Blueberry Streusel Muffin Recipe

I love the blueberry muffins they have in Starbucks so I started looking for a similar recipe online a while back. Although there were a few hits and misses, nothing really looked compelling. Then the search turned to other things and I promptly forgot about the blueberries I had bought and frozen to make muffins.

But you can't really forget about blueberry muffins for long, can you? I resumed my search for a good blueberry muffin recipe a couple of weekends back and found a recipe for something better - blueberry streusel muffins! I have been wanting to make streusel something for a while now so here it goes!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins Recipe
Makes 8 large muffins
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

For Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or maida
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)
1 egg
1/3 cup milk, approx
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 400F / 200C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners and set aside.

2. For muffin batter - combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl with a whisk or fork

3. Place vegetable oil in a 1 cup measuring cup, add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture gently until no traces of the flour mixture remain.

4. Fold in the blueberries without breaking them. Its helps to refrigerate or freeze them for a bit before this step. If the blueberries break, they will bleed all over the batter, making your cupcakes purple. Unless that's the colour you want to end up with, freeze the blueberries and harden them a bit. Either ways, taste is not affected.

5. Fill muffin cups almost to the top. This gives a more domed muffins as you get in malls and bakeries. The streusel topping will make sure the batter doesn't spill over while baking.

6. To Make Streusel Topping: Combine the ingredients with your fingertips until they resemble bread crumbs (the mixture will be more moist than bread crumbs though). Sprinkle over the muffin batter and cover as completely as possible.

7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the muffins pass the skewer test (insert skewer or toothpick into the muffin and if they come out with some dry crumbs at the end, you are done).

The muffins were airy, large, domed, and delicious. I also added some almond extract to the second batch but the ones without that were nicer so omit any flavouring that you feel tempted to add, like vanilla or almond.

I promised I will give an option to make these eggless so to make eggless blueberry streusel muffins, replace the egg with 1/2 cup yogurt or add 2 tbsp flax seed meal mixed in with 1/4 cup warm water. I haven't tried these egg substitutes for this recipe but have tried them in other muffin recipes and they work like a charm!

Eggless Blueberry Pancakes for 1 in 10 Minutes

I am married to a guy who doesn't like pancakes. Atleast, he thought so until I made these perfect pancakes and that kinda sorta turned him around but not completely. But I knew for a fact that if I added a fruit to the pancakes, he is not going to touch them so I devised this recipe meant for one - just me! Its also eggless because I didn't have any eggs at home. Sometimes, necessity creates masterpieces.

Well, I know these pancakes are not really the Brad Pitt of pancakes but they come together in 10 mins, and are eggless. So, stop being shallow. After all, the rustic look is in these days. The more dilapidated-looking the plywood for for your food photo base, the better. Haven't you noticed?

Btw, you do need some maple syrup to serve these up because they aren't super sweet on their own. Of course, you can add more sugar to the batter but why would you. Pour on the maple syrup (or the ones that masquerade as maple syrup, your choice). I got the real deal in US this time and its worth every gram of the weight I had to lug back.

Eggless Blueberry Pancakes Recipe
Prep + Cooking : 10 mins
Serves: 1 (about 3 medium-sized pancakes)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
A pinch of baking soda
1 tbsp sugar (adjust to taste)
A pinch of salt
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2 tbsp butter to spread on pancakes while cooking

How I Made It:

1. Mix all ingredients together (except for the butter).

2. Heat a pan or griddle and spread some butter on it. Pour about 1/3rd of the batter into the centre of the pan and let it spread naturally. Keep the fire on low.

3. When small bubbles start to appear on the pancake surface, drop some blueberries on the pancake. I used about 5-6 per pancake. Flip over gently. Don't press down hard on the pancake, otherwise the blueberries will burst and create a mess. Handle very gently and always keep on low flame, otherwise the edges will burn like one of my pancakes did.

4. Cook for another minure or two and transfer to a plate.

Eat warm with a generous drizzle of maple syrup and be glad you don't need to share!

Quick and Easy Peach-Blueberry Turnovers

OK, so you spent all that time making the puff pastry, but now what? I like wrapping veggies and the like in the pastry for some kind of en croute creation like this, but I always save some dough to make some turnovers. I posted this recipe a while back, but since doing so I got my hands on a copy of Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Baking and I think this method makes for a nice golden and well-baked turnover. Also, after making puff pastry I am in no mood to mess around with complicated filling.

INGREDIENTS
- puff pastry
- peach jam
- frozen blueberries
- soy milk for brushing

METHOD
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
1. How much puff pastry you need depends on how many turnovers you want to make. 1/2 recipe of the puff pastry will make 8 turnovers. If you are making 8, roll the chilled dough into a 9x18 inch rectangle. If you are making 4, make a 9x9 inch square. Cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise to make 8 squares (or four).
2. Spoon a generous tablespoon of peach jam slightly off centre in each square. Top with a few blueberries. Fold over to make a triangle, then seal edges with a fork. Place on the prepared sheet, cover, and refrigerate for 30 mins.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. When the turnovers are chilled, brush them with soy milk and sprinkle sugar over top (regular or large grain). Poke the tops with a fork a few times then bake for 20 mins. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, rotate the pan, and bake for an additional 15 mins, or until golden and nicely puffed up.
4. Let cool for 15 mins in the pan, then serve.

