Grandma Fritzie's Blueberry Muffins

Shula really loves blueberry muffins; at 22 months,
she calls them Mushrooms.

These are the best blueberry muffins I know, and they're easy.

From mid-June to late-July when the Jersey berries are plentiful, I make these quite a few times. [Seems like the seasons is extending a bit each year.]

Blueberries, milk, and part whole wheat: these are very nutritious, as well as a nice tender texture. I keep modifying it. Newest twist: lemon zest.

The basic recipe makes a dozen regular size or 20-24 mini-muffins. If you double it, you can make 36 slightly less-mini-muffins. If the portioning doesn't work out and you have extra batter, you can put the leftover batter in a greased mini-loaf pan and bake it along with your muffins.

If you let go of their muffin identity: I now bake them in the Breville in a quarter sheet pan for about 17 minutes. I cut the sheet into 16 with a pizza slicer. Blueberry Muffin Squares?

Heat oven to 400 degrees

Spray your muffin tins - try to just hit the muffin indents, since the rest of the spray will burn. I experimented and you really don't need to spray silicone tins, unless you've recently washed them with a baking powder paste that removes the accumulated oil on their surface.

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

3/4 c. regular flour

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 t. salt

1 T baking powder (that's right, it's a lot!)

1/2 c. skim milk (or higher fat milk if that's what you drink, or buttermilk)
1 egg

1/4 c. melted butter

1 c. blueberries (normal containers are a pint, so a half container) 

optional but yummy: lemon zest to taste

You'll need two bowls.

In the smaller bowl, add and mix the dry ingredients.

In the larger bowl, beat the egg and add the milk. (and zest)

Quickly add the dry ingredients to the wet - mix fast. Mixture will be lumpy, and with all that baking powder, it will begin to sponge up a little.

Add the melted butter and berries and stir as best you can, since it's quite thick.

Abba and Shula whisking the liquids - Mama was in Aspen

Using a soup spoon, scoop the batter into [easy version] a greased 1/4 sheet pan or [more effort required!] each muffin compartment (or whatever you call them.) If you spray the spoon with Pam, it helps the batter to slide off the spoon. If you make regular-sized muffins, you can use an ice cream scoop.
If there are a lot of berries sitting on top of the batter, they will explode and make a mess in the pan, so it's a good idea to try to cover them with some batter. Don't worry about trying to make them all exactly the same, but do make them reasonably similar in size so they bake at the same rate.

Bake about 15-18 minutes, until they are smelling wonderful and they are nicely browned. 

Let them cool for a few minutes. I am too lazy to use cooling racks, so I just twist them out of the tins and upend them to cool the rest of the way.

Soak the tins for a few minutes, but not overnight - they will rust. [Or get silicone tins].

These freeze really well. 

In 2024, the blackberries Micah planted started producing prodigiously!

This is a quart. To make a double batch of muffins, quarter them - they are so big. This is a generous amount for 24 muffins. Sprinkle with a little extra sugar, as they are quite tart. They turn crimson! 

They are really good - but of course they have seeds.

These Chestertown wineberries disintegrate when baked....