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Last Updated on August 1, 2024 by Jess
A number of years ago, I tried a berry at a farmer’s market. There must have been samples, but the memory is vague. I loved the berry I tried, and told my husband we had to grow them. The following year, we purchased two gooseberry plants. I was so excited! A year later, we had berries. I tried them, and they weren’t at all what I remembered. (In hindsight, I think I had currants at the farmer’s market.) That’s life, right? Maybe it’s just my life. But luckily, I really loved the flavor that gooseberries had. Needless to say, I was grateful for my mishap. Recently, a friend stopped by, asked, what the plant was, and subsequently, what I use them for. Previously, I had only just snacked on them. Once I made a gooseberry gin jam (YUM!). Now I can say with confidence that they make slightly tart and sweet whole wheat gooseberry muffins that are delish!
But what does a gooseberry taste like?
Never had a gooseberry? They are about the size of a large blueberry, but look like a miniature watermelon with the texture of a grape. Typing that just makes me smile. It almost sounds like a description from a Dr. Seuss book, but I think it’s a great description. They can tart like a green grape or sweeter like a red grape. They grow on bushes with some gnarly thorns. I see that as part of the adventure of having them…can I get away without getting pricked?
Anywho…we had a bumper crop this year, and I wanted to do more than freeze them. I wanted to bake. I love the way this recipe turned out. They have texture and beautiful color. The flavor is reminiscent of rhubarb with the sweet tart combination. Don’t have gooseberries on hand? I am certain that blueberries would be a great alternative and can’t wait to give that a try too!
Your Ingredients for Gooseberry Muffins
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1 cup wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ cups gooseberries, cleaned (1 ½ cups if you dig the tart flavor. 1 cup if you want it a little sweeter)
Your steps
If you haven’t yet, nip off the ends on the gooseberries. You only want the berry portion in the muffin. Then, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line a muffin tin. This recipe will result in approximately 12 muffins.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk egg. Add the yogurt, milk, vanilla, and olive oil. Whisk well. After the wet ingredients have combined, pour into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Fold in cleaned gooseberries. Again, you can use one to one and a half cups, depending on your preference of flavor. My family loves tart (think, rhubarb bread and pie), so I add more berries.
Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cooked through. Allow to cool in the tin a few minutes before removing. I think these gooseberry muffins are best served warm with a cup of coffee. 🙂
Gooseberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 – 1 ½ cups gooseberries cleaned (1 ½ cups if you dig the tart flavor. 1 cup if you want it a little sweeter)
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1 cup wheat flour
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- If you haven’t yet, nip off the ends on the gooseberries. You only want the berry portion in the muffin.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line a muffin tin. This recipe will result in approximately 12 muffins.
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk egg. Add the yogurt, milk, vanilla, and olive oil. Whisk well.
- Pour into the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Fold in cleaned gooseberries.
- Again, you can use one to one and a half cups, depending on your preference of flavor.
- Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cooked through.
- Allow to cool in the tin a few minutes before removing.
Hints and Tips
If you opt for all purpose flour rather than whole wheat, you may want to decrease the milk by a ½ tablespoon or so. Whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid than all purpose flour does. If you don’t decrease it, you may have a wetter batter.
Fun fact! Upon further research, I learned that gooseberries were made illegal in the United States in the early 1900’s. They are also in the currant family! No wonder I confused the two 🙂 If you’re interested in the history, check it out here!
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There is no sugar in this recipe? I thought that kind of odd with the tartness of the gooseberries.
Oh my goodness Terry! Thanks for the catch! I can’t believe I missed that. I have modified it.
I hope you give them a try!
I usually freeze my gooseberries to save for later- can i throw them in frozen or do I need to thaw them? Thanks!
I would think frozen would work great! Just like blueberries or raspberries! Let me know how it turns out!
I just made these and they’re absolutely awful. Looked at the recipe over and over to make sure I didn’t mess anything up and I followed exactly. Not sure what went wrong as I was looking forward to these!
Dang 🙁 I am so sorry to hear it didn’t go well! As soon as my berries are ripe, I will go through and double check everything!