Over the years I have experimented with and refined my method for berry muffins. This is the recipe I use almost exclusively, and I find it is adaptable to most summer berries you will come across. I find that using active yoghourt (AKA yoghurt, yogurt, or yogourt – either homemade or a good store bought variety) is the key to the fluffiness, moistness and balance of flavors (the sourness offsetting the sweetness of the fruit). Using the fake yogurt, that is the yogurt with gelatin or other artificial thickeners, will not work anywhere near as well, in my opinion.
This recipe yields about 2 ½ to 3 dozen, depending on how full you fill the tins. You could stretch it out a bit if you wanted them a bit smaller, which is nice for a bite sized snack.
(Click image for full resolution. All images © copyrighted. Contact for permissions other than links)
BLUEBERRY YOGHOURT MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 ¾ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ stick shortening (butter or margarine)
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 ¾ cups active yogurt
- 2 cups berries
- Cinnamon sugar
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
- Grease 3 dozen muffin tins (or use those new fangled muffin holders, although I prefer baking in bare tins as this makes for better flavored muffins and easier eating).
- Mix the flour, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix the shortening, sugar and salt, then mix in the eggs.
- Add the yoghurt to the shortening mix. Stir well.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir only until moist (to avoid stiffness).
- Lightly flour the berries if wet or juicy (sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of flour and toss gently – this keeps them from clumping, especially with fragile raspberries).
- Gently fold berries into the batter. Be sure to fold rather than stir to avoid totally crushing the berries.
- Fill muffin tins about half way to ¾ way full. Vary this for different sized muffins. The baking time will not vary greatly.
- Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool in tins for a while. Gently loosen each muffin with a dull blade and continue cooling on a rack.
- Voila.
I almost always forget to sprinkle them with the cinnamon (just as I always spell cinnamon wrong – cinnemon is what my fingers want to do and I never can get it right the first time – and even my corrections are wrong as I search for the correct combination of double N’s and vowels). My children have to remind me now. I have told them I will forget and they always wait to see if I do. I still do.
Leave a Reply