I believe my new nickname in the kitchen is going to be “Screw Up McGee”, because it seems all I do anymore is mess up. A lot. Did I say a lot?
*ahem*
So my latest goof involves blueberry muffins and a new technique I had planned to be g-e-n-i-u-s, only it was sticky, too difficult and… ah, you’ll see what I mean soon enough.
Easy Blueberry Muffins from Scratch
(The “Pay-Close-Attention-to-the-Written-Word” version)
Note: As usual, this recipe is a doubled version – half it if you have a smaller family, unless you want to stockpile and freeze some for later 🙂
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 6oz. containers of yummy delicious blueberries
- cranberry/blueberry juice. Just enough to cover aforementioned blueberries in a bowl
- 4 cups of flour
- 1/2 cup sugar (or can do half and half with brown sugar)
- 2 tbsp double-acting baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup salad oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- muffin cups if desired
Directions:
- Place blueberries into a bowl, and cover with juice to soak a bit. Why? Cuz it’s fun. And tasty. Adds a little natural sweetness, I guess. But nonetheless, tas-ty!
- Preheat oven to 400. Brush your muffin pans with oil, or grease lightly, or use muffin cups if you’re a slacker like me, and want an easier clean up (I know, not very green of me, but I was a baking fool today – the easier the better).
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and stir together until well blended.
- In a small bowl, beat egg slightly, then stir in the milk, honey and salad oil and whisk until blended.
- Pour milk/egg mixture into flour mixture and stir until well blended, but don’t over blend (note, you may need to scrape the egg bowl for the honey to come out, as it might not have blended). Batter should be lumpy, but ensure it’s combined well. I know why they say not to over mix it, but it is SO hard to resist leaving some lumps. So hard. But trust me, you’ll have bricks for muffins if you don’t leave ’em, so try hard, k?
- Now, here is where you do as I say, and not as I did, because, well, mine may be nicely proportioned and evenly divided, etc, but, I goofed, big time, and I’m okay with admitting that. So, like I was sayin’ earlier (as depicted in the picture below), I was attempting a new technique on my part where I put a few blueberries into each muffin cup first, to ensure they were evenly dispensed and that they didn’t get crushed during stirring, as is what generally happens when stirred among the entire batter bowl. Doing it this way, though, meant I had to stir in the blueberries into the batter once the batter was placed on top. That didn’t go over so well, as it kept sticking to the sides of the muffin cups, and it took my cat-like reflexes *cough* to get the muffin cups to stay put, for the blueberries to come out of hiding from underneath the batter, and all that. Not to mention, it took for-ev-er to finish, get mixed, etc. So I say, do either of two things instead – 1) plop half into each cup, then blueberries, then the other half on top, no mixing, or 2) either plop the batter, then the blueberries on top, and attempt to swish some batter on top. But be forewarned, that isn’t as easy as it sounds. But whatever you do, don’t do what I did and do the blueberries first. Too difficult.
- Regardless of what you choose, bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown
Wala! Beautimous.
Good thing they taste good. Ah well, extra fiber, with that paper and all. Better luck next time. I hope. I’m beginning to think I might need to steer clear of the kitchen. Or somethin’.
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