New Blueberry muffin 新ブルーベリーマフィン

Although we generally like home delivery of groceries, the quality of produce can be a bit unreliable. Since it was high-season for blueberries, we ordered some and several batches arrived in good shape and were delicious. But the last time, the blueberries that arrived had a hard life. Many were smashed or extremely soft. We had to discard about 1/3 of them and even the ones we saved were bit too soft to eat as whole fresh fruit on yogurt for example. So, my wife just heated them up in a sauce pan (no water or sugar, just gently cooked) until they were the consistence of soft jam. The next morning, I pureed them using an immersion blender. The blueberry puree was pretty good. We added a teaspoon of it to our morning yogurt. Somehow the blueberry taste intensified in the puree and actually tasted richer than the whole blueberries we had been adding. My wife, then expanded the blueberry repertoire by making this new version of blueberry muffin using both whole and pureed blueberry. The blueberry puree made the muffin really good with strong blueberry flavor. The puree was added to the top of the muffin. The cut surface looks like only a few whole blueberries were added to but the distribution was somewhat uneven. Other sections of the muffins had plenty of whole blueberries. This is based on the recipe called “America’s test kitchen’s best blueberry muffins”.

Ingredients
1 cup of whole blueberries (or optional substitute toasted pecans).  

1 cup of blueberry puree.
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs room temperature

4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable  oil
1 cup buttermilk room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 

(Optional) finely grated zest of 1 lemon. We did not use this.

Directions:
To make the blueberry puree, bring 1 cup of blueberries to a very low simmer in a small saucepan. Cook until the berries have broken down. Puree. Cool to room temperature.

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Whisk 1 cup sugar and eggs in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk, lemon zest (if using) and vanilla until combined. Fold wet mixture and remaining berries into flour mixture until just moistened (lumpy is fine). If the batter seems loose, let it mellow for 5 minutes, and it will thicken up.

Divide among 12 greased muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups). Spoon 1 teaspoon of the blueberry puree into the center of each mound. (First picture below) Gently swirl into the batter using a toothpick and a figure-eight motion.

Bake at 425F until tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes. (Second picture below). Cool in muffin tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

These were really good muffins with a very intense blueberry flavor thanks to the addition of the puree. The texture of the muffin was very tender with a nice fine crumb and faint vanilla flavor. The delivery of the smashed batch of blueberries was a “blessing-in-disguise” now that we have learned about blueberry blueberry puree and it’s flavor advantages. 

Addendum:
My wife was impressed by how the blueberry puree added a good blueberry flavor to the muffins. We had some left over puree but no whole blueberries left. So my wife decided to substitute toasted pecans for the whole blueberries. (Toasted pecans as a substitute for whole blueberries is not a substitute I would have made or let alone even thought of ) but this really worked. The picture below shows the result. It’a almost like two muffins in one. The top is blueberry muffin and the underneath is pecan muffin. And the blueberries and pecans really work well together. The pecans add a nice crunchy textural element.

Blueberry puree and pecan muffin ブルーベリーピュレー、ピーカンマフィン

This is another variation on the theme of blueberry muffins. When we got less than perfect (in terms of the shape/consistency and sourness) blueberries, my wife slowly cooked and then pureed them using the immersion blender. You could add sugar and the puree worked well when added to our morning yogurt.  My wife tried using blueberry puree in muffins and found that it really added a blueberry flavor in conjunction with the whole blueberries. 

At one point she found the whole blueberries were gone but she had more puree than she could use in the morning yogurt. She didn’t want the puree to go bad so she decided to made a blueberry muffin “sans” the whole blueberry but just using the leftover puree as the liquid in the batter. She made this blueberry muffin with the puree as the blueberry “representative” and the addition of pecans to see how it works.  As you can see below, the entire muffin turned sort-of purple.

Ingredients
1 cup toasted pecans).
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs room temperature
4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup combination of buttermilk and blueberry puree (i.e. however much puree is available combined with buttermilk to make 1 cup) room temperature

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
(Optional) finely grated zest of 1 lemon. We did not use this.

Directions:
To make the blueberry puree, bring 1 cup of blueberries to a very low simmer in a small saucepan. Cook until the berries have broken down. Puree using an immersion blended. Cool to room temperature.

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Whisk 1 cup sugar and eggs in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk/blueberry puree, lemon zest (if using) and vanilla until combined. Fold wet mixture into flour mixture until just moistened (lumpy is fine). If the batter seems loose, let it mellow for 5 minutes, and it will thicken up (picture below).

Divide among 12 greased muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups) (picture below).

