Showing posts with label blueberry muffins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blueberry muffins. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Best Blueberry Muffins. Period.

The search is over! Everyone, breathe a sigh of relief. I have finally, FINALLY, found a really really fantastic blueberry muffin recipe! Yeh!


We were -almost- out of milk on Sunday and I knew that we didn't have enough for cereal Monday morning so I had to make some muffins for breakfast. Unfortunately, I had no over-ripe bananas, no apples, or any other type of muffin-making fruit other than blueberry. And, I had yet to find the -perfect- blueberry muffin recipe that I am about to share with you. So, John and I went on a recipe hunt and eventually found the original recipe that we transformed into our own. (Due to some ingredients that we didn't have, and I wanted a crumble topping.)

These are fantastic and definitely have some elements that are a little different. Take some time with them, make the jam, and then eat one about 15 minutes after they come out of the oven. Ohhhh Man. Melt in your Mouth.



Best Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
2 cups (about 10 ounces) fresh or frozen blueberries
1 1/8 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil
 1 cup buttermilk (see note)
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
Note: I don't have buttermilk here in France soooo.. I mixed- 1/2 cup creme fraiche (sour cream), 1/4 cup of heavy cream, and 1/4 cup of reg. milk. And they still turned out great. 
Crumble Topping:
       2 Tbls. Butter
       1/2 Cup Oats
       4 Tbls. Brown Sugar
       1 tsp. Cinnamon
1. FOR THE TOPPING: Add all for ingredients to a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.
2. FOR THE MUFFINS: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line your muffin tins with muffin liners or spray them with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes. 
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 11/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)
4. Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle crumble topping evenly over muffins.
5. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

 Sadie was dying for a muffin when I was taking the pictures. Ha. I guess she thinks she would like blueberries?


original recipe here at The bitten word

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Snow Day!


Well, I had a different blog planned for today but I suppose it can wait until tomorrow! Today it is SNOWING like CRAZY in the beautiful cote d'azur! I know, I know, everyone in the United States is tired of snow. But I'm not! The flakes have been about the size of a half dollar and the ground is actually beginning to be white. The best part- I had no idea it was going to snow. So, there is no false hope from the weather man who says it will snow and it doesn't. Now, if only John could leave work early and come home, it would be perfect!

I am pretty sure that "snow day" is synonymous with "baking day" so this morning I decided to make some muffins. I might have, possibly, sort of, made up the recipe as I went along.. but hey, as long as they taste alright there's no harm in making things up. (Unless you are my hubby who thinks that everything should be standardized... We agree to disagree on this subject.) Fortunately, I did actually keep up with the amounts I added, so they are repeatable. And, even luckier for you- I am going to share!



Blueberry Banana Muffins

Ingredients

- 1 to 2 ripe bananas
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon strong coffee
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- about 1 tablespoon of milk ( add as needed)

Method

1) Add all dry ingredients to large mixing bowl- flour, sugar, salt, and soda. Blend well.

2) Add in the vanilla, coffee, egg, and bananas. Mix well. Do not over mix or muffins will not rise. If batter still looks a little dry, add milk.

3) Finally, add blueberries. Mix as little as possible so as to not break open the berries and have umpa lumpa muffins.

4) Divide mix evenly between your lined muffin tins. (makes about 12) Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes. (depending on your oven, it could take longer.)



Enjoy your snow days everyone! I know Sadie and I will!