Saturday, February 2, 2008

the scientific method works....


I stopped by Trader Joe's after work today to pick up some bread for dinner, and some more chocolate for baking. I'm loving that store more and more. Anyways, they had blueberries on sale, and I suddenly got a craving for blueberries muffins and scones. Good news for my palate, bad news for my next weigh in. But I came home and found that there was no milk for muffins! Luckily I found a recipe from Elton Brown's Good Eats that used yogurt instead.

The muffins came out light, fluffy, and very moist, almost like a cupcake. I sprinkled some turbino sugar (large grained raw sugar) on top for extra crunch. There is quite a bit of leavening in the mix (3 tsp worth) so don't worry if the batter foams a bit. Remember to not overbeat and to gently fold the berries in. I used some of the batter (without blueberries) for apple muffins as well.










Blueberry Muffins (adapted from food network)

makes 14 muffins (12 if you make them slightly bigger)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg
1 cup yogurt (I used non-fat plain yogurt)
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 tsp flour
Turbino sugar

Preheat oven to 380 degrees.

Combine vegetable oil, sugar, egg, and yogurt in bowl. Combine 1 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet. Mix until just combined. Toss blueberries with 1 tsp flour (so they wouldn't sink to the bottom) and gently fold into batter.

Fill greased (or lined) muffin pans about 3/4 full. Place into oven and turn temperature up to 400 degree. Bake for 20-25 minutes. About 10 minutes before they're done, sprinkle on turbino sugar.

* For apple muffins, omit the blueberries and replace with 1/3 cup chopped apples and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.


2 comments:

Jaime said...

i love blueberry muffins! if you are looking for one that isn't too sweet, i have a great one in my blog by dorie greenspan

i just joined the DB this month too, just checking out everyone else's blogs, wanted to say hello :)

Mother Bliss said...

In response to your mochi question...I use the amount my mochi maker says, but all it is, is water and sweet rice (not necessarily "sweet", but its called that. They just have a higher "sticky" factor.) And when I shape them, I used mochiko (rice flour), comes in a white box. I LOVE my mochi maker, with 3 kids, we're making mochi every few weeks!