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.

Breakfast Muffins

I was headed to the gym this morning (really!) when, on my way out the door, I spied this recipe card on the dining room table.  It called my name (in a way the gym never does), so I swapped my sweatshirt for an apron, and put these delicious breakfast muffins together in literally five minutes.

These are old-school style muffins -- simple, small and not overly sweet --  muffins that will not give you the kind of muffin tops you try to avoid by going to the gym. They are the opposite of the huge modern-day muffins sold in delis and bakeries, which are really just muffins disguised as cake (which is fine, but we should all acknowledge them for what they are).

Below are all the ingredients you need.

Mix everything together in a bowl...

and fill the muffin tin.

This is a thick, sticky batter.  Don't worry that the tops aren't smooth.  They will all even out in the oven.

Plated, awaiting the arrival of the DH, who did go to the gym this morning.

Inside the muffin.

This is one of those vintage recipe cards that's simply a list of ingredients, with no method given.  Below, is the way I mixed them.  If you don't have buttermilk, you can make your own by adding some vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk.  Let it stand for a few minutes before using.

I used butter instead of shortening, and baked them for 20 minutes.

Breakfast Muffins
Preheat oven to 425 F.  Prepare the muffin pan by lining or greasing and flouring.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl.  Pour wet ingredients in and mix well.  Place into lined muffin pan and bake.