NoobCook.com

omg! my first successful bake! - Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

I love summer time in the US!

Wait, I don’t come from US, and isn’t it summer all year round in Singapore?

Well, the reason for the above statement is because I am totally loving the wide array of imported US summer fruits which is currently sold at our supermarkets, and at great prices too! For the past month, me (and my hamsters) have been enjoying an endless supply of blueberries.

Wheras a small punnet of blueberries used to cost S$7.50 off-season… right now it only cost about S$3 a punnet! And occasionally, NTUC sells 2 punnets for S$4.99 *sweeps shelves* hopefully I do not cause a localised shortage of blueberries whenever there’s a sale

Blueberries Love

===

And omg omg omg!!! *excitement spilling out of muffin cup* Those whose food blogs I commented frequently on know that I kept whining about not being able to bake to save my life … and now, after COUNTLESS failed attempts, I can finally add ONE successful bake to my cooking resume. Lookie at the muffin I baked!!

Ok … it may not look like the perfect muffin (over-baked, not very fluffy, top is too smooth?) but at least it resembles some form of muffini-ness, and it IS edible!! Yeah!! So proud of myself

Blueberry Muffins - somehow they look better when dissected.

To keep a very long story short, I decided to investigate why my bakes always end with failure … one day, the belated-genius in me decided to buy a box of Betty Crocker muffin mix to investigate if there is something wrong with my oven. And to my horror, I found out that my oven convection-microwave-oven heat is not evenly distributed - the cups placed on the inner most end gets cooked really quickly (much faster than the recommended baking time), while those placed at the outer edge don’t ever seem to get cooked. No… I didn’t run out to buy a new oven convection -microwave-oven after that … after all, my current one is pretty new … but I find that if I bake 6 muffins at a time, placing them in the inner most end … and reducing the cook time by about 5 minutes … it seemed to work

(update on 16 Aug: Just realised after reading lk’s comment that there is a difference between an ‘oven’ and a ‘convection microwave’… I’m so noobish! )

And oh, I don’t ever try a failed baking recipe twice (so that I still have reason to blame the recipe when something goes wrong, haa!).

Since this is the first time my muffins are successful after trying various recipes, does it mean that this recipe is fail-proof? hehe…

===

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins
Credits: Recipe from ‘True Blueberry’ by Linda Dannenberg
This muffin recipe is that of the famous Jordan Marsh’s Framingham Store (which closed down in 1983).

Ingredients
(Makes 12 standard-size muffins)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
110g lightly salted butter (or 1 stick), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a medium bowl & set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar and cream at low speed until the mixture is smoothly blended. At low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, and blend.
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk a little at a time, alternating one with the other, and beat until blended, then remove the bowl from the mixer.
5. Add 1/2 cup of blueberries and gently fold them in with a wooden spoon or spatula. Add the rest of the berries and gently fold them in.
6. Place paper muffin cups into  the muffin tin, and fill each cup with slightly more than 3/4 of batter. (Note: if not using paper cups, grease the muffin tin).
7. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the muffin tops, then bake in the center of the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and puffy.
8. Remove to a wire rack and cool in the tins for 1 hour before serving.

Blueberry Tea Time, anyone?

==

I hope Dhanggit (and her guests) do not mind me contributing my first successful bake to her daughter’s first birthday party at the Perfect Party Dishes Blog Event (note to dhanggit: sorry for the gender typo!!)

Share the good food

Tags: Baking, blueberry, Muffins, seasonal

Email | Print | Bite This!

28 Sizzles» Feed me with words of encouragement, honest feedback & suggestions ^_^