To Die For Blueberry Muffins

I made muffins again last weekend. It's not like I particularly love muffins or something; I'd rather switch it up once in awhile and make cookies, scones, cakes, or whatever it may be. It's just that without an electric mixer, there is really not much choice in terms of what to bake. One is very limited when you need to pass up on any recipe that indicates "beat eggs until light and fluffy" or "beat egg whites until peaks are high" because you simply can't achieve that with just using a whisk.


Good news though! My mom bought a newer, more powerful Kitchen Aid stand mixer last week, and she will be giving me her old one!

My Mom's new 475 Watt
stand mixer

She needed a new one because her old Kitchen Aid mixer can no longer keep up with her bread making needs - it did not have the capacity nor power to make two loaves of bread at the same time.  However, her old one (which is 250 Watts) is more than sufficient for my baking needs! SO EXCITED! I'm imagining all the things I can make with it already =)  It will be kept at my boyfriend's place hehe.



OK, back to muffins! In my opinion, muffins are the simplest to make out of all possible baked goods because they are quick, muffins are good for breakfast or a quick snack, and you can mix the ingredients with a spoon/spatula. Actually, if you spend too much time mixing, you're at a risk of having your muffins turning out dry.  However, do not be deceived! You would think that it's easier to not mix well enough compared to over-mixing, but over-mixing (like what I did with my Earl Grey White Chocolate Chunk Muffins) is actually a common downfall in terms of making muffins.  I think it is human nature to want to make sure that everything is mixed thoroughly, and when that's done, we tend to mix again (for like 5 more seconds), just in case. But let me tell you this, for muffins, it is OKAY to see clumps - all you need to do is fold the ingredients together a few times with a spatula and you're good to go.

I made these To Die for Blueberry Muffins even though blueberries are not in season (and thus quite expensive) because I really wanted to make them.  I found this recipe at allrecipes.com (which you can probably tell by now with the exaggerated name, just like the "World's Best Lasagna" which I also got from the same site).


Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To make crumb topping: mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated over, or until done.

This time I made sure I didn't over-mix. The whole process was really quick. I did not add the ground cinnamon. I didn't skip it on purpose - I literally forgot to pick it up at the grocery store =( To make myself feel better I thought cinnamon doesn't go well with blueberries anyway haha.

Before going into the oven

When I filled the muffin cups right to the top, I was only able to fill 10 muffin cups. I guess I could've spread them out to 12, but then I was afraid the muffins would be too small and wouldn't have that nice "poofy" look I was hoping for.

At the 15 minute mark - high and poofy! YES!

At 20 minutes - tops are turning golden yellow.

Done and cooling down.

Ready to eat

I'm glad that the blueberries didn't sink to the bottom of the muffin, which is a common problem if you over-mix (see? over mixing is like 99% for all muffin-related problems). The muffins were not dry at all and were very soft too. This was a success! This recipe is a keeper =)