Tag Archives: blueberries

Light & Fluffy Blueberry Muffins

This breakfast delight is another recipe from Kelsey Banfield’s book “The Naptime Chef: fitting great food into family life.” I’m not usually inclined to bake, but the indulgence of eating muffins for breakfast (kind of like dessert, in my book) was too powerful a call for me to resist.

And I can never say the word ‘fluffy’ without quoting from one of my favorite sources of funniness. Fluffity puffity sugar delights! Hand-puffed at the factory in Newconsin!

(I hate Marshie. But I love to hate him.)

I thought about calling these Fluffity Puffity Blueberry Muffins.

Or Perschmuffity Muffities.

But then I went for the more standard “light and fluffy.” It’s the Voice of Reason triumphing over silliness, and I can’t decide if the victory went to the right party in this matter.

Now I have recipe namer’s remorse . . . but thankfully I can take that out on my baby by giving her one of what will be many ridiculous nicknames.

Hi there little Pershmuffity Muffity!

You talkin’ to me?

Yes, Alice. You’re a hand-puffed sugar delight.

Noooooooo!

Wait Alice! Wait! That’s a good thing in my book! I love puffed babies! I love rolls and thighs and double chins! Now enough of this crying–can I get a hoo-rah hee-rah hubbah hubbah YAY!?

And can I have permission to squeeze every inch of baby roll I can find?

Okay . . . have at it, lady.

Why thank you. I believe I’ll start with these deliciously fat little feet.

I’ll proceed with kissing those dimples . . .

. . . and we can finish it out by a million kisses under your chinny-chin-chin.

Babies, muffins–they both cry out to be chomped.

So whip up a batch and chomp away, my friends.

Ingredients

(Makes 12 muffins)

2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup + 2 TBS sugar
½ tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
Zest from 1 lemon
4 oz (1 stick) butter, chilled
1 large egg
¾ cup whole milk
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

1. Heat oven to 425 F and prepare a muffin pan by buttering it, spraying it with baking spray, or lining it with paper liners.

2. Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest.

3. Cut the butter into small cubes and incorporate it into the dry ingredients using a pastry knife, until the mixture has the consistency of small pebbles.

4. Separately, whisk together the milk and egg; stir them into the dry ingredients. The batter will be very lumpy.

5. Gently fold in the blueberries with a spatula, taking care not to smash them.

6. Distribute the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups.

7. Bake for 15-17 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The muffins are done when the tops are turning golden and have a little spring on top when touched. Serve hot!

And then tear them apart with your bare hands. That fluffiness has no business being anywhere but your mouth. Now.

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Blueberry Port Cobbler

Blueberries were recently on sale at my grocery store–$5 for 2 pounds! This blueberry cobbler was the result. I had seen it just a few days prior on Soup Addict’s blog (who in turn took her inspiration from Paul Deen), switched out the Grand Marnier for Port and called it Rin Tin Tin.

Of course, this cobbler didn’t take care of all those blueberries, so I did what any other rational, sensient being would do and simply drowned the rest of them in heavy cream. With a sprinkling of sugar. Ahoy mateys! What ho! It looketh to me piratey eyes like we’ve spotted a cream-lovin’ land-lubber! With all that cream she will turn into blubber! Lubber-blubber! Oh hoh hoh and a bottle or rum!

I realize that little flight of fancy made no sense. For accuracy’s sake, please strike the ‘sensient’ and ‘rational’ descriptors above, and for heaven’s sake let’s move on before this post completely disintegrates into nonsense.

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
3 TBS cup water
1 cup sugar, divided
1 TBS corn starch
1 TBS Port
1 pinch freshly ground nutmeg

4 TBS butter
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk

Yikes! I’m already forgetting ingredients.

This guy was hiding out in the liquor cabinet. Yo hoh hoh and a bottle of port, say I.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Put the butter in a 1 1/2 quart baking dish, and place it in the oven to melt.

Grab yon cute yellow pot.

Pour in the berries, 1/2 of the sugar . . .

. . . and the water.

I should note that though I used 1/4 cup of water when I made it, I reduced the amount to 3 TBS in the printable recipe (linked at the bottom of the post) per Soup Addict’s recommendation. You’ll see why later.

Heat the fruit over medium high until it’s boiling, and add the cornstarch.

Stir in the cornstarch, and add the nutmeg . . .

. . . and port.

In fact, next time I’ll probably just substitute the water for port.

Now turn down the heat to low, and simmer it for 10 minutes.

Mix the flour, remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl, combining well so that there are no lumps.

(I gave it a quick sift with my fingers to make sure–no one wants a baking powder surprise hidden in the batter)

Add the milk in slowly, stirring vigorously, to prevent clumping.

Pour the flour/milk mixture into the baking dish over the melted butter. I should note that Soup Addict’s batter looked much thicker than mine. I have no idea why. I think I’ll blame the kitchen imps–the same ones that try to cause something to fall out of the freezer every time I open it. I’m not naming names–but they know who they are.

Don’t stir the batter and butter together! Just let them coexist–together, but separate.

Spoon the fruit over top, ladling in the syrup at the end.

Beautiful!

And I love the deep magenta color of the berry syrup.

Mmmm. I want to bathe myself in it. Or possibly have a dress made in that exact shade.

Bake the cobbler for 40-50 minutes. The batter should rise to the top . . .

Mine didn’t.

It stubbornly decided to bake up differently than Soup Addict’s cobbler.

But it was still awesome.

The sides pulled away easily from the baking dish.

It’s the butter at work, I can tell you that much.

My cobbler turned out more like a berry sauce with floating bits of deliciously spongey cake. See? It’s like a (thick) fruit soup in there.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. But this is the reason behind the after-the-fact reduction of the water to 3 TBS in the printable recipe, which will hopefully reduce the soupiness of yours.

Serve with ice cream!

It stores well in the fridge, and when you reheat it the next day, the cake is just as spongey.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Blueberry Port Cobbler