Black Forest Cookies Recipe

I have quite a few recipes bookmarked from The Purple Foodie but these Black Forest Cookies have been on top of the list for ages. I had trouble finding dried cherries and then gave up looking for them and substituted with dried blueberries instead. Who is to know, right?



What I absolutely LOVED about these cookies is that they turned out almost exactly like the Double Chocolate Chip cookies from Subway. Raise your hands if you love those. Yep, me too!! So this is a total win in that sense.

Dried Bluberries

But, it was sweet. It was very sweet. It was so sweet that even my sweet tooth were nudging me and asking what the heck I was thinking eating three of these in one shot. So I had to have half at a time.



 Not really. Do I look like someone who can eat just half a cookie and stop at that? Nope. I am not that someone.



Anyway, these were very easy to bake up, the only catch being, you need to refrigerate the batter for a few hours for it to firm up.

A side story here is, I was baking these cookies when my old oven just refused to turn on. There was a loose contact and the current batch in the oven were turning all gooey and running over each other, and that batter went to waste. That's when I decided this is the last straw, took a cab to the nearest kitchenware store and bought myself a new oven! I came home and baked the rest of the batter after that. That reminds me, I am yet to share pics and details of my new oven. Stay tuned to MMKT for that!



Even then, mine got super runny before I baked them and so the cookies were super flat. Didn't stop me from eating them though, they were really good!

Black Forest Cookies
Adapted from: The Purple Foodie
Makes 12 large cookies

Ingredients:
40gm / 1/3 cup all purpose flour or maida
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
8 oz / 225gm baking chocolate bar (semi sweet or bitter sweet will do)
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup dried blueberries
5 tbsp/75gm butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)

How I Made It:

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate bar (broken into pieces) and the butter until smooth and shiny. Set aside.

2. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder together. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and both sugars for about 5 mins (if using electric beater) or 10-12 mins if doing by hand. The mixture should be pale and thick.

4. Add the cooled butter-chocolate mixture and the vanilla to this and mix until just combined. Don't overbeat. Add the flour mixture to this and mix until all the flour disappears into the batter. Again, don't overbeat, just combine gently.

5. Next, mix in both the chocolate chips and the dried blueberries. The batter will be a bit runny.

6. Refrigerate this for 6 hours or overnight.

7. Preheat oven to 375F / 190C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use an ice-cream scoop to scoop out the batter and place on the baking sheet at a distance of 2". If baking in multiple batches, return the batter to the fridge immediately after filling up one sheet.

8. Bake for about 12-15 mins until the top looks crackly. Cool and store in air-tight jars for upto 3 days.

Note: I have given the adjusted amounts of sugar since I found my cookies way too sweet. Adapt according to your taste.

Peach Blueberry Cobbler

I'll have to admit that cobbler really isn't in my culinary vocabulary. That is probably because my Mom was more of a crisp person. Or is it because cobbler is more of an American thing? Anyway, after making the Southern Tofu dish I was in the mood for an appropriately southern dessert and cobbler jumped to mind. But, what is cobbler, exactly? Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I can tell, it is a mix of fruit and cake, baked into moist and syrupy goodness. In many way, it is like the pudding cakes I posted a while back. Peaches and blueberries are in season here (though not for long) so it was a perfect dessert.

INGREDIENTS
Fruit
- 4 cups peeled and sliced peaches
- 1/3 cup water (more if peaches are not that ripe)
- 1 cup sugar
Cake
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (I am sure WW pastry flour would work fine)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cups soy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 1/2 cup margarine
- 1 cup blueberries

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1. Put peaches, sugar, and water in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to bubbling, stirring regularly, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 mins.
2. While peaches are simmering, whisk together dry ingredients. Place 1/2 cup margarine in a 9 x 13 pan, then place in the oven to melt. Put wet ingredients into the dry and gently whisk until mostly smooth (like pancake batter).
3. Pour batter over the melted butter, but do not mix. Sprinkle blueberries over that, then spoon the peach mixture over that.
4. Bake for 40-45 mins, until top is golden and peaches are bubbling away happily. Serve while warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

For the Love of Berries (and Summer)

Can fresh berries from the garden make up for months and months of cold and snow? Lately, I am beginning to think yes. Winter was particularly cruel this year, and summer has been rainy and cool, but the berry crop has been absolutely fantastic. We spent the weekend at the cottage and when we came home the canes were laden with berries. After picking I weighed the berries--the total was 6 1/4 pounds! That was enough for 8 jars of jam and a cookie sheet worth of berries for the freezer.
This year we are also enjoying wild blueberries. Last year the birds harvested the berries before I could, but a strategically placed net has thwarted them this year. I only have a small patch in the backyard that yields about 1.5 cups of berries every week. The first crop went into some pancakes, the second into some banana hemp muffins. Speaking of pancakes, I tried the slow-rise pancakes from Vegan Yum Yum. They are totally awesome and worth the extra planning it takes to make them.