Bake at 425F until tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes (picture below).  Cool in muffin tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

This is not bad but blueberry flavor was not very strong. The amount of the puree you put in may be something to do with it but in it’s own right, this is a good muffin.

Blueberry oatmeal muffin オーツ麦入りブルーベリーマフィン

This is my wife's continuing muffin project. We got fairly good blueberries. Since she has made quite few kinds of blueberry muffins, she wanted to do something different. She found this recipe for a blueberry muffin made with rolled oats.

Ingredients:
1 cup (240 Ml) milk
1 cup (80G) old fashioned whole rolled oats. (Steel cut oats, quick oats, or instant oats won’t work)
1 1/4 (156 g) AP flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1/2 tsp. Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (115 g) butter melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup (120 ml) honey
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (190 g) blueberries

Directions:
Combine the milk and oats. Set aside for 20 minutes for the oats to soak up the milk. Mix the dry ingredients from the flour through the salt in a bowl then set aside. Whisk the wet ingredients from the butter through the vanilla together in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine. Add the oats and any remaining milk and stir to combine. Fold in the blueberries. Scoop the batter into the heavily greased muffin cups. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue cooking an additional 15 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in a center muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes before taking them out of the pan.

The oats seemed to completely incorporate into the overall texture of the muffin which was very tender. (You wouldn’t know oats are included if you weren’t told.) The cinnamon flavor is not something I usually associate with a spring/summer dish (more a fall flavor). So that made these blueberry muffins very different from the usual. The blueberries are in season and were very good. They truly “made” this muffin. 

Strawberry Almond muffin ストローベリィ アーモンド マフィン

This is one of my wife's muffin projects. She made a very similar muffin using blueberry but this time she used fresh strawberries.

The strawberries don't show up on the cut surface as well as the blueberries did in the blueberry version of this muffin. The strawberries lost their color but the strawberry flavor came through.

The basic muffin recipe came from “Pastry from La Brea Bakery”.

Ingredients:(for 12 muffins)
1/2 cup (3 oz.) almonds deeply toasted. (The toasting is what gives the muffins a rich flavor)
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick plus 2 tbs. (5 oz.) butter
3 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs. plus 1 tsp baking powder
>3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup chopped strawberries.

Directions
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade pulse the almonds until they are the texture fine meal. Add the butter and cream until smooth. Add the sugar and process until fluffy. Add the eggs and cream until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the vanilla to the buttermilk

Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture.  Fold in the strawberries (above). Put the batter into a greased muffin tin (below). Bake at 350 degree for 20 to 25 minutes.

The ground-up toasted almonds gave nice rich nutty flavor and texture to the muffin. The strawberries lost their color and shrank when the muffins were cooked leaving spaces around them. Although the strawberry flavor is there, we both agreed that if you are adding fruit, blueberry is better.

Almond flour doughnut muffin アーモンド ドーナツ マフィン

This another one of my wife's muffin projects. The original recipe came from King Arthur Flour website but she replaced some of the wheat flour with almond flour. I am not sure whether she just wanted to use the almond flour before it gets stale or to reduce the carb in this muffin or make it more gluten free. I am not sure why it is called "doughnut" muffin.

Wifey's response: The blueberry and strawberry muffins I made used pulverized almonds mixed with flour as their base. I have some almond flour which is past its "best by" date but it was still ok because we were freezing it. But when the available freezer space was reduced due to the demise of our main refrigerator, the flour wasn't frozen for a while. So, I had an increased incentive to use it up. I got to thinking maybe I could use almond flour along with the pulverized almonds in muffins by substituting the almond flour for some of the wheat flour. But I wasn't sure what proportions should be used for the substitution--100%? So I did a web search. According to the King Arthur site almond flour can be substituted for 25% of the flour in non yeast products. For yeast products, however, because almond flour does not contain gluten substituting it for the wheat flour would inhibit the rise. So, according to the instructions, instead of substituting for the wheat flour, you add 1/3 cup almond flour per cup of wheat flour. For example, if the recipe calls for 3 cups wheat flour you would use 3 cups wheat flour plus 1 cup almond flour.  While investigating percentages I found a whole bunch of recipes using almond flour. One of which was this doughnut muffin. They called it a doughnut muffin because apparently they thought if tasted like a cake donut. Sorry you asked? 

Nice texture and flavor.

Ingredients
4 tablespoons (57g) butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbs. molasses
2 large eggs
1/4 cup (50g) vegetable oil
79.75 g almond flour, plus 239.25 g All Purpose flour (or 319 g wheat flour)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 to 1 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, to taste
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (227g) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin.
In a food processor, cream the butter. Add the sugar and molasses and continue creaming. Add the eggs and continue creaming. With the processor running add the vegetable oil and mix until smooth. (This can also be done in a stand mixer.)
In another bowl add the flours and combine with a whisk. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt.

