To the left is the stairs going down into the basement of our brownstone and below is a picture of a pretty cool icicle that was hanging from the second floor of our building.
So, winter CSA. I have always wanted to be part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) but for a variety of reasons, haven't gotten around to actually joining one. Part of the reason is that many of them require volunteer time and during the summer, that is impossible for me to commit to. So when I found out about the Winter Sun Farms Share, I figured this was the perfect way to start. Once a month between November and March or April we get a bag of stuff that was flash frozen. We've gotten lots of corn, butternut squash puree, soybeans, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, collard greens and jars of tomato sauce. We've also gotten tons of blueberries.
I decided I was going to take advantage of these amazingly delicious looking blueberries and make a batch of blueberry something. My first thought was blueberry peach scones but in the end I decided to make blueberry muffins. I immediately hopped onto my recipe app, Paprika (which is awesome and someday I will write a post all about it), and found a recipe by Alton Brown on the Food Network.
So I may not be the best at photography yet but I hope to improve as the posts go on! I no longer have a sifter, somehow it broke so I used a fork to mix together the dry ingredients.
I think the secret weapon to keep these muffins super moist is yogurt. I'm a big fan of Greek Yogurt so I used Fage full fat yogurt and it worked out great.
I love all my mixing bowls! I have two sets of mixing bowls right now, the top set, porcelain, from Crate and Barrel-A Hanukkah gift from my aunt and uncle a few years ago and this set, with the blue bowl, is a set from Target when I moved to New York and they are plastic melamine. I love that they are all different colors and I have a multitude of sizes with which to work.
Muffins before going into the oven. I didn't have any regular size muffin tins nor did I have any muffin liners so I used mini muffin tins and sprayed vegetable oil spray into them.
They are delicious! I made 48 mini muffins and about half of them are already gone-my downstairs neighbor came and grabbed several, my roommate and best friend had some for dinner and of course I had a few.
I also tried to make corn bread which did not turn out so well but I did make honey butter to go with it and we ate it with the muffins and that was delicious!
Recipe:
Blueberry Muffins (www.foodnetwork.com)
Ingredients:
12 1/2 ounces cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Heavy pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used corn)
1 egg
1 cup yogurt (I used Fage full fat)
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Vegetable spray, for the muffin tins (I used Trader Joe's pam stuff)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.
In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients, reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the blueberries. Stir mixture for a count of 10. Add 1 cup blueberries to mixture and stir 3 more times. Reserve the 1/2 cup of blueberries.
Using a #20 ice cream scoop (I used a 1/4 cup measurer), add the mixture to greased muffin pans. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of berries on top of muffins and press down lightly. Place into the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down on tea towel to cool completely. Serve immediately or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.
My one note would be that it needs to be closer to the 20 minutes rather than the 25 minutes. My muffins were a bit darker brown than I would have liked but they are still delicious and moist!! Overall, it was a great recipe and one that I will make again, especially since I have four more bags of blueberries in my freezer.
