Blueberry Muffins

It’s blueberry season here. I have ten bushes, but haven’t been able to harvest more than a handful as the birds and the chipmunks get them. One of these years I’ll build covered fencing* around them, but for now I stock up on blueberries from farmstands and from carts at the side of the road. I wash the berries and spread them out on a large sheet pan, freeze individually, and then put them into zip freezer bags so that I have blueberries through the winter. Invariably those get used up before springtime and I end up buying frozen blueberries from the supermarket. They’re good, but not as good as local. Now that it’s blueberry season again, I want to use up what I have in the freezer, and that means making muffins.

I am very, very fussy about muffins. I like them light, both in texture and fat content. I want a berry muffin to be chockfull of berries, but not mushy. I want them to be normal portion size (I’d much rather eat two than down one huge muffin!) I want the recipe to be so easy that I can stir up a batch on the spur of the moment. Which is what I did yesterday afternoon.

Blueberry Muffins

1                         egg
1 cup                 buttermilk
1/3 cup             vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon   vanilla
2 tablespoons  honey
2 cups                all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
1/2 cup              sugar
1/4 teaspoon    salt
1 teaspoon       baking soda
1 1/2 cups        blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t defrost)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 12 muffin cups or use paper liners.
2. Whisk together the egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and honey.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda until thoroughly mixed (nothing ruins a baked good more than a clump of baking soda!)
4. Using a spatula, combine the wet and the dry ingredients until all is moist. Lumps can remain.
5. Gently stir in the blueberries.
6. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups.
7. Bake for 22 to 30 minutes. If the berries were frozen, the muffins will take the longer time to bake through. They’re done when they spring back to the touch and there are no edges of raw dough around the berries.

muffins

 

*I’ve tried the netting that supposedly protects berry bushes. Both chipmunks and birds trapped and died in it. This year I tried the balloon that look like big scary eyes. The birds sat on them. Suggestions are welcome.

Comments:

  2. I love blueberry muffins. looks like i’ll be making them this weekend… Perhaps try the soft pliable fabric screen insted of the netting.

  4. I have seen folks build a wooden frame around their berries then add chicken wire like a big chicken run.

  5. These are a personal favorite of mine. I’ve been using Ina’s recipe, but it’s too much like cake. We just don’t like something for dessert, for breakfast. I’ve searched for recipes, but have come up short. A box brand is the closest to what I’m looking for, but is lacking. I can’t wait to try this recipe. It looks and sounds like exactly what I have been looking for. Thanks for sharing. I would have to share a couple of these with our “chickee girls”. :o)

    • PS- Our fake owls drawed in real owls, who were trying to get romantic at nite. What a commotion. Now, we have owls all over the place hooting at nite, especially in June because of nesting. In short, our fake owls just created a dating spot for all the owls in our community.

        • Lol, on the “lover’s lane”. It worked some. We purchased them to keep the hawks away from the squirrels. The real owls are out at dusk and dawn and the hawks know to stay away. I may be wrong, but I think owls will take a chicken too. So, our hens have to stay in coop and run with all the wildlife we have here. We are going to build a chicken tractor, so they can have access to our garden when we are out working in it.

  6. I’ve visited Martha Stewart’s farm in Bedford, New York a few times and always learn something new. She has (as one would expect) a long blueberry ‘pergola’. I was interested to learn from Ryan, her head gardener and a very sensible and humane guy, that they originally netted the pergola but also found the birds getting trapped in it. The entire thing is now covered with 3/4 inch hardware cloth. Ryan said it was a beast to put up the first time, but it has lasted and works like a charm. (I hate working with hardware cloth, but….well, there you go.)

    • Yes, I fear that a hardware cloth cage is the solution. My blueberries double as decorative foundation bushes, so I am loathe to do that. Maybe during the season, though, I will.

