Blueberry Book Bistro Muffins

Say that 3x fast!

Mia's class is having a Book Bistro event tomorrow morning. All the kids will go to a "bistro" and have bevs and snacks all while being read books to by parents. I wasn't sure if I was up for a narrating task so I decided to bake instead.

Muffins were asked for so I immediately thought to make the blueberry muffins from ATK's cookbook. They're made with yogurt and so they're super moist and yummy! I went to safeway to shop and I knew they wouldn't have any decent plain lowfat yogurt that wasn't so tart that makes you make that awful face... so I opted for the greek yogurt. I figured it would give the tanginess and creaminess that I was looking for.

Wasn't into paying 99 cents for lemon either. And these days I'm partial to meyer lemons straight from the tree. Unfortunately not too many people have been bringing fresh lemons into the office. So those were my substitutions/additions from the SA Queen herself. No fresh lemon zest and greek yogurt.

I love how recipes tell you how long it takes to make. I usually need to double this estimate. This one said Prep: 5 minutes Total Time: 50min. They were about right. Except I ended up with 1.5 batches so just the cook time took 50 min.

I mixed my dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt), then the yogurt and eggs together. Immediately it seemed that my mixture was much more drier than I expected. Hmmmm. I added the melted butter. Still a little sticky and hard to manage. Okay, I steal some of Miguel's vanilla yogurt and throw that in to give it a thinner consistency. That seemed to do the trick. I wonder if it was the greek yogurt...? I'm sure there was some chemical reaction going that I didn't get. Threw the blueberries into flour to coat and folded them in. It was a hefty job getting that spatula over and over again. But alas, it was all mixed and ready to go into the muffin tin. It was still pretty sticky and pretty much a big glomp of muffin batter went into each hole - perfectly sized.

Popped them in the hot oven and waited. While I was waiting I did a little baking powder experiment. I'm getting better at throwing expired things out of the pantry, but some things still dont have dates and I have no idea when I bought them. Baking ingredients especially. Turns out baking powder is a mixture of baking soda, cream of tartar and cornstarch. To see if it's still fresh, put 2t into 1C of boiling water - if it's bubbles, it's still good. I threw 1t into the bowl of hot water and it was like a volcano bubbling up! Pretty cool! Suffice it to say, my baking powder is still fresh.

I also read (love my ATK cookbook - so many interesting tips and notes scattered about) that when cooking popovers it's best to keep the oven hot - as in dont get excited and peek into the oven. The lowered temp that comes from that nosiness keeps the popovers from staying big and fluffy. I figured this applied to muffins as well and I waited patiently for the muffins to finish.

Voila! Damn these muffins look good! And they smell delish! Smell that butter and the sweetness of blueberries - yum!!

I know I didn't make enough for the class since the recipe only makes 12 (even though I managed to get 18 out of it) but my bet is that there will be plenty of food at this event... Should be lots of fun for the kids!

Comments

  1. MarisaMarch 16, 2010 at 1:59 PM

    post event note: mia thanked me hugely for the muffins and said they were sooooo good! that, my friend, was worth all the time I put into these puppies.

    ReplyDelete

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