Confession: cooking in the summer stresses me out sometimes.  With the abundance of in-season produce comes the pressure to bake all the pies, make jam, pesto, corn salad, gazpacho, watermelon margaritas – the list goes on. It’s straight up fruit and vegetable FOMO.  Julia Turshen recently wrote a wonderful article in The Washington Post about simplifying summer cooking and it really put things into perspective for me. The article talks about how little you have to do to summer produce – it shines on its own. Julia included a fresh crop of simple recipes that I can’t wait to try including garlicky marinated tomatoes, crispy, smoky skillet corn and squash fritters with buttermilk dressing! I decided to try her nectarine corn muffins first because I love a corn muffin and my favorite summer fruit is the nectarine – which I didn’t even know you could bake with! You can make these delicious, tender muffins in one bowl and use any stone fruit you love. I ate three in one sitting and have 0 regrets.

Nectarine Corn Muffins

From Julia Turshen

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup regular buttermilk (I used regular milk)
• 8 ounces chopped nectarines (I used 1 large one)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a size muffin pan with paper liners.

Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl.  Combine the egg, melted butter and buttermilk in a large bowl and mix.

Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the nectarines.

Distribute the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling them to the top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and the toothpick test comes back clean.