  7. I had to laugh at the “birds sitting on the balloons”. I’ve seen birds sitting on the fake predators and find it amuzing. I wish I could offer you some suggestions but other than caging them off there isn’t much you can do to keep the birds and chipmunks out.
    I have bought the fake owl, redtail hawk, snakes (all at rummage sales) and within a couple days the birds figure out they are not real. I have managed to scare the tail feathers off my hens though, so don’t mount one on the run fence. ;-)

  8. Out on the high plains even cherries, sour, are a precious commodity. We had 7 or more cherry trees and when my husband was disappointed because he did not get a single cherry he built a huge “box” out of poles and chicken mesh. Now we get cherries from one – when the hail does not do them in. And lots of happy birds.

  9. I’ve been trying to grow blueberries but they take forever. I was told that before we bought our house, the whole lot was FULL of bushes. Not one to be found there now except for my 3 struggling bushes.
    My brother has a well established one but he has the same problem….the can’t get out there quick enough…the birds eat them up so fast once they ripen. I will be trying your recipe with the blueberries my son and I pick from the farm down the street. :)

  10. I will be right over for a muffin..I am battling the squirrels who are having a wonderful time eating my tomatoes. I have fence around them and then the whole garden is fenced. This morning on TV this guy was selling a book on how to get rid of critters naturally? I loved the idea od putting laxative down the gopher holes..gonna try it!

  11. I want to try these as they are less sweet and lower fat than the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen that I have been using for years. Love them, but these have a much better guilt factor.

  12. The ag station tried blueberries here and had to put them in a greenhouse because of birds and too much rain. I am planning to screen a corner of my lanai for mine, because currently the wild turkeys get them. I have been using a spun-bonded row cover but it looks awful and I still only get a few because if it blows off for a minute they all seem to know!

  13. Those look wonderful!! I have one bush this year, and we covered it with netting to keep the chickens out of them.
    It worked and we have a ton of berries, so excited as the bush is in a pot!!!
    I am always looking for a great recipe, and can can never find one that turns out well.
    Yours looks wonderful, so am excited to try it out! My question is… what are the paper wraps around your muffins, and where do you get them?
    do you use a tin, or just those paper cups?
    I love your wesite, your webcams are my screen savers at work. When I can’t be home with my 9 chickens, Im with yours at work. It brings me such peace… Thank you!

    • I bought those cute paper cups at HomeGoods. You can use a regular muffin tin, but for some reason, despite greasing, muffins always stick in mine, so I resort to paper. I do put the paper cups in the muffin tin just to keep them upright.

  14. These look yummy. Ths year I finally had my husband build trellising for my berries and covered with netting. Great harvest so far. Of course my girls when out free ranging keep looking at the netting and then back to me and back and forth as if to say ” now why did you have to go and cover them all up. we ant t our snacks”I have 4 blueberries, 2 raspberry and a blackberry bush. Thornless. After berries re done netting stored or next year. Happy baking.

    • P.s. I have been checking the netting every day. So far I had a squirrel caught but freed him. The birds perch on top but none have been caught on the nether. I have hd it up 2 months now.

  15. I have 2 bushes planted in an old bath in my walk-in fruit cage, which give me a good handful a day (just enough to throw into my bowl of porridge!). But my other 3 bushes are out in the open… hence very few berries for me as the crows and blackbirds seem to get there first!

  16. We planted about 15 bushes 6 years ago and this year is the first year we’ve had more than a couple of handfuls of berries. In fact, we have quarts of berries and I’m thrilled! Our neighbors, who have had established bushes for many years and enough to have people come by to “pick your own” use tobacco netting to cover their bushes. They had enough to share so we covered our little patch with the netting and so far, we’re careful to leave no openings, no birds or other creatures have been harmed or trapped. We have wild blueberries here and there so I feel the wild critters have their share as well. I pick blueberries each morning to bring to work to share and when I emerge from under the tobacco netting all my girls are gathered at the edge of the nearby fence eagerly awaiting their handful of blueberries. I think this morning I’ll try your lovely blueberry muffin recipe and bring in muffins to work. When I make blueberry muffins I typically use a modified corn bread recipe because I like more textured muffins but I know I’ll love this recipe as well. Thanks for the recipe!

    • I’d never heard of tobacco netting, so I did a web search. You can only find it for sale at specialized farm stores, but it looks like exactly what I need for my blueberries. I’ll get some for next year.

  18. I made your recipe this morning using fresh peaches. Yum!