Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins: Recipe

by Asma Gaba

To be honest, I despise fruits in my dessert. I don’t understand the appeal of fruit tarts or strawberry cheesecake or even apple pies. Yep, I don’t like apple pie. But for some reason, this recipe for blueberry muffins is my one true love. The cinnamon gives it that sweet and spicy taste that’s absolutely divine- especially with black coffee, if I do say so myself. The recipe is fairly easy, beginning bakers could totally make these muffins with ease.

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Ingredients:
(Makes about 10 muffins)
1 ½ cups of flour            ¾ cups of white sugar
½ tsp of salt                ⅓ cup of milk
1 egg                    ⅓ cup of vegetable oil
2 tsp of baking powder         ¾ cups of blueberries
2 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:

1. The first thing you do, even before mixing ingredients, is to preheat the oven to 400 degrees. The oven will be ready by the time the muffin batter is prepared.
   
2. Time to prepare the ingredients! First, you’re going to rinse the blueberries; I find it best to use a strainer that’s usually made for draining pasta. Set it aside to add in the batter later.
   
3. Now, in a big bowl, you’re going to mix all the dry ingredients together: the 1 ½ cups of flour, ¾ cups of sugar, ½ teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoon of baking powder, and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. I find that mixing the dry ingredients with a whisk is most effective.
   
4. Here comes the somewhat tricky part: In a measuring cup, measure the ⅓ cup of vegetable oil. Leave the oil in the measuring cup and crack an egg into it. Then, while the egg and oil is still in the measuring cup, add milk until it reaches the 1 cup mark- about ⅓ of a cup of milk will be used. Mix it thoroughly with a whisk.
   
5. Add the mixture in the cup to the dry ingredients. Mix until fully blended. The batter will be quite thick; that’s normal.
   
6. Next, you add the blueberries. Gently mix them without crushing them. This can be done by a method called “folding in”. To fold in the blueberries, you will gently scrape the bowl’s bottom, and bring the batter to the top- kind of like “folding” the batter, so it covers the blueberries.
   
7. After putting the batter in a greased muffin pan or in muffin cups, put it in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes.
   

Note: If you’re not a cinnamon person, the recipe is just as amazing without it! If you’re not a blueberry person, substitute it with whatever you like! Pecans, cranberries, and chocolate chips, for example.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

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