There are few things more indulgent than a soft, freshly baked muffin in the morning. It should come as no surprise, then, that the very name of the muffin,comes from moufflet, an old French word applied to bread, meaning 'soft'.
Unlike the more bready British muffins, which are made with yeast dough, American muffins are more like a cake than a bread. The raising agent is baking powder, rather than yeast, and the muffins are baked in muffin tins, often using paper cups.
If you've always been afraid of baking something at home, then trying your hand at making muffins is a good way to start. You see, most muffin recipes simply require adding the wet ingredients to the dry, with minimal mixing (in fact, a lumpy batter makes for a lighter muffin) and this recipe for Blueberry Muffins is no different.
Makes 12 muffins.
Blueberry Muffin Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour (225 g)
- 1 cup sugar (200 g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk (100 ml)
- 1/2 cup oil (100 ml)
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (200 g)
Blueberry Muffin Directions
- Preheat the oven to 347 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).
- Line a 12 cup muffin tray with baking cups.
- Mix the self-raising flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
- In another bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, and oil.
- Now add the wet ingredients to the dry, along with the blueberries, and stir until just combined.
- Spoon the mixture into the baking cups.
- Bake the blueberry muffins for 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- Allow to cool on a wire cooling rack.
Blueberry Muffin Tips & Suggestions
- If you don't want the blueberries to bleed into the batter, you can keep the blueberries seperate, spoon a little of the plain batter into each muffin cup, sprinkle a few blueberries on top and then spoon the rest of the batter to cover the blueberries. Alternatively, you can dust the berries with a bit of the flour first before adding them to the batter.
- This recipe is a good basic recipe, which means that you can vary it endlessly. Instead of using blueberries the next time you make them, try these muffins with fresh or frozen raspberries, cherries, blackberries, cranberries, or even with a combination of berries. You can also leave them plain and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract, chocolate chips and/or spices. Mind you, the combination of certain fruits and chocolate works a treat, too. Particularly, cherries with dark chocolate chips and raspberries with white chocolate chips.
- Don't be afraid to use frozen berries to make muffins. They're available throughout the year and are often better value for money. You can simply add the frozen fruit straight to the batter - there's no need to defrost them first.
Karin Engelbrecht - My love of fine food is larger than Africa, where I was born and raised. I left South Africa for an adventure in Amsterdam in 1996 as a ...
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