Recipe: Any-Kind-Of-Berry Muffins
These muffins would make a nice addition to a Mother's Day brunch (or really any brunch at all).
Mother’s Day is Sunday. If you haven’t yet found Mom that perfect present, a batch of these light, berry-studded muffins will say “I love you.” They’re from a new, local cookbook, “The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook: 125 Homegrown Recipes from the New England Hills” by Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner. Look for it in mid-May, just in time for CSA season.
These muffins are from the Hawthorne Valley’s farm camp. As the title says, any berry will do. I opted for blueberries as some were stashed in my freezer. I thought about rhubarb, but haven’t yet tried it. Blueberries are the standard, but the muffins would be wonderful, too, with raspberries, blackberries or a mixture.
When I next bake these, I’ll use cupcake liners. The muffins have a tendency to stick and you don’t want to leave a morsel behind.
Any-Kind-Of-Berry Muffins
Makes 12 muffins.
Adapted from “The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook: 125 Homegrown Recipes from the New England Hills” by Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner.
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for the pan, if not using liners
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh (or frozen, unthawed) blueberries, raspberries and/or blackberries
Cinnamon-sugar topping (optional):
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or coat with the extra melted butter.
2. Combine the 6 tablespoons melted butter, the sugar, egg and egg yolk in a large bowl and whisk until creamy and light yellow in color. Whisk in the vanilla and milk until fully combined.
3. Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
4. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet until they barely come together, being careful not to over-mix. Gently fold in the berries, being careful not to crush them.
5. Prepare the cinnamon-sugar topping, if using. Put the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and mix thoroughly, breaking up any cinnamon clumps.
6. Using a scoop or a spoon, fill the prepared muffin cups ¾ full to nearly full. If desired, top each muffin with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. Not all the cinnamon sugar will be used.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the top of a muffin comes out clean and the muffin springs back when lightly touched. Cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Lift out muffins, or loosen them with a knife and gently remove muffins from tin to the rack to cool.
