Caboose Is Quite The Funny Kid, But This Is Really A Post About A Blueberry Muffin Recipe

Lora posted a yummy looking blueberry muffin recipe on her blog at the beginning of the week, and seeing as how my kids think blueberry muffins should have their own food group, I thought it might be fun to try. I confess that I am a boxed mix blueberry muffin maker. I use the plain old Betty Crocker kind with the little can of blueberries that you have to drain and rinse. It's not the fancy package where you end up with a crumb topping. If I make one package which yields 12 muffins, Hubby and I get none.

The Best Blueberry Muffins
(according to Lora's recipe, which came from her friend Sandy)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups blueberries
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
******
Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs; then add vanilla, baking powder and salt.
Fold in half of the flour and milk, then add remaining flour and milk.
Dust blueberries with flour and fold into the mixture.
Scoop batter into a greased muffin tin.
Mix together the 2 T sugar and nutmeg and sprinkle on top of the muffins. Bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes 12 large muffins.

I took pictures along the way, and I'll give the family verdict at the end of the post.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Since my butter wasn't softened enough, this is as light and fluffy as it got.
Beat in eggs;
then add vanilla, baking powder and salt. Looking creamier now.
Fold in half of the flour and milk,
then add remaining flour and milk.
Dust blueberries with flour and fold into the mixture.
Scoop batter into a greased muffin tin (I used paper liners). Mix together the 2 T sugar and nutmeg and sprinkle on top of the muffins.
Bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12 large muffins.

So now I get to tell you about all the little idiosyncrasies along the way. First, I didn't know whether to use fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries. Since a very small package of fresh blueberries at Sam's was over $7.00, I went with frozen. I did not thaw them first. Should I have? I have no idea. I don't even know if I was supposed to use fresh or frozen.

Those frozen blueberries — they made that batter really cold and firm and sticky. It already was much thicker than the normal batter from those boxed mixes. Now it was getting close to sticky cookie dough, and I had to get it in a paper muffin cup. I thought I filled those paper cups and I still had tons of batter left, so I started smooshing more on top, because the recipe said 12 large muffins. I wasn't going to get another tin out and make more than I was supposed to. Eventually it smooshed down into what you saw in the picture. It was just terribly deceptive because I was dropping blobs into those paper cups to start with and trying to keep it from landing in the wrong place as it became dislodged from my finger. Remember it was like sticky cookie dough, so it was stuck to the spoon, and I had to use my finger to get it off. Then if it didn't come off my finger I'd pull the whole thing up in the air, paper muffin cup and all. Tricky, it was.

So the verdict on the muffins? Hubby was out of town and didn't get any, I thought they were good, the girls thought they were good, and Buddy thought they were okay. Caboose staged a revolt. "Why did you put blueberries in them?"

Me: "Because they are blueberry muffins."

Caboose: "There are too many! They are fat! They are bursting! What did you do to the top? It's hard!"

Needless to say, he didn't eat his.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably thaw the blueberries at least a little bit, and I would probably cut them back to 2 cups. I would also make a boxed mix at the same time. Catering to Caboose? Maybe. But you can never have too many blueberry muffins in our house, and they won't last long.