Monday, June 2, 2008

I love learning new tricks!




Yesterday was our Sunday to bring breakfast or snacks to Sunday School. I have been craving blueberries, a fact which was spurred on by Kate and all her blueberry posts. I decided I would make blueberry muffins...from scratch! A first for me, and my first official act as a stay at home mom. ;)


I found this recipe on Patsy's blog: Family, Friends and Food. The title does not lie; Melt-in-Your-Mouth Blueberry Muffins. They are excellent and I had many compliments on them yesterday morning. They really aren't much more complicated than opening the bag of muffin mix that I normally use.


But here is where the title of this blog comes in. I learned a new trick! I love learning the basics of cooking and baking so I can improvise more easily, especially when I do not have the called for ingredients readily on hand and a mad dash to the store is just not happening. In these cases, google can be a girl's best friend.


This recipe called for sour cream. I know I read that originally, but it slipped my mind until I looked it over again Saturday night. I didn't have any sour cream! Google came to my rescue and I found that you can substitue 3/4 cup sour milk plus 1/3 cup butter when a BAKING recipe calls for sour cream. Great! But how do I get sour milk? (or you can use buttermilk but I don't have any of that either!) I just googled that also and found that if you add 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 cup of milk and let it sit for 10 minutes you have sour milk! So, I used this little trick instead of jumping in the car and going out to get sour cream.


Also, I only had 1 egg and the recipe calls for 2. I did originally have 2 eggs but broke one on accident...long story, not going there right now. ;) I decided to just add a little oil to the one egg and call it a day. Both my substitutions did not seem to harm the outcome of the recipe and I was proud of my ingenuity! I am learning something through all this cooking and food blogging!




Melt-in-Your-Mouth Blueberry Muffins
Originally from: Summer Gatherings, Rick Rodgers

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup full fat sour cream
5 tbsps unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 10 muffin tins with paper liners. I got 18 muffins out of this...well 12 full sized ones and 6 1/2 sized ones...I had too much batter for just 12 muffins. Also, I didn't use liners. I just sprayed the pan with cooking spray.


Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Beat the eggs until combined in another medium bowl, then stir in sour cream and butter. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Foldin blueberries. Spoon equal amounts into each muffin tin.


Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Mine took exactly 21 minutes. :)


3 comments:

That Girl said...

Now you're a REAL mom. Blueberry muffins were my mom's specialty!

And as for tricks - I had almost a backwards of yours last night when I went to make mac & cheese that called for evaporated milk...which I didn't have. Instead I used sour cream!

Unknown said...

I have had the same experience more than once! You can use 2 TBSP of Cornstarch in place of 1 egg :-) It's my favorite trick.

Patsyk said...

I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed the muffins! I love learning new tricks so that I can improvise, too!