Martha and Me

I have mastered the muffin.

I always made okay muffins…sometimes a little chewy, sometimes a little small. Now, now, after viewing Martha making blueberry muffins and copying her recipe, I have made a big batch of delicate, delicious muffins for a picnic tomorrow.

Here’s what I learned. Apparently, I always took the usual recipe precaution “don’t over-beat” and “beat just until mixed” too literally. I was shocked at how long Martha beat the batter while adding the flour and milk to the butter-sugar mixture. I have been under-beating heretofore.

Next, Martha taught me to butter and flour the muffin tin. (I ran out of paper muffin cups, so I had to prepare the pans.) Duh. I know how much flouring the pan helps with cakes, but I never did it with muffins before. This time, no sticking! 

I used the ice-cream scoop trick to make the muffins uniformly (okay, similarly) sized.  Such a good Martha tip.

A generous sprinkle of a sugar and nutmeg mixture makes a nice crunchy topping.

Finally, I baked the muffins till they were brown. Usually I take them out too early, so that they’re done but not beautifully brown.

Voytko Farms in Aurora, Ohio

Also, I used blueberries frozen from a recent blueberry-picking trip with friends. So much better than your average frozen or grocery-store varieties. Martha also suggested shaking the berries with a tablespoon or so of flour before mixing them in the batter to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin. I forgot this step, but my blueberries did not sink.

I’m ready to try other varieties. Plain muffins. Rasberry muffins. Applesauce muffins. Coffeecake muffins. Strawberry muffins.