Thursday, January 19, 2006

Procrastination Muffins

I have a new favorite blueberry muffin recipe. I’ve adapted them from Simply Recipie’s blueberry muffin
recipe she adapted from a cookbook. Go to her site for more details – she’s got some great stuff. I’ve made them twice so far, the first time when I was procrastinating finishing a Major Essay that was overdue, the second time last night when I was avoiding reading my Hume. I think I shall call them my Procrastination Muffins. The first time I made them they came out better than any muffin I’ve made in my life. The top was well sized, the inside was light and fluffy without being too cake-like, the sides were well browned, and the whole outside was crispy. Last night they didn’t come out quite as well. For the first time in history, my oven has undercooked something. Well, not really undercooked, just under crisped. I left out the extra tablespoon of flour for using frozen blueberries, so I blame that. I also blame myself for over beating them – next time I’ll use an easier to deal with mixing bowl. After leaving them out last night, a bunch of condensation gathered on the plastic wrap thus getting rid of what little crispness there was. Oh well. They still taste divine. My main change from Elise’s recipe is cutting down the sugar even further and switching the lemon zest for orange. I’m not a big fan of lemon flavoring in baked goods, especially after a year of free day-olds from a coffee shop I worked at whose baker added lemon into everything she made except her pumpkin muffins. Anyhow. Here’s the recipe. I’ll post a picture when I upload it.

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated orange peel.

4 Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Bean in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. This is very important – it will determine the looks of your muffin tops. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.

5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. (I’m a big fan of silicone, and both times I’ve used it it’s worked well. The muffins slid right out and still managed to crisp.) Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil spray. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.

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