The one and only time I rafted down the American River was truly memorable.

It wasn’t just the camaraderie of friends laughing and paddling together in three rafts down the relatively calm part of the river.

It was also the wild blackberry bushes our guide had us maneuver our way to near the shore as we waited for the other rafts to catch up to us.

Truth be told, we were all secretly wishing those other folks would just take their sweet time, because we were as content as can be, reaching over the side of our raft to pluck berries that we devoured voraciously.

Nowadays, I get my blackberries from the farmers market or grocery store. Maybe it’s not as adventurous. But it is convenient, especially as blackberries are abundant even through early fall.

In fact, I eagerly picked some up recently specifically to highlight in “Blackberry & White Chocolate Muffins.”

This easy recipe is from “Baking Imperfect” (Thunder Bay Press), of which I received a review copy, by Lottie Bedlow, who was a contestant on “The Great British Bake Off” in 2020.

As the title implies, Bedlow takes you by the hand to guide you through breezy recipes with confidence and a sense of fun, even providing little tip boxes along the way. Discover everything from “Quarantine Florentines” and “Sin-amon Rolls” to “Stick-a-Fork-in-Me Pork Pies” and the remodeled “Gingerbread Shed.”

For these muffins, I used the new plant-based white chocolate by Berkeley’s TCHO Chocolate, of which I was lucky enough to receive samples recently.

Slightly off-white in color, these chocolate disks are far less cloying than other white chocolate on the market. They’re not waxy tasting, but smooth on the palate with a subtle maltiness. Made with cocoa butter, oat flour, cashew butter, coconut oil, sugar and vanilla bean, they will be available for purchase on the TCHO web site starting Oct. 3, but initially only in large 3kg bags.

Besides fresh blackberries and chopped white chocolate, the muffin batter is fortified with yogurt and cream cheese, which add not only moisture and richness, but a slight tang. Freshly grated lemon zest also gets stirred in. I actually used lime zest instead, since I had a lime handy, and it worked just as well. So, I added that as an option in the recipe below.

These muffins bake up in a jumbo baking pan. Although, I followed Bedlow’s advice to grease the top of the pan in case the muffin tops extended over while baking, my muffins actually didn’t rise to that extent to make it really necessary.

These muffins are fluffy, moist, and cake-like. They’re not overly sweet. In fact, you feel like you score whenever you land upon one of the melty white chocolate pieces within.

For the love of blackberries, be sure to bake a batch.

Blackberry & White Chocolate Muffins
(Makes 9 muffins)

2 eggs

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1/3 cup cream cheese

4 teaspoons milk

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour sifted with 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup superfine sugar

3 1/2 ounces white chocolate, chopped

Zest of 1 lemon or lime

2/3 cup fresh blackberries, chopped

Put the eggs, yogurt, cream cheese, and milk into a large liquid measuring cup and whisk together with a fork until combined.

Sift the prepared flour and the salt together into a bowl, then stir in the sugar and white chocolate.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the lemon zest and chopped blackberries, and fold together, being careful not to overmix and stopping as soon as there is no dry flour visible. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest in the fridge for an hour.

While the batter finishes resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a 9-hole muffin pan with paper liners. Rub a little bit of neutral oil on a paper towel and lightly grease the top of the pan so that if the muffin tops rise over the top of the pan during baking, you can get them out easier later. (If you only have a 6-hole muffin pan, you can bake in 2 batches. Or if you have two 6-hole muffin pans, use both and fill the empty ones with a little water before placing in the oven.)

Once the batter has rested, take it out of the fridge and fill each cup to just under the lip of the pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown on top.

Remove from the oven and let the muffins cool completely in the pan before serving.

Note: Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

From “Baking Imperfect” by Lottie Bedlow

More Blackberry Recipes to Enjoy: Blackberry Oatmeal Cake

And: Blackberry Sorbet

And: Salt & Straw’s Imperial Stout Milk Sorbet with Blackberry-Fig Jam

And: Blackberry Torta Della Nonna