Friday, June 10, 2016

Blueberry Muffins



What a fantastic inaugural month for Rose’s Bread Bakers! We’ve had such an outstanding response from the baking community and welcomed over twenty members to the group – this is so exciting and we all can’t wait to share our baking journeys with one another.

For this first month, we did something simple (and simply delicious!): Rose’s Blueberry muffins. With a secret tang of lemon, a juicy burst of blueberry, and a hint of nutmeg, this recipe met with rave reviews from all of our bakers.

Catherine stepped out of the blueberry box and substituted raspberries. A swap that she says turned out wonderfully when combined with the almost-cake like texture of the muffin and the tarty tang of raspberry. She recommends doubling the recipe because six muffins just aren’t enough!



Jeniffer said “Going, going, gone!” to these lovely treats and shared with us that it was her first time eating blueberry muffins. She appreciated the subtle undertone of nutmeg giving it a mysterious depth of flavor. I can’t think of a better recipe to try out for a first time! She recommends re-heating the muffins before eating the next day.



Vicki not only treated us with her glowing review of the recipe (she too loved the citrus and nutmeg undertones of the muffin and gave a great tip of keeping a light hand in mixing the batter), but also shared her first memory of her own mother coming home with a store-bought muffin mix that even had a tiny tin of blueberries. How times have changed!



Laura made two batches of muffins. The first contained self-rising flour as a clever substitute for baking soda. The second batch was stellar and incredibly tender. She used her Danish whisk on this batter and I think the results were spot-on!



Jennifer did some creative refiguring because her berries were on the larger side and the muffin tin on the smaller end. Nevertheless, her muffins look fabulous and tasted great even with the changed berry-to-batter ratio. She also asked a question that I believe all of us wonder – does everyone’s kitchen look like a hurricane after baking? The answer is yes!



Kimberly greatly enjoyed baking the muffins and especially having one the next morning. She thought it was an easy recipe and you can’t argue with the results. Well done, Kimberly!


Nancy, a true baking veteran, winged some substitutions into her recipe with fantastic results. She, like several other bakers, also used frozen berries (her own bush wasn’t ripe yet) and the slight mottling of the juices created a lovely contrast to the finished muffins. That’s the joy of a good, simple recipe – adaptation!



Patty used a darling muffin pan to bake with this month, and even better, had meyer lemons from her own tree! I can only imagine how yummy that must taste. She too thought the recipe was easy to follow with awesome results. She also tried them with strawberries (tasty!) and may try again with a sub of basil for lemon. Can’t wait to hear how those taste!



Kym shared her creations, made without lemon, and commented that the nutmeg gave the muffins a very special taste. They certainly looked yummy! She’s made these muffins multiple times, a true make-again recipe.



Lee Phing was one of our first bakers to join and we are so glad she did! Adventurous soul that she is, she made these muffins for mother’s day to share with her mom to try and convince her that not all muffins are tasteless. The results are in and both mother and daughter thought them delectable! She tried this recipe out twice for good practice (and more delicious muffins to eat) especially because living in Malaysia sometimes sourcing ingredients is challenging.



Elle loves blueberry muffins and this recipe will be her go-to recipe from now on. She thought the lemon was a perfect addition, a subtle counterpoint that really set off the juicy berries.



This wraps up May’s Roundup! We have some new bakers coming onboard, so expect to see an update of this as they get up to speed. Can’t wait to see their creations :)

UPDATES:

Joyce is a very avid baker and like all of us, a long time lover of Rose's cookbooks. Her blueberry muffins look delicious and we completely agree that they are perfect for tea time!




Sheryl joined us in making blueberry scones, and boy did they turn out amazing! She met with great success at this scratch-baking venture and commented that they are both easy to make and far superior to any store-bought mix. We all heartily agree!




Happy baking!

7 comments:

  1. They all look great!! Thanks for the roundup, Elle. I just got a new tub of sour cream and planning to make again.

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  2. All these muffins look delicious! So much fun baking with everyone. Excellent Round Up, Elle!

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  3. Echoing above comments, everyones muffins look wonderful and I must try Catherine's raspberry berry swap. Fab first round up Elle!! -- Jeniffer

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  4. what a wonderful group of bakers! so glad Vicki and Elle decided to reopen the bread bible group. you are all such good sports and great bakers!

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  5. I am working on writing my first post now for the blueberry muffins. I share the sentiments of our other bakers, and have made two batches of these in the last month. My one substitution was using lemon bakery emulsion instead of fresh lemon zest. I used 1/2 teaspoon of the emulsion for each teaspoon of zest in each batch. I was impressed with the fresh lemon taste from the emulsion without having to get out the microplane to zest lemons. Thanks to Rose for writing such a wonderful baking book, I use it often.

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  6. Finally finished my first blog post at https://livinthelifeinla.wordpress.com/2016/06/15/monthly-blog-post-roses-bread-bible-bakers-may-2016/

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    1. Awesome, will add you into the Round Up :)

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