All Dressed Up and No Place to Go!

   Today is National Muffin Day, one of my favorite things to bake. So I was up early baking for today's club meeting, warm smells filling the kitchen, gray skies outside, and looking forward to seeing several friends this afternoon. And then the meeting was cancelled due to weather! This is good and safe, but somewhat disappointing. So I'd like to share my muffins and some muffin facts with you.
     American muffins are similar to cupcakes but made with a stiffer batter than cake batter. Because of that denser crumb, muffins are usually made and served without the papers that cupcakes need to help hold them together. English muffins are confusing because they seem nothing like muffins we make. They are oven-baked, then cooked in a griddle, and often much shorter than American muffins. The Muffin Man was a real guy! He delivered muffins to homes along Drury Land in England.
     I've had a favorite muffin recipe for quite some time (to be a later post),  and have enjoyed those banana-pecan muffins frequently. But this recipe from King Arthur Flour just may be my new favorite! These muffins are very tender and full of berries. The KA people cautioned that if you use frozen blueberries your muffins will probably turn blue, but mine didn't. I think the trick is to coat them with flour, this also keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the batter and makes them more evenly distributed throughout the muffin. I also added the blueberries partially frozen, before they got soft and drippy.

FAVORITE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS                    

I enjoyed another cup of coffee and
a muffin after the call cancelling the meeting! 

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons butter

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups white whole-wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1 ½ - 2 cups (about 1 pint) blueberries, either fresh or frozen

1 tablespoon sugar mixed with ½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1.     Preheat the oven to 375° F. Grease 12 muffin cups generously; vegetable oil pan spray works well (be sure to wipe out the extra to avoid ‘frying’ up the sides).

2.     In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until they’re light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3.     IN a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt

4.     Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and beat well. (at this point I took out about ½ cup flour/dry ingredients to coat the berries. After the berries are coated – shake in a plastic bag, the extra flour mixture should be added back to the batter mixture.) Stir in the milk, and vanilla and almond extract, mixing only until smooth.

5.     Quickly stir in the berries.

6.     Fill the muffin cups (12) ¾ to almost full, using all the batter. Sprindle with the cinnamon sugar.

7.     Bake the muffins for 25-30 minutes, until they’re light golden brown, remove them from the oven, and place the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes.

8.     After 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge of one muffin, and try to lift it out of the pan. (These muffins are very tender, and if they don’t cool long enough, they’ll crumble when you try to remove them form the pan.) If the muffin lifts out of the pan without crumbling, remove all the muffins and cool them completely on a rack. If the muffin sticks or the top peels off, allow them to cool an additional 10 minutes before removing from pan.