Blueberry Season Muffins

July is the time for fresh blueberries in my neck of the woods. One of my favorite ways to enjoy blueberries is in a soft, fragrant, delicious muffin. They don't take long to make or bake and you can enjoy them warm.

A good muffin is tender and has a fairly open crumb, so they aren't really like a cake. Although it helps to have room temperature eggs, you melt the butter so you can decide to have muffins and then make them in a shorter time. Plop the eggs in some warm water while you melt the butter, let the eggs warm and the butter cool a bit while you prep the dry ingredients, warm the buttermilk on low in the microwave just enough to take the chill off, and you are good to go. A small amount of both whole wheat flour and rolled oats make these just a bit heartier than those with just all-purpose flour, plus the flavor improves...a win-win.

I like to sprinkle some sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins before they go into the oven. It adds some sweetness and different texture and is pretty, but it really is optional.

Usually I also include lemon zest for sparkle but didn't have one this time and they were still delicious!

Hearty Blueberry Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup rolled oats
1 cup granulated sugar
½ tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons egg substitute (or 2 medium eggs)
¾ cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberries
sanding sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the middle of the oven. Grease 8 muffin cups or line 8 cups with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl combine the flours, oats, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt with a whisk.

In another bowl whisk together the melted butter, room temperature eggs, and buttermilk that is at room temperature.

Add the wet ingredient mixture to the dry ingredient mixture, stirring with a fork for a few strokes; just enough to incorporate 90% of the dry ingredients into the wet.

Add the blueberries and continue gently mixing just until ingredients are combined. Immediately scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, dividing the batter as evenly as possible among the cups. Batter may come to top of cups.

 If desired, sprinkle a bit of sanding sugar (less that 1/4 teaspoon for each muffin) on top of each muffin's raw dough.

Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan half way at 10 minutes. Muffins are done when the tops are golden brown and when a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean (well, there may be blueberry juice clinging to it, but no uncooked batter, OK?)

Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool some more if you can wait that long. Enjoy these muffins while still warm or serve within 12 hours for the moistest muffins. Wrap any remaining muffins airtight and store in the fridge.

Makes 6-8 muffins

Sweetie's Pie

My Sweetie is always appreciative when I bake, but he really, really likes fruit pies. We have been hard at work on replacing the old front porch, although we are keeping the old railing and the same footprint, so it won't look that much different. We now have a support post near the house on the baking center wall and another one at the end of the porch roof beam, near the stairs, instead of the single beam that cut up the space before. Not only does that look better, but it should make it easier to use the space, maybe by moving the wicker couch and chair outside to join my rocking chair. A lot of the wood you see here will be replaced with treated lumber or redwood. There will be extra flashing and plenty of fasteners. Sweetie builds for the ages.

Anyway, all of this fixing up is a lot of work, especially for Sweetie. A couple of days ago I took some berry baskets down the driveway while he was down there feeding Merlin. We both filled up a pint basket and I went back later and filled another one. What we were picking are the olallieberries that grow near the road. They are plentiful right now and big and fat with juice and berry flavor. Once they are finished it won't be long before we have an overload of blackberries, so it promises to be a berry good season. It's also going the be a great one for morning glories in my garden, thanks to my thoughtful daughter who sent me seeds. Here's today's beauty:

The reason I needed so many berries was because I made Sweetie a mixed berry pie. To those ripe and juicy berries I added some strawberries from our local farm stand and some blueberries from Fresno. Local blueberries usually come in in July.

There really isn't a recipe for this pie because I didn't measure the ingredients. I made sure that I had enough berries to pile high in the pie pan, mixed together some flour, sugar and corn starch ( about 1/2 cup each for the first two and about 2 tablespoons of corn starch, then added some ground nutmeg, perhaps a teaspoonful, and about 1/2 teaspoon of dried and pulverized orange zest. I sprinkled this dry mixture over the mixed up berries and then tossed the berries gently with my clean hands to coat the berries with the mixture, then lined the pie pan with ReadyCrust pie dough from the store, dumped in the berry mixture and distributed it in the pan with the middle higher than the edges, folded the excess pie dough towards the center, swabbed the dough with milk, then sprinkled on some sanding sugar. That all takes only a few minutes once the berries are picked.

I had preheated the oven while I prepped the berries and put the pie together. The top rack had a pizza stone on it, so it took a while to get up to 400 degrees F. I baked the pie at 400 for 15 minutes, then turned the oven down to 350 degrees and baked it another 15 minutes. The filling was bubbly, the crust was golden brown and it smelled heavenly.

After dinner we had a portion each, but it was still too warm to actually have a slice. The next day the filling had cooled, so it was slicable and seemed to taste even better! There is one piece left for Sweetie to enjoy after working on the porch. It might taste even better than the rest.

If you find yourself with a lot of berries or with a Sweetie who loves pie, consider making this pie, too. If you need a real recipe, the Internet is full of them. Most of all, enjoy the sweetness of early summer berries while they last.

In case you think that we only eat baked goods, here's what I had for breakfast the same day:

Spring Fruits in Scones

If you read through some of my blog posts it probably seems like I bake all the time, just because. In truth I used to do just that, but for a while now I've had to curtail my impulse to bake for a couple of reasons, but mainly because as we get older it seems to be harder to burn off those extra calories and so fewer calories are needed. While I would love to eat nothing but baked goods, good sense encourages me to fill up on fruits and veggies and quality protein instead.

That said, I still love to bake, so it is wonderful when I have a reason to bake something as delicious as scones. This past weekend I attended a P.E.O. conference in LA and we had a very early flight, so I made scones for Sweetie and I to enjoy at the start of our trip, plus I made a few extra to enjoy with committee members during our early morning committee meeting on Sunday. Since I had fresh blueberries and apricots on hand, plus a bag of sweet, moist dried apricots, I decided to make scones with them, some sliced almonds, and to use buttermilk for the liquid. It's tang goes so well with those fruits and it helped to keep the scones moist until Sunday morning, even though I baked them on Friday. P.E.O. supports women in their educational goals through scholarships and low interest loans, plus we own a college, Cottey College. The effort is almost all done by volunteers, like my fellow committee members, so they deserved some fine scones for getting up so early, right?

These were rough looking because I barely gathered the dough bits together, similar in technique to making Irish soda bread. The upside of that is they were tender and almost flaky. There was enough butter that you didn't need to add any and the flavor combination with the apricot, blueberry, lemon and almond flavors, combined with buttermilk, was excellent and hit the spot in the early morning with a cup of coffee. These don't take much time and would take even less without the dried apricots and if you left the peel on the fresh apricots, so mix up a batch yourself. You'll be glad you did.

Blueberry and Double Apricot Scones
Adapted from a Ladies Home Journal recipe March ‘97
Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet or use parchment or silicone mat.

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (no substitutions)
1/4 cup finely diced dried apricots
½ cup chopped fresh, peeled apricots½ cup fresh blueberries, dusted with a bit of flour
½ cup sliced almonds
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Glaze: 2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons sparkling sugar

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add diced dried fruit, fresh apricot pieces and the blueberries and sliced almonds. 

Combine buttermilk, egg and lemon peel in a bowl or measuring cup. Pour over crumb mixture. Stir together with fork just until mixture comes together. Gather dough gently into a ball; it might be crumbly...that is OK. Divide dough in half and transfer to prepared cookie sheets. Shape each piece into a 6 inch x 1 inch thick circle, 2 inches apart. Using floured knife, cut each circle into 6 wedges.

For glaze, brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 20 – 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12 scones.