupperware bowl.)

Add eggs, buttermilk, and oil making sure all dry ingredients are wet.

Cover and store in the refrigerator.

When ready to bake, remove the container from the refrigerator

 and "pour" into lined muffin cups (3/4 full) and

bake 15 minutes or until brown. 

Dip tops of baked muffins in the melted butter and

then in the sugar-cinnamon mixture

and allow to cool on a wire rack.

(1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon)

"This recipe makes almost a gallon of batter and will keep, covered tightly in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks. Just use as needed. Makes 40 muffins. This is probably our most asked for recipe!" The Heartstone Inn 35 Kings Highway, Eureka Springs, Arkansas 72632

My personal notes: I made mini-muffins without liners. Since the recipe made regular sized muffins, I expect to make at least 80 mini-muffins. The mixture is thick so I used my 1-1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop to measure the batter into the cups. I cooked them for 12-14 minutes. I used bran flakes cereal and then used a 12-ounce box of golden raisins.

I melted about 1/4 cup of butter in the microwave while the muffins were baking and

prepared my space for dipping the muffins as soon as I removed them from the oven.