Blueberries Part II

Well, I learned a messy, diaper-rashy lesson about why giving Kenadie as many blueberries as she desires is not such a good idea.

However, I still cannot stop buying them when they are on such super sale (thank-you, Costco!).

I LOVE berries!

I've made freezer jam with them, put them in pancakes, smoothies, eaten them plain, and even thrown them on top of a scoop of ice cream.

And my latest experiment was to make blueberry muffins from scratch, which I don't think I've ever done before.  

I derived the "backbone" of this recipe from my trusty "Better Homes & Gardens" cookbook that my old roommate, Megs, gave me many years ago when we first began our adventures of cooking together in our first apartment. 

11th edition.

Highly recommend it. 

I did make a few alterations to the muffin recipe--adding more blueberries than the recipe calls for (because blueberry muffins should not be muffins with a random blueberry here and there), and adding vanilla (have you ever cooked with pure Mexican vanilla before?  It is divine!  Makes every recipe better!)

Better Homes & Gardens Blueberry Muffins a la Holly

Ingredients
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1-2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. ripe blueberries

1. Grease muffin tin (or line with paper bake cups) and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Make a well in center of dry mixture and set aside.
3. In separate mixing bowl, combine egg, milk, oil, and vanilla.  And egg mixture all at once to dry mixture and stir until just moistened (batter should be lumpy).
4. Mix in blueberries.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake between 15-20 minutes or until muffin tops become golden brown.  This recipe will make 10-12 medium-sized muffins, or 5-6 large, "Costco-sized" muffins (my favorite!).

*Tip #1: I learned somewhere that if you lightly coat the blueberries with flour, that they are less likely to sink to the bottom of the batter--it's true!  It helps keep the blueberries up higher which creates the nice drizzly, blueberry juice effect on the top of the muffins!

**Tip #2: These aren't super sweet muffins.  If you're looking for a little more sugar (who isn't!?), then you can sprinkle the tops of the muffins with sugar before baking them--delish!