Baker's Corner: Quick and Easy Blueberry Muffins

I know I haven't started this year on a blogging high. My posts for 2018 have been few and far apart so I need to pick up my pace to meet my standard monthly quota of posts. This is mostly because I still haven't escaped the post-holiday blues from my trip to India but also because I have been focussing more on quick, easy and nutrition-packed meals lately. My goal for this year (and hopefully forever) is to foster healthy and balanced eating habits and limit the occasional indulgence to the weekends. The last recipe post on the blog was testament to my new resolution but not wanting to get pigeonholed with those kind of recipes on the blog, I needed a little more time to get into the skin of my former self in terms of my usual style of cooking and baking. After all, food has to be varied and exciting. My intention is to eat well most of the time in order to be healthy and not obsess over eating healthy all the time. 

So today, I have for you a quick and easy recipe for blueberry muffins. Let me be completely honest and confess that I don't really fancy muffins. Do I belong to the minority population who feels this way? 😝 No but really, in my lifetime, I can actually count the number of times I have eaten a muffin. I find them pale, dry, dense, crumbly and I really miss the frosting that makes their cupcake cousins taste so fabulous so in other words, to me, they are meh. That is why I have never features a muffin recipe on the blog so far. But I have somewhat gotten over my muffin indifference and I'm making a start here.

I found this recipe from a blog that I have followed recipes before with success. This recipe uses refined flour, white sugar, milk and sour cream so I wouldn't really recommend it as a breakfast muffin. Muffins to me are really just cupcakes without frosting so I don't understand the concept of eating it for breakfast anyway 😛 (but if you want to please go ahead - who am I to judge?). I'd say this muffin could be considered more of a dessert (albeit not a very sweet one), coffee/tea time accompaniment or an occasional indulgent snack. Of course, you could swap the refined flour with wholemeal flour, reduce the amount of sugar, use a sugar substitute, add in more blueberries and replace some of the fat with applesauce or mashed banana but I'm not sure if it would taste as good. So, if you are craving a good blueberry muffin, stick to the original recipe folks. It is fine to indulge in a blueberry muffin once in a while, if you consume them in moderation and watch your portion size. 

I made these muffins yesterday for a picnic with my family to the park. I had some fresh blueberries sitting in the fridge and I thought why not use them to make some muffins. Along with caprese ciabatta sandwiches, baked lentil chips, sweet juicy longons and homemade ginger lemonade, these blueberry muffins were the perfect finishing touch to our picnic brunch. My fussy kids enjoyed them too.

So here I am a day later sharing the recipe 😊 Gotta love simple recipes - easy to make, easy to photograph and easy to write about too.

Quick and Easy Blueberry Muffins 

Preparation time: 15 min

Baking time: 25 min

Total time: ~ 40 min

Makes 8 medium-sized muffins or 10-12 smaller muffins

Recipe Credit: Yammie's Noshery

Ingredients:

2/3 cup white sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp lemon zest, Optional

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream (you can substitute with yogurt)

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1 tbsp white sugar for sprinkling over the top, Optional

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF (190 deg C). Grease your muffin pan and place eight liners in the pan. My pan could hold only 6 so I made the other four in small ramekins greased and lined with muffin liners. 

2. Combine the sugar, egg, oil, milk, vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream in a bowl and stir until well combined.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated (streaks of flour are fine). It is very important NOT to overmix.

4. Take half of the blueberries in a bowl and crush them slightly with a fork or your hands. Fold into the batter gently (again, don't overdo it).

5. Evenly distribute the batter in the muffin tin. If you are making 8 high crowned muffins, you will be filling them almost to the top. If you want to make shorter muffins you could probably fill 12. Use the rest of the berries for the top - sprinkle them on and press them in lightly. Sprinkle the tops with white sugar if desired.

6. Bake muffins for about 25 minutes. If you're using frozen berries it will take about 5 minutes longer. Check the doneness of the muffins with a toothpick (it should come out clean) as the baking time depends on how many muffins you are baking.

7. After the muffins are done, leave the muffins in the tin for a few minutes and then take them out and cool on wire rack. 

8. Serve any time of the day.

Notes:

• Toss in some chocolate chips if you want to add some pizzaz to the muffins
• You can add in a little cinnamon powder for extra flavour
• You can replace the plain flour with whole wheat flour (preferably white whole wheat flour). However, you may need to add a touch more liquid since wheat flour absorbs more moisture
• Putting the muffins in a sealed container while they're still warm helps to keep them moist
• Muffins freeze really well. To freeze, make sure muffins are completely cool and then wrap securely in foil or freezer wrap, or place in freezer bags
• Muffins can be thawed completely at room temperature, or else reheat frozen muffins in the microwave or a conventional oven

Cheers,

Megha