Add the vanilla to the milk.
Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture alternately with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.
Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they're a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean. Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes then remove from the pan.

This is a very nice muffin. Although it included a fairly large amount of nutmeg the flavor was very mellow and pleasing. The texture was fine and tender.  Although the recipe described it as tasting just like a cake doughnut fresh out of the oil I might not go quite that far in characterizing it that way. Nonetheless this is certainly a good muffin for breakfast.

Blueberry almond muffin ブルーベリー アーモンド マフィン

My wife was binge baking different kinds of muffins one weekend. She claimed she was into making muffins because she finally found the secret to baking in muffin tins. Even though the recipes universally call for filling the cups 3/4 full, as far as she was concerned, this resulted in wimpy muffins. According to her, the secret is to OVERFILL the cups. That way the batter rises above the cup and you get nice caps such as the ones shown on the muffins below. Since we had rather plump and sweet blueberries, she made these blueberry almond muffins. This was the last batch she made on "binge" weekend. (This will have to be the last for a while since we are running out of freezer space for baked goods). Among the many blueberry breads and muffins she has made, this is one of the best. She found this recipe in the "Pastries from the La Brea Bakery"

This is a bit unique because it includes pulverized almonds. (Pulverized is not as fine as "almond flour" you can buy and gives it a bit of texture). The big plump blueberries were quite nice.

My wife fit all the batter into the muffin tins which made a nice big top.

Ingredients:(for 12 muffins)
1/2 cup (3 oz.) almonds toasted.
3/8 cup sugar (a total of 3/4 cup of sugar is used; half goes the nut mixture half goes into the creamed butter mixture, #3)
1 tbs. grated orange or lemon zest
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs. plus 1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick plus 2 tbs. (5 oz.) butter
3/8 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup buttermilk (#2)
2 cups blueberries (#3) or 1 to 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, nectarines, peaches or pears.

Recipe doubled (makes 24 muffins)

1 cup (6 oz.) almonds toasted.
3/4 cup sugar (a total of 1 1/2 cups of sugar is used; half goes in the nut mixture half goes into the creamed butter mixture, #3)
1 tbs. grated orange or lemon zest (or 1 tbs. vanilla)
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbs. plus 2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks plus 4 tbs. (10 oz.) butter
3/4 cup sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups buttermilk (#2)
4 cups blueberries (#3) or 2 to 2 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, nectarines, peaches or pears.

Directions:
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the almonds, the fruit zest and half of the sugar (3/8 cup) and process until it is the consistency of a fine meal (#1 above).  In a separate bowl mix the flour, nut mixture, baking powder, baking soda, salt (#2). In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter. Add the remaining sugar (3/8 cup) and cream until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and whip until frothy (#3). Pour in the buttermilk and mix until completely incorporated. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Fold in the blueberries (#4). Put batter into a greased muffin tin(#5, 6). Bake at 350 degree for 20 to 25 minutes (#7).

These are indeed very nice blueberry muffins. They came out really moist with a nice crunchy top. When my wife took the muffins out of tin, the texture was so tender they started to collapse under the weight of the generous tops. So she had to cool the muffins upside down (#8). Once they cooled, however, we could stand them right-side-up. The almond flavor was very subtle--just a slight nuttiness. But a nice lemony flavor came through.  This combined with the sweet and juicy blueberries was a winning combination. She can make these again (once some space opens up in our freezer.)

Blueberry bread ブルーベリイブレッド

We are again deviating from our theme but when we posted blueberry pancakes, my wife said we had to post this one as well. So here we go; my wife's blueberry bread, which is "berry" excellent. She makes a large amount as you can see and cuts the resulting sheet cake into individual servings then freezes it. We often take this to work as breakfast.

I ask my wife to take over: The recipe will make one 10x15" sheet cake.

Prepare the pan by lining it with parchment paper. Grease the bottom of the pan, put in the parchment paper, then grease the top of the paper. (This allows the cake to release from the pan with no fuss or muss). Next,

Ingredients X1

1/2 cup butter 

1 1/3 cup sugar 

2 eggs and 

2 2/3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder, 

1/2 tsp baking soda, 

1/4 tsp salt. In yet another bowl add 

1 1/2 cups of buttermilk and 

2 tsp vanilla.

Ingredients X2

1 cup butter 

2 2/3 cup sugar 

4 eggs and 

5 1/3 cup flour, 

4 tsp. baking powder, 

1 tsp baking soda, 

1/2 tsp salt. 

