Blueberries From Heaven . . . or What the Fairy Left

"You ought to have seen what I saw on my way
To the village, through Mortensons pasture today!
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb.
Real sky blue, and heavy and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!"
~Blueberries, by Robert Frost

We all know what today is, it's Tuesdays With Dorie day! The one day a week that oodles and oodles of us baking aficionados get together and bake one of Dorie's delicious recipes from her now world famous book, "Baking, from my home to yours." This weeks choice was Traditional Madeleines on pages 166-168, as chosen by Smells Like Home by Tara . I've always loved Madeleines and would so loved to have made that recipe and I was really hoping to be able to access a Madeleine pan, but alas . . . I was not able to do so. No worries though, as the powers that be foresaw that problem, and provided an alternate option. If we were unable to procure the correct pan, we were allowed to go back and bake one of the past recipes, perhaps one that we had not already worked with.



So, what do you do when you don't have a Madeleine pan and a little fairy drops some blueberries on your doorstep????

Why you bake Orange Blueberry Muffins of course!!! And . . . that's just what I did! They came in mighty handy too as we had guests overnight on Friday night and muffins make great breakfasts for people on the run as we all were on Saturday morning as we popped off to France!

I love the technique that Dorie uses in her recipes of rubbing the sugar and citrus fruit zests together. It smells magnificent, and I could stand there all day and rubbing and sniffing. It's almost addictive. If I could find a way to do so, I would bottle it and dab it behind my ears and elbows each morning, but alas . . . I am sadly lacking in the proficiency to become a perfumier. (Is that a word??? It is now!)



Coming from Eastern Canada, the home of wild blueberries, I am well versed in making things with blueberries, and blueberry muffins are no stranger to me . . . but I had never actually made Orange Blueberry Muffins, lemon normally being the flavour I would have put with blueberries. Orange was something different, but sounding delicious all the same.

What can you say about making muffins??? All muffin recipes are basically the same. You whisk together the dry ingredients. You beat together the wet . . . and then you stir the two together, without over mixing, so that the resultant muffins are tender instead of tough. This recipe was no exception. I ended up with more batter than could be held in my 12 cup pan though and so baked several in my friand pan. They also cooked alot quicker than the recipe stated as when I opened the door to sprinkle some demerara sugar on top of them after the ten minutes suggested, my muffins were already too far gone to be able to do that with successfully. Oh well . . . this was probably as a result of having a smaller pan than Dorie's, obviously.

They did turn out lovely and tender . . . and chock full of blueberries. Not too sweet, and with a lovely texture, they were pleasing on all levels and everyone gobbled them up with glee. I never had a chance to try them split and toasted as per Dorie's suggestion, but I know that I will make these again so perhaps next time . . .



*Orange Blueberry Muffins*
Makes 12 regular sized muffins

grated zest and juice of 1 orange
about 3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 TBS honey
1 stick (8 TBS) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries, fresh preferably, or frozen (not thawed)
Decorating sugar for topping (optional)

Getting ready: Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that's just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centre of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from it's mold.

Serving: The muffins are great warm or at room temperature and they're particularly great split, toasted and spread with butter or jam.

Storing: Like all muffins these are best eaten the day they are made. If you want to keep them, wrap them airtight and pop them into the freezer, where they'll keep for up to 2 months; rewarm in a 350*F/180*C oven, if you'd like or split and toast them.



Next week's recipe will be Pecan Honey Sticky Buns on pages 51-53, as chosen by Madame Chow of Madame Chow’s Kitchen . OH yum! Can you imagine how good those will be. Anything with the words Pecan, Honey and Sticky all in one sentence has to be decadently moreish! This could be dangerous!!!