Blueberry Muffins; A recipe

Making muffins is one of the easiest and most gratifying ways of creating an atmosphere of cosy domestic idyll. I think it’s the fact that muffins are so unnecessary, you never need a muffin, but they are always a delight. Especially a mini-muffin – I dare you to try and find someone who will say no to a mini-muffin. They bring a whole new meaning to bite-size. To use an annoyingly cute, and made-up modern term; they are poppable. Delightfully so, if I may say.

The other greatest perk of muffin-making is the fact that most muffin recipes are of the dump-and-mix variety. Dry ingredients in a bowl, add the wet ingredients, and lazily stir together – manageable even with eyes glued shut from sleep, and hair sticking up six ways to hell at, say, 9am on a Sunday. And if you have people at your house at 9am on a Sunday, and they’re not happy to have a mini-blueberry-muffin, then you need to go home and rethink your life. (Nerd reference – name that movie)

In the interest of professionalism in blogging, I have done some research here. I thought to myself, I want to find the ultimate muffin. Muffin Ultima. The ne plus ultra of muffins. So I abandoned my usual recipe and turned to the only syndicated group I know of, which manages to be a scarily huge corporation, and warmly maternal at the same time. I picked up my copy of the Martha Stewart Baking Book. Blueberries being one the only three fruits native to North America, I figured that the quintessentially Yankee Miss Martha would surely be in keeping of a perfect muffin recipe. Fun fact: the other two fruits are cranberries, and concord grapes. Never let it be said that I am not informative.

And she did. She had a wonderful recipe, that I have listed for you below. This recipe produces a beautiful muffin shaped muffin, with the real humped tops, and they are rounded and golden. They are soft, vanilla scented, and bursting with blueberries. Absolutely beautiful specimens, the like of which I shall one-day sell in my seaside café by the half dozen. In Maine…or on Nantucket, maybe… They are perfect looking specimens, and they taste heavenly. Church picnic? Here’s your muffin recipe. High tea party? May I recommend this muffin recipe? Baby shower? Do I have the recipe for you!

But…..eyes glued shut at 9am on a Sunday and hankering for a muffin that’s ugly and easy and gooood? Don’t refer to this one. It has a small, dense crumb, closer to a cupcake. I have to say I prefer a larger more buttery crumb, with some purple coloured spots, and crusty bits. But I concede that not everyone does, and a lot of people have trouble looking past an ugly muffin, to it’s delicious reward. So for them, and for you, I suggest this recipe.
The Martha Stewart team have recipe writing down to a science, so I am not going to even try to improve upon perfection. Follow this recipe to the letter and you will have a perfect muffin!

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