It's been a while since I did a baking post on the blog, and since I just returned from vacation with an enormous container of blueberries from my sister's yard, muffins seemed the perfect way to ease into our slow Sunday morning.
Will I walk you through the recipe? Don't mind if I do.
As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I'm baking my way through Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, so this was the first place I turned seeking a blueberry muffin recipe. Thankfully I had lemons on hand because the combination of blueberries and lemon zest is sublime.
Ingredients
2 + 2/3 c. flour
1 Tbl. baking powder
1 + 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. milk
2/3 c. cooking oil
(I used half canola and half olive oil because that is all I had on the shelf and the results were fine and very moist.)
2 c. fresh blueberries (increased from what the recipe called for)
1 Tbl. lemon zest (also more, but hey ... you simply cannot have too much lemon zest.)
I'm a huge believer in a short-cutting the typical cook book language and just getting right to the point. Especially when I'm still on my first cup of coffee. This follows a standard formula ... mix all the dry ingredients together, then add wet ingredients, including lemon.
Stir in berries and scoop (approx. 2/3 full) into greased muffin tins. Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool 5 minutes before running a sharp knife around the edge of each muffin to remove from tins.
The finishing touch is to dip each muffin upside down in melted butter, followed by granulated sugar. I used a course sugar from India Tree to get that corner bakery crystallized effect.
Quickly get them to the table to avoid unnecessary whining: "I want the pointy-est ... biggest ...blueberry-est ... thickest [etc.].. one".
There's nothing like the scent of hazelnut coffee, warm lemony quick bread, and the vocal stylings of Stacey Kent to fill the house on a Sunday morning.
Let me know if you try them yourself.