In my house there is only one morning person- my 5 year old. She’s up at 7:30 everyday, and bless her heart, she rarely wakes me up that early. She gets up, gets dressed and gets herself breakfast. Since I’ve only had a few hours of sleep by the time she’s getting up, I try to have healthful food easily accessible for her. Fruit is always good, and she’d eat apples until she turned into one if I let her, but they aren’t very filling. And because I don’t let her use the toaster or microwave (for obvious reasons) I had to come up with something else. Muffins. She likes them frozen, so having a bag of them in the freezer solves our little dilemma. The only remaining problem was which muffins to use. Most store bought muffins have ingredients I can’t pronounce, Costco’s are huge and have way too much sugar, and most recipes I tried also relied heavily on sugar for flavor. I finally pulled out one of my favorite bread books, Paul Hollywood’s 100 Great Breads and tried his blueberry muffins. The original recipe is rich, with lots of egg and butter, but not too sweet. Most importantly, it’s a forgiving recipe and easy to play around with and lighten. I’ve made it a little differently each time depending on what I have around the house. Here it is:
Blueberry Muffins (makes 16)
2 ¼ sticks butter, softened
scant 1 cup superfine sugar (regular granulated also works just fine but takes longer to cream)
4 medium eggs
1 ⅓ cups white bread flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
16 muffin liners
2 punnets blueberries
confectioner’s sugar, for dusting (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cream the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, then add the eggs and mix for an additional 5 minutes. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix into a smooth paste.
Line your muffin tray with the paper liners and drop a spoonful of the mixture into each case. Gently press the blueberries into the center of each muffin.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until a muffin springs back when pressed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then dust lightly with confectioner’s sugar.
Variations: Substitute 1 cup applesauce for a cup of the butter, adding the applesauce after the eggs have just been incorporated. Add ½- ¾ cup ground flax seed or bran with the flour. substitute whole wheat flour for up to ½ the bread flour (the higher ratio of wheat flour to bread flour you use the denser your muffins become.) Chopped nuts, or spices such as cinnamon (depending on what fruit you use). And of course, you can use just about any fruit you’d like- one of my favorite combinations is adding a chopped apple, some chopped walnuts, and mixing in a little cinnamon. My little early bird loves these!
Blueberry Muffins (makes 16)
2 ¼ sticks butter, softened
scant 1 cup superfine sugar (regular granulated also works just fine but takes longer to cream)
4 medium eggs
1 ⅓ cups white bread flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
16 muffin liners
2 punnets blueberries
confectioner’s sugar, for dusting (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cream the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, then add the eggs and mix for an additional 5 minutes. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix into a smooth paste.
Line your muffin tray with the paper liners and drop a spoonful of the mixture into each case. Gently press the blueberries into the center of each muffin.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until a muffin springs back when pressed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then dust lightly with confectioner’s sugar.
Variations: Substitute 1 cup applesauce for a cup of the butter, adding the applesauce after the eggs have just been incorporated. Add ½- ¾ cup ground flax seed or bran with the flour. substitute whole wheat flour for up to ½ the bread flour (the higher ratio of wheat flour to bread flour you use the denser your muffins become.) Chopped nuts, or spices such as cinnamon (depending on what fruit you use). And of course, you can use just about any fruit you’d like- one of my favorite combinations is adding a chopped apple, some chopped walnuts, and mixing in a little cinnamon. My little early bird loves these!
Kate
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