Blueberry-buttermilk muffins

It’s funny, in this age of celebrity foodies, that millions of people have heard of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson , but few have heard of the lovely Mollie Katzen. She has a lovely homespun-meets-ethnic approach to cooking: it’s vegetarian without dogma, flair without glitz. Anyway, this is a lovely and comforting thing I’ve made a couple of times now: Blueberry-Buttermilk Muffins. They were selling blueberries half price at our local Sainsbury’s, so even though I couldn’t find buttermilk I couldn’t resist. (Substituted a mixture of yogurt and milk for the buttermilk, and it seemed to work ok.)

Blueberry-buttermilk muffins
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 to 2/3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 buttermilk
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large egg
15 ml vanilla extract
4 tablespoons (60 ml) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Lightly grease or spray ten standard-sized muffin cups with nonstick spray.
2. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and lemon zest in a medium-sized bowl.
3. Measure 1 1/2 cups buttermilk into a 1-litre bowl. Add the lemon juice, egg, and vanilla, and beat gently with a fork or a small whisk until smooth.
4. Slowly pour this mixture, along with the melted butter, into the dry ingredients. Using a spoon or a rubber spatula, stir from the bottom of the bowl until the dry ingredients are all moistened. Carefully fold in the blueberries at the very end. Don’t overmix; a few lumps are okay.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. For smaller muffins, fill the cups about 4/5 of the way. For larger muffins, fill them even with the top of the pan. If you have extra batter, spray one or two additional muffin cups with nonstick spray and put in as much batter as you have.
6. Bake in the middle of the oven for to 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven, then remove the muffins from the pan and place them on a rack to cool. Wait at least 30 minutes before serving.

This recipe can be found in Mollie Katzen’s wonderful book The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and at www.molliekatzen.com.