3 cups of buttermilk and 

4 tsp vanilla.

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and keep creaming. Add the eggs and cream until yellow light and fluffy. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients (flour through salt).  Alternatively add the creamed mixture and buttermilk to the flour. Pour into prepared pans. Next "install" the blueberries. (If the blueberries are added to the batter while it is being mixed they tend to clump. When this happens the batter around the clump doesn't cook because of the moisture in the berries. This makes for partially cooked patches that are unpleasant. Also during cooking the berries tend to sink to the bottom and form a wet mass.) To install the berries scatter them across the top of the batter fairly evenly (below left). Then take your fingers and gently push them slightly below the surface (below center). The batter will rise around them as it cooks.  If they sink its only to the middle of the cake and they are generally distributed so the batter cooks evenly. (if you don't do this step the berries just ride on the surface as the batter rises and they get over cooked.) Cook at 350 degrees for about an hour for this size (10x15") pan (below right).

This is a very luscious form of blueberry "muffin". It's another recipe that says 'summer is here'. The texture of the cake is very light and moist. The blueberries add a burst of juice and fresh flavor to the cake. 

Panna cotta from homemade buttermilk 自家製バターミルクでパナコッタ

After my wife made buttermilk using the culture from "The culture for health" we were quite impressed with the quality of the buttermilk. My wife decide to make something using the buttermilk. Since we had some leftover blueberries she decided to use the newly made buttermilk to make panna cotta with blueberry sauce as shown in the first picture.

Ingredients
1 tsp. gelatin
1 1/2 Tbs. water
1 cup 4% milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

For the blueberry sauce:
1 cup of blueberries
1 tsp. Of sugar

Directions:
For blueberry sauce:
Put the blueberries and sugar in a small ceramic dish and cook them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in the toaster oven until they form a thick type of blueberry jam.

For panna cotta:
Bloom the gelatin in the 1 1/2 Tbs. of water. Put the milk and sugar in a sauce pan and heat until the sugar is melted. Remove from the heat and use several tablespoons of the warm mixture to “temper” the gelatin until it is completely dissolved. Add the tempered gelatin into the rest of the milk mixture and stir completely. Let cool to room temperature. Add the buttermilk and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the containers. Tip the containers using a muffin tin to support them in order to get the beveled appearance. Cool in the refridgerator until the mixture becomes firm. Just before serving spoon in the blueberry mixture on top of the buttermilk mixture to bring the contents of the container even with the top.

This panne cotta turned out well. It was very creamy, slightly tangy and sweet with a vanilla flavor. The blueberries added a nice fresh blueberry flavor that went very well with the vanilla.

Blueberry cake with miso crumbles ブルーベリーケーキとブルーベリー味噌クランブル

 We, especially my wife, have been exploring Western-style dishes using miso such as miso-peanuts butter cookie, miso maple syrup loaf, smothered chicken with miso and bourbon, carrot cashew spread with miso and avocado miso dressing. This is another one of these dishes made by my wife. The miso is in the crumbles.

This is a very moist and delicate cake/muffin with a nice crusty top. I can definitely taste miso.

I will ask my wife to fill in the ingredients and directions.


Ingredients:
For the crumble:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (3/4 cup for the crumble, 1 3/4 cups for the cake)
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tbs. Butter melted
3 Tbs. White miso

For the cake:
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (mentioned as part of the 2 1/2 cups above)
1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole milk greek yogurt
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 pint blueberries

Directions:
Mix the ingredients for the crumble until combined and set aside. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients (flour through baking soda) and set aside. In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients (melted butter through vanilla). Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in the blueberries. Spread in a 9X13 pyrex baking dish that has been light greased with a greased parchment paper on the bottom. Spread the crumble over the top. Cook in a 350 degree oven for a total of 60 to 70 minutes. Start checking every 30 minutes and tent the top with aluminum foil if the crumble starts to get too dark. Cook until the top is firm and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for a least 2 hours. 

This is a very unusual cake (in a good way). The combination of the whole wheat flour, miso and brown sugar makes a sweet/salty/robust flavor we have never tasted anywhere else. The miso is very pronounced. The blueberries add a burst of fresh sweetness which helps bring the other flavors back into balance. The crumble is nice and crunchy. It complements the tender texture of the cake. And the cake is extremely tender. I had trouble getting it into a storage bag in one piece even after cooling several hours. I couldn’t slice or serve it until it had been in the fridge overnight. Even then we had to eat the slices with a fork or spoon. Nonetheless it is a nice bread with coffee in the morning.