Sour Cream, Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

These were lemony-light-delicious and divine!!!  Proclaimed to be the best muffins I have ever made. I concur that they are up there on my top 10!

The special ingredients here are the blueberry flavored Ocean Spray cranberries. They have the consistency of a raisin or dried cranberry, but with the blueberry flavor. We like them better than the dried blueberries!

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup (or less) sugar
3/4 sour cream, light
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups unbleached flour
1+ cup of Ocean Spray blueberry flavored cranberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425

In a large mixing bowl beat together eggs and sugar, add oil and sour cream and beat until light and fluffy.
Add lemon juice and zest. Add baking soda and and flour. When well mixed add the dried cranberries.

Spoon into 12 well greased muffins tins. (We use a non-stick spray)
Bake for about 24 minutes

Best Ever Blueberry Muffin Cake

In the midst of holiday baking madness I had completely forgotten that I had offered to bake muffins for three class breakfast parties. In addition to baking gifts for 23 teachers and staff members, I now had the (dreaded) chore of baking muffins for roughly for 48 kids and 6 teachers. Time was of the essence... I needed to make something quickly that would be ready the following morning. The problem was, I was running out of time. I had an hour to clean up and get myself ready to bring the kids to school for their Winterfestival performance. There was noooo way I could bake that many muffins in that time. I also knew that by the time we got back home it would be too late and I would be exhausted. So I did what any lazy home chef would do. I made the batter (I tripled the recipe) and stored it in the fridge. The next morning, at 6:00 am, I got up and poured it into three round cake tins. Sheer genius I tell you!!!

I followed this recipe, which is my all-time favorite, and baked the cake rounds for about an hour. When they had risen and were a beautiful golden brown on top, I took them out of the oven, let them cool a few minutes and transferred them onto plates. I wrapped them in foil and amazingly they were still warm when the kids had them at school. All three cakes were devoured... not one morsel left over for me!

(No picture of the end product... I was way too much in a rush!)

Just Peachy Blueberry Bread Fit for a Light Father's Day Breakfast

We're headed out to lunch this afternoon so we don't want to have too large a breakfast but we have to have something fun and festive and seasonal! Sweet fruit breads are so easy to make and can be whipped up in no time for a wonderful breakfast or tea-time treat.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup of canola oil
3/4 to scant 1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 Cups of flour
1 1/2 Cups of blueberries and peaches (skins removed and cut into bite-sized pieces)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl cream together oil and sugar and eggs. When well mixed add baking powder, vanilla and flour. Mix well. Gently fold in fruit.

Pour mixture into lightly greased loaf pan

Bake at 350 for 1 hour

Let cool about 20 minutes before serving

Mixed Berry Muffin: Wednesday Morning's Breakfast

I had a half of a bag of leftover raspberries from the other muffins. So I decided to make another batch of something. The more I make over the weekend, the more I have to offer the kids during the week!

I decided a mixed berry muffin would be a perfect and simple choice.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of mixed berries -- when not in season I use frozen berries that have thawed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a large bowl or mixer beat together butter and sugar, add eggs yogurt, vanilla and mix well
Add baking powder, flour, mix well.
Fold in berries.

Line muffin tins with liners or a non-stick spray and scoop batter evenly into 12 tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes,

Blueberry Ricotta Muffins

Light, simple and a fun departure from your ordinary blueberry muffin, these muffins are sure to please! Light ricotta cheese and a touch of olive oil, yes, olive oil, replaces the butter that makes traditional blueberry muffins so succulent. Here, the ricotta adds a nice body to the muffin without weighing it down and the flavor complements the blueberries wonderfully. I am not a ricotta lover, but I assure you that these muffins will not disappoint!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups of all purpose flour

1 1/2 Cups of ricotta (or 1 15 oz container)
3 eggs

1 1/2 Cups sugar

1/3 Cup of olive oil

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 package of frozen blueberries or 2 cups of fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl add flour and baking soda, set aside
In a large mixing bowl add ricotta, eggs, sugar, vanilla, olive oil and mix well
Add blueberries and mix well. Some blueberries will break apart causing the mixture to turn purple. This is exactly what you want!

Add flour mixture and blend well.

Pour batter into 20 lined cupcake/muffin tins. Bake about 25 minutes. Check for doneness. Cool about 10 minutes before serving... if you can keep them on the counter that long!

The Best Blueberry Muffins

It's blueberry season and we are baking with them almost daily. I made these muffins the other day and they really are divine. I have made many many blueberry muffins over the years. I keep coming back to this recipe though. It really is the best. The recipe originates from Elizabeth Alston's Muffins, Sixty Sweet and Savory Recipes... From Old Favorites to New.

"Bursting with berries, these are the best blueberry muffins of all. The secret is an extra half cup of blueberries, which are mashed and then added to the batter."


1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, or slightly less
2 large eggs
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tsp. baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt
2 1/2 cups of blueberries (mash 1/2 with a fork)
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup of milk
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (I omit this)


Heat oven to 350. Grease 12 regular muffin cups, or use foil baking cups.
In a medium bowl beat butter until creamy
Beat in sugar until pale and fluffy
Beat in eggs, one at a time
Beat in vanilla, baking powder and salt
Mash berries in to batter
Fold in half the flour with a spatula, then half the milk. Add the remaining flour and milk. Add in remaining blueberries.
Scoop batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle with nutmeg sugar.
Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Let muffins cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Simply Perfect One Bowl Blueberry Cake

My aunt Dee has the best recipes. A few days ago I was visiting my cousin at her new house in Newport and we were discussing what to do with all the strawberries she had picked with her kids. I suggested the strawberry bread we all love. During the conversation my aunt started talking about her blueberry cake. I had never had it before and it was sounding so good! The following morning my father came home from his daily morning coffee with his brother with a Xeroxed copy of Dee's blueberry cake.

I have been meaning to make it for a couple of days but never got around to it. This morning I noticed that the blueberries were slightly less wrinkled than I am and now would be the perfect opportunity to use them up.

As par for the course these days I was not paying attention -- distracted by the kids as they were arguing over who was going to stir and measure and pour and well, I made a little mistake. I added too much juice! I opted to add some more flour to dry up the mixture a bit. It came out marvelously. Little fingers keep trying to pick at the remains!

This cake is a cross between a cake and a tea bread. Despite the fact that it calls for a generous amount of sugar it is not sickly sweet. We'll be making this recipe again. And again. And again!

Below is the recipe. I have added in red my mistake!

3 Cups unsifted flour (I used un-bleached and had to use 4 cups to compensate for the extra OJ)*

2 Cups of sugar 1 Cup of vegetable or Canola oil

1/4 Cup of Orange Juice (I goofed and added a whole cup!)

4 eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

3 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 pint of blueberries * Save some flour to coat the blueberries (I forgot to do this too!)

Place all ingredients in bowl together and mix well.

Make topping of:
5 Tablespoons sugar and 1 Tablespoons of cinammon
Pour half of the mixture in to a greased and floured (I used Pam) tube pan. (I used a silicone bundt pan because that is what I had.) Sprinkle half of the sugar mixture. Pour in remaining batter and sprinkle remaining sugar mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 75 minutes. (I needed 90 minutes for the additional flour and OJ mess up!)

Let cool, remove from pan, let cool some more and serve!

Blueberry Sparkle Bread