Blueberry Muffins

I love muffins that are soft and more cake like and often than not it's difficult to find such recipes. So when I came across this one which swears that it's soft and moist, I simply had to try it out. Furthermore it's a blueberry muffin and I have heaps of it in my freezer. Blueberries are now amazingly cheap. Just two weekends ago we were at a local hypermart and they were going for (Singapore Dollars)S$3.90 for 250g. A week later another local supermarket had theirs on sale for S$2.90 for 250g. So I decided to stock up my freezer and I do believe I have at least a kilo and half in there! Crazy or what!

Anyway I read from another fellow food blogger who had tried out the same recipe and she recommended reducing the sugar. I thus decided to follow suite and was surprised that her advice was true. After tasting a slightly warm muffin from the oven, I must concur that this indeed is a very moist and soft muffin recipe. I am already thinking of the variations to the batter by adding different fresh and dried fruits, as well as nuts.



Blueberry Muffins
Receipt Adapted from All Recipes
Yields 12 muffins

Ingredients:

113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup fine granulated white sugar (original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups which would have been way too sweet in my opinion)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk *
220g fresh blueberries — rinsed, drained, and dried (if using frozen berries, do not thaw)
1 teaspoon lemon zest

* I didn't have buttermilk so I used slightly warmed low fat milk (you can use regular milk), add 3/4 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar and leave standing for 10 minutes before using. Left over should be refrigerated in a tightly sealed container for 2 days.



Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180C. Line muffin or cupcake pan with baking cups.

2) In a large bowl, cream together the butter, 1 cup sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add in the lemon zest. Then beat in the eggs one at a time.

3) Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Take out 2 tablespoon of the flour and put aside,

4) With the remaining flour add to the batter in 3 portions alternating with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.

5) Crush 1/4 of the blueberries, and stir into the batter. Mix the rest of the whole blueberries with the 2 tablespoon of flour, and fold into the batter. (The flour helps to prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom whilst baking) Scoop into muffin cups. I find an ice-cream scoop to be most useful when doing this.

6) Bake in preheated oven of 180C for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown, and tops spring back when lightly tapped.