Blueberry Muffins

Last weekend my beautiful sister and niece decided to come over for lunch and she wanted to take some photos of me cooking. My sister is a fantastic photographer, has taken courses in it and, in my opinion, should definitely be earning money from it. You can see some of her photos over at her blog No Frills Mum!

I decided for the photo shoot I'd make some blueberry muffins. Blueberries would have to be one of my favourite fruits. I could just eat them all the time! Unfortunately though, I live in Australia where blueberries are very expensive. Well, too expensive to be making pies full of them or a lot of other recipes that involve blueberries. So you might be able to understand how excited I was when I went to explore a new supermarket that's opened up here in Melbourne, called La Manna, and found that they had 1kg of blueberries for $8.99! Now, I'm not exactly sure how much blueberries are in America, but to buy a 250g punnett here in Australia it's usually at least $4.

Ingredients:
6 tbsp butter, room temp
3 cups, plus 2 tbsp plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups blueberries

1. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees celcius. Butter large or small muffin tins, and set aside.

2. In a large bowl sift together flour and baking powder and put aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, egg yolks and vanilla; mix until well combined.

4. Reduce speed to low; alternate adding flour mixture and milk to the mixer, beginning and ending with the flour. Remove bowl from mixer, gently fold in berries by hand.

5. Divide batter among muffin tins; sprinkle generously with sugar.

6. Bake until light golden, in colour; about 45 minutes for large muffins and about 30 minutes for small muffins. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Oh and then eat, of course!

Recipe Source:
Blueberry Muffin recipe
from the Martha Stewart website.
And thanks to A from No Frills Mum for the photos!

Oh and did I mention that while I was cooking I kept being distracted by this gorgeous little girl (my niece Ruby)?! I just love to watch her toddle around and play - she's mesmerising! And she's just always so busy, so it's always fun to watch her do her thing.

And, despite the fact I haven't asked her permission to do this - a photo of my sister snapping away with her awesome camera. Excuse the quality - I took it with my phone which clearly can't compare to my sister's SLR. (Want!!)

Blueberry Muffins Ingredients: 6 tbsp butter, room temp 3 cups, plus 2 tbsp plain flour 3 tsp baking powder 1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling 1 large egg 2 egg yolks 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup milk 1 3/4 cups blueberries Method: 1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Butter large or small muffin tins, and set aside. 2. In a large bowl sift together flour and baking powder and put aside. 3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, egg yolks and vanilla; mix until well combined. 4. Reduce speed to low; alternate adding flour mixture and milk to the mixer, beginning and ending with the flour. Remove bowl from mixer, gently fold in berries by hand. 5. Divide batter among muffin tins; sprinkle generously with sugar. 6. Bake until light golden, in colour; about 45 minutes for large muffins and about 30 minutes for small muffins. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.