"Running pauses the world around me"

After many, many months off from running due to injury, I have finally reached the point where I can again run every other day for 45 minutes to an hour without a walking break and actually enjoy it. It couldn’t have come at a better time, as the mental health benefits from being able to do even that much running have been very useful for me.

I saw a good take on running as an exercise in mindfulness in a short essay by Holly Robinson in the April 2020 issue of Real Simple magazine. Robinson came to running late, starting a Couch to 5K program (sorta like the Women's Four Miler Training Program here in town) when she was 59. From there, she graduated to a 10K, which was an achievement but not as important as her discovery that “running pauses the world around me.” That’s in stark contrast to our usual state of being on autopilot, or “nonbeing.” But

being happens [only] during those rare times when we’re fully conscious of our surroundings and feel connected to them. We’re all guilty of too many hours of nonbeing. Various tasks fracture our time, tech fills our heads with noise, and we stop paying attention to anything beyond ourselves. When I run, I have to pay attention. Running lets me be completely in the world, noticing small details, experiencing the joy of moving through snowflakes so big, it’s like floating through lace.

All of that rings true to me, as does her additional observation that running is also the “best salve for emotional turmoil,” which I’ve experienced in spades over the past eight months. There are many other ways to take a pause—such as meditating, doing yoga, even cooking if you do it mindfully—but running is the surest way for me. Who’d have thought there could be so much wisdom in Mom’s otherwise light john reading?

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I threw these muffins together in 20 minutes after dinner last night using ingredients we always have on hand. I let the muffins cool for 5 minutes, then removed them from the tin and Mom and Cassie snarfed two each. Brad and I let them cool until the break between the Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds, another 10 minutes or so, then we snarfed two each. I think that was a record for a batch of muffins in our house. Which tells you everything you need to know about how good these muffins are. (I had another one at room temperature this morning and it was just as good, though Mom and Cass both like them better warm.) 

Cocoa-Nut Muffins 1.5

Adapted from Paige Vandegrift via For Love of the Table (adapted, in turn, from Morning Food from Café Beaujolais (1989) by Margaret S. Fox and John B. Bear)

Time: 40 minutes (20 minutes active)

Version 1.5 streamlines the recipe by making it all in one bowl.

2 large eggs (~57 grams each still in the shell)
240 grams (1 cup) plain yogurt or buttermilk or kefir

150 grams (¾ cup) light brown sugar

105 grams (½ cup) olive oil

1 teaspoon (5 grams) vanilla extract

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (for gluten-free only; see variation below)

130 grams (~1 cup + 1 tablespoon) whole grain spelt flour or white or regular whole wheat flour

120 grams (1 cup) all-purpose flour

28 grams (⅓ cup) Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I used Trader Joe's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder)

113 grams (⅔ cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

75 grams (¾ cup) walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

coarse sugar such as turbinado, for sprinkling (optional)

    1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 375 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

    2. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk to break them up. Add the dairy, sugar, oil, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth.

    3. Sprinkle over the espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (and xantham, if using), and whisk until smooth.

    4. Add the flour(s), cocoa powder, chips, and walnuts. Using a silicone spatula, fold everything together gently until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Don’t overmix to avoid tough muffins. (You can combine everything more thoroughly if you're using a gluten-free flour blend.)

    5. Scoop the batter into the muffin tin. A rounded #16 scoop (¼ cup) works well for this job. There should be a little more than 85 grams of batter in each well, which will look quite full. Sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar for some extra crunch, if desired. 

    6. Bake until the muffins are springy and resilient when the center is gently pressed and a tooth pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18 to 20 minutes. Don’t be thrown off and overbake the muffins if your tooth pick hits an oozy chocolate chip; try the tooth pick somewhere else.

    7. Let cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a cooling rack. Makes 12 muffins that should keep for at least a few days in an airtight container on the ledge or in the fridge.

Gluten-Free Variation
Substitute 250 grams (~2 cups + 1 tablespoon) UaKS Gluten-Free Flour Blend for the all-purpose and spelt flours. Mix in ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum in step 3.