Blueberry Muffins

First thing I made with the blueberries? Muffins! Yum :)

Recipe that follows is slightly adapted from Ina Garten's recipe for blueberry muffins. After reading some of the reviews, I took their advice and added an extra half cup of blueberries. Too many! The problem with adding more berries is that when they cook in the oven, they don't hold their shape but disintegrate into the batter. This makes the muffins deliciously gooey but too many berries clustered together makes a gigantically gooey mess!

Next time I make these, I'll stick to the recommended 2 cups of blueberries. I would also add some kind of citrus, like lemon zest or a splash of orange juice to give it a little more pop. Anyway, this is a good basic batter you could use to make other kinds of muffins, just sub the blueberries with whatever else you want. Let me know if you come up with some interesting combinations :)

Blueberry Muffins
(makes about 24 cupcake sized muffins)

1.5 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1.5 cups sugar

3 extra large eggs at room temperature

1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup plain vanilla yogurt (or sub with sour cream)
1/4 cup milk

2.5 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried

• Using a hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, and sugar has mostly dissolved into the butter. 5 minutes.
• Add one egg at a time to the butter mix, and whip until each one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Then work in the vanilla, yogurt and milk.
  
• In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to cream mixture in thirds, mixing until the flour is just absorbed before adding the next third. Don't over beat the batter or it'll become tough and doughy.
  
• Gently fold in blueberries with a spatula. Scrape bottom of bowl to make sure all the flour is completely incorporated.
  
• Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12 well muffin/cupcake pan with paper liners.
  
• Scoop batter into lined pan, filling just to the top. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned on top. To test if muffins are done, stick a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean, it's done!
• Let cool in pan until cool enough to handle. Remove from pan and let cool completely.

Tips: 1) To keep blueberries from sinking to the bottoms of the muffins, lightly coat them in flour before adding to the batter. 2) You may also want to lightly grease the rims of each cupcake well (if not using a non-stick pan) to prevent the tops from sticking when they bake over.

Jason took a dozen to work to share with his office mates. The other dozen are still in the refrigerator. I eat them with my morning coffee or whenever I need a snack. They could probably also be frozen for later use, then thawed and reheated in the microwave - although I've never tried this but am very curious to see if it works. Let me know how they turn out if you decide to freeze!

Happy baking :)