We love Autumn!

There's hardly anything better than Ærø autumn. After a long, warm summer with bright nights and surges of merry tourists, visitors and travelers jostling off our ferries and tripling Ærø's population, things start to become quiet again. The cobblestoned streets and alleys of Ærøskøbing do no longer echo with the hum of voices and the rattle of wheeled suitcases.

Most restaurants have closed down for the season and the deep Scandinavian winter dusk makes us want to huddle up inside, light the wood stoves, cozy up in deep armchairs and get to the bottom of those thick novels that have been sitting there, all through summer. The introverted cozy time is upon us, and we like it.

At Den Gamle Købmandsgaard, we're still going strong though. We don't see as many tourists these days, but now the locals start coming in again. And they love our homebaked cakes. Especially at this time of year. Coming in from the cold into Den Gamle Købmandsgaard's café, you're greeted not only by friendly, familiar faces, but also by the delectable aromas of fresh-baked cakes and breads. This is what it's all about.

It's time to get some baking done. I'll just share one of our amazing cake recipes with you, in case you want to bring a piece of Den Gamle Købmandsgaard into your home.

We're talking DGK's scruptuous chocolate-blueberry muffins. These delicious muffins are a match made in heaven: the tangy moist berries are complemented extremely well by the creamy sweetness from the melted chocolate. It's almost criminally good. The muffins keep for a few days in a tin, but it's doubtful that you'll have any left at the end of day 1.

DGK'S SCRUMPTUOUS CHOCOLATE-BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

This is what you'll need (we're using organic produce):

75 g melted butter
250 g regular wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder, phosphate-free
45 g sugar

2 tsp vanila powder
A pinch of salt
2 ½ dl milk
2 medium eggs
2 dl blueberries

2 dl dark chocolate 70%, chopped (chunky is what you're after)

STEP 1:

• Turn on your oven at 200 degrees Celsius. Prepare a muffin form with grease or paper.
  
  
• Chop the chocolate very coarsely. You don't want neat little pieces that melt and become part of the dough. We need large chunks that become little havenly pockets of melted chocolate, when you bite into your muffin.
  
  
• Don't forget to wash and thoroughly drain the blueberries as well.
  
  
• Melt the butter and let it cool down to luke-warm.
  
  
• NOTE: After weighing the flour, reserve a few spoonfuls of it in a separate bow.

STEP 2:

• Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
  
  
• Whip up eggs and milk until it's a proper froth. It takes a while. But you'll need the fluff- give it a real go.
  
  
• Gently and gradually pour in the mixed dry ingredients and fold it in with a rubber spatula. Gently; you don't want the air to go out of the egg mixture.
  
  
• Carefully mix blueberries (careful not to break them) with the reserved flour, so it covers the berries.
  
  
• Gently fold chocolate chunks and blueberries into the dough.

STEP 3:

• Spoon the dough into your muffin form, but make sure not to fill the holes of the form to the brim. You need to give the little darlings some room to grow.
  
  
• Bake for 20-30 minutes in the middle of the oven. Check in on them regularly. When the muffins are golden and slighty cracked at the top, they're done.