NEW OVEN!!!! and Sweet and Rich Blueberry Muffins

Guess what!!!!!  I just got a new oven!!!!!!!!  No more heat escaping! No more adjusting the time on recipes!  No more opening the door to see how my recipes are doing!  No more smoke pouring out when I open the door!  It matches my refrigerator too!  If my arms could have stretched far enough, I would have hugged both appliances and smothered them with kisses.  Yay!!!!!!  I didn’t know what to do first!  I wanted to bake something so badly, but I didn’t want to make a mess in it!  Well, here it it is!  The newest and currently favorite member of my family (don't tell the others I said that!)

Well, it is blueberry season and we love blueberries in this house.  My children eat them by the fistful and can easily chow down a quart in under an hour.  I just happened to grab the last of the blueberries before they realized it, and was able to use them in a recipe.  They are beautiful and plump and juicy!  What better way to serve them, but in a classic blueberry muffin!

While my oven waited patiently for its first job, I went searching for a quick, easy muffin recipe.  I found it in one of my favorite go-to cookbooks, Mark Bittmans’ “How to Cook Everything”.   I have used this cookbook quite a few times.  I use it to learn different cooking techniques.  It offers simple ways to prepare great ingredients and if you don’t have an ingredient on hand, what can be used to swap to make what you need.  There are actually crinkly pages in this cookbook.

  

Sweet and Rich Blueberry Muffins

Makes 8 large or 12 medium muffins

6 tablespoons butter at room temperature

¾ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flower

2 eggs

½ cup milk

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  (It took me a bit longer, I had to figure out how to do that)
2. Grease a standard 12-compartment muffin tin (very generously if you are not using paper muffin cups.)
3. Mix together the butter and sugar
4. Mix together the salt, baking powder, and flours in a separate bowl.
5. Whisk the eggs into the milk, again in a separate bowl.
6. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, then moisten with a little of the milk.
7. Repeat pattern until all off the ingredients are used up.  The batter should be lumpy, not smooth, and thick but moist, add a little bit more milk if desired.
8. Carefully fold in bluberries
9. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, filling them about two-thirds of the way full
10. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until the muffins are nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 
11. Remove from oven and let them rest for 5 minutes before taking them out of the pan.