Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

There are blueberry muffins, and then there are blueberry muffins. I have tried so many blueberry muffin recipes where the result has never quite hit the mark.. and then I gave up for a while. Then I saw Donna Hay making these on Tuesday night's episode of Fast, Fresh, Simple that airs on Lifestyle Food on Tuesday nights at 8:30pm. I tried them yesterday evening and they most certainly did not disappoint - perfectly fluffy on the inside and deliciously crunchy on top.

Apart from the taste factor, these are so quick and easy to make. What's best of all is that this is a great basic recipe that you can get creative with. Enjoy the recipe as it is, or mix it up however you please! Here are just a few ideas of additions that could be made to the recipe:

• chopped almonds on top for extra flavour and crunch
• lemon zest - I love love love blueberries paired with lemon
• chopped apple in the mixture - apple and blueberry are lovely together
• pieces of mango or peach along with a little coconut on top during summer months

With punnets of blueberries fetching $12 a punnet at the moment in most supermarkets these days, I opted for frozen rather than fresh. By the way, is that what they mean on those supermarket commercials when they say prices are firm..? i.e. that they are exorbitantly expensive? At any rate, not only are frozen ones cheaper but you can keep a stash of them in the freezer and whip up muffins like these whenever you want, making availablity in your home firm - that's this week's kitchen update!

Blueberry Muffins
Recipe by Donna Hay
(makes 12)

Ingredients

2½ cups (375g) self-raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (220g) caster sugar

½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil

1 egg

½ cup (125ml) milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

300g fresh or frozen blueberries

granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Place the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Place the oil, egg, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the blueberries and mix to combine.

4. Spoon mixture into a 12-hole ½-cup capacity (125ml) muffin tin lined with paper patty cases. Sprinkle the tops with sugar and bake for 30–35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Tell me, my dear readers, how would you would put your own stamp on this recipe?

Ladybird x

Crunchy top banana muffins

I have a small food snobbery confession to make - I don't really like spotty, overripe bananas... Ever since I was young, I've never been able to eat bananas that look like this. I used to always ignore them in the fruit basket in the hope that someone else would take pity and consume the really ripe bananas so that I didn't have to.

That was before I discovered baking as a young girl! I mean, I still dislike spotty bananas, but they are also seen as an opportunity through a baker's eyes. Banana bread, banana cake, banana muffins - the list is endless :)

I made these muffins very early this morning and they were delicious. The crunch of the topping before you bite into the soft and moist muffin below - yum! I also really love that these muffins contain linseeds. Linseeds are very good for you, but are rarely used in baking recipes. My crunchy top muffins are a great breakfast on the run, or they'd make a nice morning/afternoon tea :)


So here's the recipe!

Ingredients
(For the muffin)
125g plain flour
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
50 ml milk
50 ml vegetable oil
2 large ripe bananas, roughly mashed
(For the topping)
1 tbsp linseeds
15 g cold butter cut up
40g demerara sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp water

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Start on the muffin topping by giving the linseeds a good bash in the mortar and pestle to break them up a bit. Continuing on the topping prep, combine the SR flour and butter in a small bowl and rub together with your fingers to produce fine breadcrumbs. Add the demerara sugar, cinnamon and linseeds, then stir in the water and lightly combine.

Now the muffins - sieve the plain flour, brown sugar and baking powder into a bowl and make a well in the centre. In another bowl whisk together the egg, oil and milk with a fork. Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry muffin ingredients. Stir together. Stir in mashed bananas until just combined, don't mix too much.

Divide mixture among 6 muffin cases, sprinkle the muffin topping over each. Bake in oven for approximately 25-30 minutes - you may wish to do a skewer test in the middle of a muffin to check they're cooked before them removing from the oven.


Have a great day, everyone!

Ladybird x