With summer well and truly here I felt that continuing the summer baking just made sense. Blueberry muffins are simple, and taste delicious. They are a staple of almost any coffee shop, be it a Starbucks or one of the better quality independent places (we’ve a few great ones kicking about in Leeds, like Mrs Athas and Laynes Espresso). Filling a muffin with fruit, especially berries, adds that extra burst of flavour. It gives me the chance to say “it’s got fruit in it, it’s healthy”.
The key with this recipe is to leave it to rest for as long as you can allow yourself. (As I often bake on a weeknight I usually don’t wait as long as I usually should). If you can allow it, leave it overnight and the cakes will taste just that bit better. This is a recipe for a relatively small batch, I didn’t want too many as I was making biscuits later in the night for my trip up to Scotland.
This is also the first time that I’ve managed to get my DSLR involved with the photos. The charger simply disappeared a while ago and I had to order a new one. Part of this blog is going to be me teaching myself what I’m actually doing with it, so I’m hoping the pictures get better as I go along.
- 110g plain flour
- 110g butter
- 65g caster sugar
- 2 free-range eggs
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 125g blueberries, or equivalent in frozen blueberries
- pinch nutmeg (optional)
- Mix together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and the sugar until creamy, this can take several minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Mix in the flour, beating until smooth.
- Leave the batter covered in the fridge overnight, or at least one hour.
- Preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Line a muffin tray.
- Spoon the batter into each case, it should fill to around half way in each. Dot the top of the muffins with blueberries, 8-10 in each depending on how you want them to taste.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
Dude, I already like your pictures so far, glad you found a charger, haha.
Also blueberry muffins are the besttttt! And muffins are SO EASY to make vegan! And taste amazing, believe me 😉
So why do you leave the batter? I know we did it accidentally once, overnight, and it was nice – but what difference does it *actually* make?
Haha, well thank you! I did some quick reading around the web on food photography and also installed a trial of Lightroom to have a fiddle. Seems to be working so far. Another lesson would be much appreciated sometime soon though 😀
I’ll have to try my hand at vegan ones. Guessing you just sub the butter for oil?
Well, depending on where I read some people say it makes them rise better and other people say it’s to hydrate the flour. I’m fairly sure it’s the second one though!
Ahhh fancy, fancy. And yeah, let me know about a get together 😀
It’s basically vegetable oil, and some non-dairy milk [almond is preferred] – though you can also use more fancy type things like soy yoghurt, a banana, or go the easy route and use a margarine but that’s not cool ;D
The other day we made coconut-banana ones with coconut oil and flax seeds – largely following this http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2013/05/double-coconut-blueberry-muffins-my-bed.html
And ooooooohhh good to know!