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August 6, 2008 5 Comments

Dueling Blueberry Muffin Recipes

At my request (see my previous post), Andrea of Flourishing Mother and Lisa of Stretch Mark Mama kindly offered me their recipes for blueberry muffins.

This morning, because we are practically swimming in blueberries and I was in a mood to bake, I decided to make both recipes and compare, contrast, and crown a winner.

In one corner, we have Andrea’s Blueberry Muffins, which I made first for no particular reason.

Flourishing Mother’s Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of unbleached white flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup white sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour muffin pans, or use paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix.
3. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture, alternating with milk. Fold in berries.
4. Fill muffin cups and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Yes. All of it.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
 
Serve warm and pretty to your family for breakfast or after-dinner snack.
 
I’m not the greatest baker or cook who ever rattled pans in a kitchen. I often mess things up. Andrea, I forgot to top them with sugar. Forgive me for this oversight!
 
Nevertheless, they turned out quite lovely. Here’s visual proof:
 
Andrea's Blueberry Muffins, up close and tantalizing

Andrea's Blueberry Muffins, up close and tantalizing

 
And because I got a little carried away trying out different angles, here’s another view of Andrea’s muffins:
 
Andrea's blueberry muffins strike a pose, hoping to cause spontaneous salivation.

Andrea's blueberry muffins strike a pose, hoping to cause spontaneous salivation.

 
Now I must quickly introduce the rival recipe, Stretch Mark Mama’s Lemon Blueberry Muffins.
 
Lisa kindly posted the entire recipe in the comments section of my last post. Here it is:
Lemon Blueberry Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour1 cup sugar3 teaspoons baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt2 large eggs1 cup half and half1/2 cup vegetable oil1 teaspoon lemon extract1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, oil, and extract. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in blueberries. Fill greased jumbo muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 400 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Note: 16 regular-size muffin cups may be used; bake for 18-20 minutes.

And here are the results:

Lisa's Lemon Blueberry Muffins in soft, flattering lighting seek to tempt readers with their beauty.

Lisa's Lemon Blueberry Muffins in soft, flattering lighting seek to tempt readers with their beauty.

And to be fair, here is another shot of these muffins for you to consider:
An aerial view of Lisa's Lemon Blueberry Muffins--readers are ready to swoop down and devour.

An aerial view of Lisa's Lemon Blueberry Muffins--readers are ready to swoop down and devour.

After tasting first Andrea’s, then Lisa’s, and Andrea’s again and then, you know, to be equal and just in my judging, I had another of Lisa’s. And then I started to feel kind of squishy and Pillsbury Doughboy-ish and decided I had enough information to report back to my readers.And then after all the sugar and carbohydrates raced through my system, I crashed and took a short nap in the hammock.Now, groggily but quite content with these dessert-quality treats, I have to say I loved them both. I did. I loved them both in different ways.Lisa’s Lemon Blueberry Muffins seemed a bit fluffier and of course had the subtle taste-zip of the lemon. They seemed almost like something from a bakery. Yum.Andrea’s Blueberry Muffins were slightly less fluffy–in fact, when I mixed the batter, I was surprised at how thick it was…almost more like cookie dough than muffin batter. They were delicious, packed with berries per her measurements.Perhaps Andrea’s would have squeaked past Lisa’s and secured a win in the Blueberry Muffin duel, had I remembered to sprinkle the sugar on top.Or perhaps, had I eaten a Lemon Blueberry Muffin first, Andrea’s would have seemed bland by comparison.I’m not sure.So it’s a tie.If you love blueberry muffins, and want a cake-like, fluffy, dessert-y treat, you can’t go wrong with either recipe. They are both utterly delicious. Mouth-watering. Delectable. I asked for a home-run recipe and ended up with two home runs.Thank you, ladies, for your excellent recommendations!We have enough muffins to host a tea, so I’m going to invite my neighbor over. Blueberry muffins and tea on the back porch with a friend on a summer afternoon.Sounds perfect.(Note: If you want a hearty, healthy, whole-wheat muffin with added flax seed that’s sweetened with honey, um, you’d better try a different recipe search. These white-flour, refined-sugar muffins are not for you.)

Filed Under: family, frugality Tagged With: blueberry muffin, blueberry muffin recipe, blueberry muffins, Food

Comments

  1. Stretch Mark Mama says

    August 7, 2008 at 1:36 am

    Oh, I was just WONDERING how that was going!

    You know, for all my health-talk, when it comes to desserts–I am ALL ABOUT that trashy white flour.

    And btw, that muffin recipe is equally as good with raspberries.

    Reply
  2. Mehmet says

    June 26, 2013 at 9:07 am

    Hi Ann,
    I have just come across your elegant site and congratulate you for your beautiful spirit.
    I am writing you from Istanbul and in Turkey, we use metric /kg basis in calculations.
    Could you please write here how much grams a cup is equivalent to ?
    Because I suspect that I might not catch the precise proportion , a sine qua non in perfect baking.

    Thank you.

    Reply
    • annkroeker says

      June 30, 2013 at 5:11 pm

      Mehmet, thank you so much for writing. Baking with metric is based on weight; baking with U.S. system is based on volume. So I’m not sure exactly how to compare the two, because a cup of sugar (which would completely fill the cup) would be different weight from a cup of blueberries (which would leave a lot of gaps and weigh less).

      The most important comparisons would be with the main ingredients of the flour, sugar, etc. I found this chart of equivalents that looks to be helpful: http://www.recipegoldmine.com/kitchart/kitchart2.html

      That site says that 1 cup sugar = 225 grams
      It says 1 cup flour = 110 grams

      The blueberries are easier because you just pour in enough so that you can imagine how many might be in each muffin. You can add more or less, whatever you like.

      Hope that helps!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Food on Fridays: Corn Muffin Bake-Off « says:
    June 18, 2009 at 11:06 pm

    […] So I made three different recipes and sampled them all, like I did one time for two blueberry muffin recipes. […]

    Reply
  2. Food on Fridays: Blueberry Mania « says:
    July 29, 2010 at 11:07 pm

    […] days, freeze lots, share some, toss some in our oatmeal or pancakes, and add them to coffee cake, muffins, smoothies, or even another […]

    Reply

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