Maine Blueberry Muffins

Since Maine is a big producer of blueberries, several of the Maine recipes I came across included blueberries. So, naturally, we had to have some blueberry muffins on our Food Tour while in Maine.

This recipe came from the Swan House Bed and Breakfast in Camden, Maine.

They were super easy and super tasty!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups fresh blueberries
cinnamon/sugar for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

With electric mixer, cream butter and sugar

beat in eggs, vanilla, and milk.

The wet stage of this recipe came out kind of strange for me. I almost tossed it and started over because I thought I messed up a step or something. I didn't have enough eggs to start over, so I just kept going and they turned out wonderful. So, if the wet ingredients don't seem right to you, if you followed these directions, it'll turn out great.

In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients by hand (not mixer). Stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Fold in blueberries.

Fill lined muffin tins to the top. Sprinkle tops with 1/3 tsp. cinnamon/sugar mixture (the original recipe says to bake, then brush tops with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar. I just did it before baking instead). Bake for 27 min until tops are lightly browned.

If you can stand it, wait until cool before stuffing in your face. And, if you're like my son, you'll think these are great dunked in milk.

Be sure to check out our other Maine recipe on our Food Tour USA stop in Maine.

Food Tour USA







Linking up here:

"Pretty Much Vegan" Zucchini Muffins

As I explaind in my Homemade Rice Milk post, I have started to eat "pretty much" vegan. I know some of the breads I eat are made with eggs or milk and I just don't worry much about it. And chocolate, well, I'm never going to give that up, and I have no desire to seek out only vegan chocolate or eat carob or whatever. So, "pretty much" vegan is good enough for me.

These muffins came from a vegan recipe that I made some changes to and added chocolate chips, hence the "pretty much" label. If you leave out the chips or add vegan chips or carob chips, you don't have to call these "pretty much". As is often the case, I can no longer find where I got the original recipe before I changed it up.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk flours, salt, baking soda, spices, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk applesauce, sugars, oil and vanilla. I used original applesauce (not unsweetened) because this is what I had on hand, so I reduced the sugars in half and that worked well.

Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend on medium speed until incorporated. The mixture is much thicker than a typical muffin mix.

It was so thick, I was worried I had messed up a measurement.

Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips.

I sprayed my muffin tins with baking spray with flour, you could also use cupcake liners. This muffin does not rise much, so I fill the tins 3/4 of the way up or more. This made about 20-22 muffins. The pictures are from a double batch I did which made 36 regular size muffins and 12 mini muffins.

These muffins go really fast in our house. I made the double batch Monday morning and we only had a couple left by Tues evening. My husband, who said he doesn't like zucchini muffins (I doubt he ever had one), really likes them. My daughter takes bags full of them to school (some for breakfast at the bus stop, snack and lunch).

The original recipe called for 3 cups all purpose flour. I substitute half whole wheat flour. You can definitely taste the wheat, so if you don't like that, you could just use all white flour. Alternately, they would be even better for you if you used all wheat flour.

I use my regular cheese grater for the zucchini which creates kind of a big piece. The kids have asked what the "green stuff" is, but it doesn't stop them from eating them. I think the chocolate chips are totally necessary (although not in the original recipe).

Overall, they taste like a healthy muffin in that you can taste the wheat and they are not too sweet, but they are not at all like choking down a bran muffin (sorry if you love bran muffins). They look like a healthy muffin too which may make some kids not want to try them, but they are really tasty and all of my kids like them (even the picky one that only likes oatmeal and macaroni and cheese). And they are way more moist than the zucchini muffin from Starbucks.

Hope your family likes them as much as we do :)

ENJOY!