World's Easiest Blueberry Muffins

Many years ago, while blueberry picking in the Adirondacks, we found an orchard so rich with berries (as in, you could pick them by the handful!) that within an hour or so, we had amassed nearly 15 pounds of the fruit. (And that doesn't count the fact that the children ate more than they dropped in the bucket.) During the following week, I baked them in numerous pies and cobblers and muffins and cakes from all sorts of recipes, but until this week, I'd never found a blueberry muffin recipe as simple and delicious as this one.

It is ridiculously easy, so simple than an eight-year-old could make these. Or maybe even a four-year-old.  They require no special equipment: just one bowl, a measuring cup, a spoon and a fork.  And muffin tins, of course.  The batter can be put together so quickly, that you can enjoy warm-from-the-oven muffins in just over 30 minutes.

 Below are the ingredients: blueberries, an egg, oil, milk, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork.  Add the wet ingredients (the egg, oil and milk) and stir together.

Fold in the blueberries.

Spoon into paper-lined muffin tins.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. (The lighter colored one in the center was baked for 20 minutes, and I thought it was too light, so I returned the pan to the oven for about 8 more minutes. I just popped it back in place for the photo.)

Voila!

Production notes: I followed this exactly (and have written out the method a bit more clearly below). I used 1 percent milk (because that's all we had) and regular vegetable oil. 

World's Easiest Blueberry Muffins

Preheat oven to 350F
Line a muffin tin with paper liners

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
3 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 large egg
1 c. (approximately) milk
3 T. vegetable oil
1 c. fresh blueberries

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Break an egg into a two-cup glass measuring cup. Add milk to reach the one-cup mark. Add the oil. Mix together with a fork, breaking up the egg.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the large bowl and combine. (Don't overmix, or your muffins will be tough.)
Carefully blend in the blueberries.
Spoon the batter into the tin.
Bake until done. (20 minutes wasn't enough in my oven -- you want some color on these -- so I baked them for nearly 30).

Mom C's Blueberry Muffins

One of the few upsides to insomnia is the extra time it affords. And so on Thursday morning, when work anxiety awakened me at 4:30 a.m., I decided to channel it productively into something sweet and delicious -- old-fashioned blueberry muffins.

Mom C's Blueberry Muffins recipe is from the collection I just got from Arthur Schwartz. It was sent to Arthur in 1997 by Janet C. Evans who noted that the recipe is "really yummy!" and 60 years old (today almost 80 years old). That makes sense as the finished product is nothing like today's ginormous overly sweet cakes baked in muffin tins. Instead, it is a small flavor-packed slightly sweetened muffin, with nary a muffin top in sight.

There are just a few ingredients in these muffins and they can be put together in minutes, just in time for breakfast.



Mix the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and then the milk and dry ingredients.

Fold in the blueberries last.

Spoon into paper-lined muffin tins.

Bake for 20 minutes or so and voila, the perfect breakfast treat.

Production notes: I used butter (not Spry) and a mixture of frozen and fresh blueberries (because at 5 a.m., one can't be choosy). There was no milk in the house, so I used 1/2 cup of half and half mixed with 1/2 cup of water. I filled each muffin tin about 3/4 full which made 22 muffins.

Blueberry Biscuits

It's still blueberry season and, wanting to bake something other than the traditional muffins, I was delighted to come across a "prize winning" recipe for blueberry biscuits in the 1931 Grand Union Recipe Book.  This gem was contributed by Mrs. F.M. Gardner of Brockport, N.Y.  They are really good, hardly sweet at all as was typical of older recipes, but they have a lovely texture and flavor.

Mrs. Gardner's instructions read: Mix as for ordinary biscuits. Apparently everyone in 1931 knew that biscuit dough is made by cutting the butter into the flour (as opposed to cakes, when softened butter is mixed with sugar, or brownies, where the butter is melted).  Anyway, I used a food processor for this step, but I'm sure she used a pastry blender or two knives.

Add the blueberries -- gently -- to the dough.

Pat out on a lightly floured surface.

Cut out biscuits with a biscuit cutter, or similar, say a juice glass.

Place on a baking sheet.

Enjoy!

Here's the recipe as it appeared in the book.  I've written the instructions below.  I used all-purpose flour (not pastry flour) and just a little less than one cup of milk.

Blueberry Biscuits

2 C. flour
4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 T. sugar
4 T. cold butter
7/8 C. milk
3/4 C. blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Using a food processor, a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the dry mixture until it resembles cornmeal.  Add the milk slowly and combine.  Gently fold in the blueberries. Pat the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut biscuits to the desired size.  Bake about ten minutes (or more or less, depending on the size.

Blueberry Spice Sauce

It's blueberry season and, finding myself with a surfeit of berries (which truthfully weren't all that good), I was thrilled to discover this BlueBerries [sic] & Spice Sauce recipe in my collection.  What better way to enhance some less-than-stellar fruit than to add a bit of heat, sugar and spice?

It was not only delicious, but couldn't have been easier to prepare.  It is somewhat reminiscent of canned blueberry pie filling, but without the overly sweet taste and gloppy texture.

I poured this over vanilla ice cream, but it would be equally good with buttermilk biscuits (think blueberry shortcake) or atop a simple white cake in place of frosting.

Start with fresh blueberries (even if they don't taste that good out of hand).  As Jerry Seinfeld said, "I don't return fruit. Fruit is a gamble. I know that going in."

Heat some water, and slowly add the sugar, cornstarch and spices.

Cook until it begins to boil and then add the blueberries.  Simmer over low heat for about five minutes.

Et voila!  You've transformed lackluster berries into a delicious and versatile dessert sauce.

Production notes:  Because some of the handwriting is indecipherable, I've typed the recipe below.

Blueberry Spice Sauce

1/2  cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups fresh washed blueberries

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
Heat 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan.
Slowly pour the dry ingredients into the water, whisking all the while.
When the mixture comes to a boil, add the blueberries.
Reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes.

It will thicken even more when it's refrigerated.