Lazy Sunday Baking

So I finally went real grocery shopping today, like bought enough food that I could make real meals for a whole week.  It was almost refreshing instead of knowing I’d have to piece-meal together some dinners!  The store had a sale on blueberries too so I figured I’d make some granola and for breakfast I could add some blueberries and yogurt for some deliciousness!

Little did I know that the store would fail me on having raw almonds and rolled oats in the bulk bins…I was then angry.  So I came home with some blueberries and I don’t really like them on their own.  I decided to turn them into muffins!

Several years ago my mom gave me a recipe she found for muffins and I loved it.  It was from a random source about how to cook without recipes.  I lost it amongst all my junk for a while and haven’t really made muffins since because I felt like I needed that same recipe, so today I decided to take another look.  Lo and behold, tucked between a million old Bon Apetit magazines, I found it! 

I think the real reason I like this recipe is because it taught me how to make muffins with big tops.  Like the kind you get in a bakery that you can peel off and then eat the stump and save the top for last like it’s a treat.  The trick is to basically overfill the muffin tins.  Like sort of overfill to a point that you’d worry about muffin batter making a mess of your oven.  But it’s worth it!

I made slight alterations: yogurt instead of sour cream and 1% milk instead of whole, mostly because that’s what I keep in the house on a regular basis.  Either way, I do not think these are diet muffins.  They’re the kind you feel good about eating b/c they’re called muffins, therefor it’s a breakfast food.  But really it’s a cupcake minus the frosting and acceptable to eat in the morning.

Remember: Muffins do not like to be overmixed!  The batter should be sort of light and airy almost as you scoop it. 

Best eaten day of; always good reheated in a toaster oven.  And most muffins freeze well and then you can reheat as needed. 

Blueberry and Ginger muffins

3 ½ cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
4 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. table salt
1 1/3 Cup granulated sugar
10 Tb. Butter – melted and slightly cooled
1 C milk
1 C full fat yogurt
2 Large eggs
1 egg yolk

1C blueberries
2 Tbs. Crystallized ginger, finely chopped. 

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare muffin tins with liners or spray with non-stick spray.  I’d spray them anyway b/c with the big tops it spreads onto the pan and even with liners it will make them easier to remove.

Mix the flour (reserve a couple tablespoons), baking powder, soda, and salt.  In another bowl mix the sugar, butter, milk, yogurt, eggs, and yolk until well combined.  Combine the ginger, blueberries and reserved flour mixture. (I read somewhere that coating mix-ins with flour prevents them from all sinking to the bottom.)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Mix or fold until somewhat combined.  There should still be a noticeable amount of flour.  Add the blueberries and ginger to the bowl and fold in until just mixed.  It may still be lumpy or still have some flour streaks.

Spoon into the muffin tin with the batter mounding above the top of the tin ½ in to ¾ in above the tin.  Bake about 30-35 min until golden and the muffins spring back to the touch.

 

Them's some full muffin tins!

 

Cool about 10 min on a rack, and then take the muffins out of the tin to finish cooling on the rack.  You may need to run a thin knife underneath the tops to dislodge from the pan, sometimes it sticks a bit. 

The final product

I realized I like this recipe mostly b/c it taught me how to have bakery style big ol’ muffins.  Any muffin recipe will probably work the same way if you overfill the tin, but these taste pretty darn good anyway.

The recipe is designed so you can add whatever fruit/flavorings/nuts you want with the basic batter being the same. I wouldn’t exceed one or two cups total of additions like berries, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.  You can also flavor with cinnamon, dried ginger, vanilla, citrus zest or coconut. 

I’m pretty satisfied with my day of shopping, cleaning, and baking.  It’s always awesome to make something you can share with your family and friends and sneak a few away so they’re there for you in the morning when you’ve run out of other easy breakfast things. 

Have a fantastic week!