I will be back soon with an actual recipe and less gloating about summer berries.

Blueberry Shortcake

Soy ice cream was on sale this week, along with blueberries, so shortcake was in order (yes, I know I just made mini shortcakes last week). This is shortcake, straight up, like my mom used to make (without the butter, of course). You can serve it with whatever berry or fruit is in season. I can't wait for peaches!

INGREDIENTS

- 1 3/4 cup flour

- 1/4 cup powdered sugar

- 1 tbsp baking powder

- 3/4 tsp salt

- 5 tbsp cold Earth Balance margarine

- generous 3/4 cup soy creamer (or soy milk)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Cut in cold margarine (or use your fingers). Mix in soy creamer with a wooden spoon. Add a splash more creamer if dough is too stiff.

2. Spread batter in a 9" non-stick round pan (or, grease and flour a pan if you don;t have anon-stick one) with a silicone spatula.

3. Bake for 15-17 mins, until lightly brown on top. Let cool for a 5 mins, then remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

4. Cut into wedges and top with berries and soy ice cream.

We also had out first Ontario corn of the season, bought from a roadside stand. It was pretty good. Ah, summer . . . .

Blueberry Lemon Puff Pastry Pockets

I really have to stop making puff pastry before I turn into a fat, greasy, blob. Ha! It will have been worth it! I wanted to see if non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening could be used in place of Earth Balance margarine, since store-bought versions use shortening instead of butter. The main motivation for this is the fact that Earth Balance costs $5.33 here, while an equal weight of shortening costs about $1.00. The answer is yes, it works just as well and makes for a very tender and flaky pastry.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 6

- 1/2 recipe puff pastry

- 1 1/2 cups frozen wild blueberries

- 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

- 1 tbsp lemon juice

- 1 tbsp flour

- 1/4 cup sugar

Icing:

1. Heat 1 tbsp of lemon juice in a small saucepan over med-lo heat. Add in a scant 3/4 cup of icing sugar and stir to dissolve.

METHOD

1. Mix frozen berries, lemon zest, lemon juice, flour and sugar in a saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until bubbling and thickened. Remove from heat and place in fridge to cool down. Filling must be cold before it can be placed on the pastry.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Roll pastry into a 12" x 16" rectangle. Slice into twelve 4" squares. Place a heaping spoonful on filling on the centre of 6 squares.

4. Lightly moisten dough around the filling. Place remaining pastry squares over top of filling and press down firmly around the edges to seal. Use a fork to further seal the edges, then trim with a pastry wheel. Cut two slits in the top.

5. Bake for 20-25 mins, until golden brown.

6. Let cool for a few mins, then drizzle icing over top.

As you can see, the shortening makes a very nice pastry dough. It is a bit softer, but cooks up flakier. Make sure you chill the shortening before using it in the recipe.

Raspberry Shortcake with Blueberries

When life gives you berries, you have to make shortcake. To me it is the quintessential summer dessert. Of course, strawberry season is over so it's time to move on to raspberries and blueberries. These personal-sized shortcakes have a wonderful pinkish hue from the berries, and are nice and tender with the right amount of sweetness.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 9 medium, or 12 small, shortcakes

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 4 tsp baking powder

- 2 tbsp sugar

- pinch of salt

- 1/4 cup cold Earth Balance margarine

- 1 cup raspberries, mashed with a fork

- 3/4 cup soy creamer (or milk)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease a muffin tin.

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt together. Cut in margarine (or work in with your fingers) until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.

2. Mix in mashed berries and milk in with a fork. Use two spoons to drop dough into 9 or 12 sections of the muffin tin. Sprinkle each with a bit of sugar. Bake for 12-15 mins. Cool on wire racks.

From here, you have a few choices. My original plan was to make vegan cream, but I had no coconut milk. So, I made the vegan clotted cream from Vegan Yum Yum. You can also serve it with soy or rice ice cream, or douse the whole thing with some non-dairy milk (still my favourite way to eat shortcake).

Easy Blueberry Sauce (with crepes)

Sunday brunch is fast becoming a tradition in our household. Today I added crepes into the mix. Son#1 has been asking for them every since I made dinner crepes and he was dismayed to see them not covered in some sweet fruit sauce. Now, I know I said that the dinner crepe recipe would not replace my sweet breakfast crepe recipe, but I lied. I upped the sugar to 1/4 cup, and cut the chickpea flour to a generous 1/3 cup. The end result is less delicate but far less finicky. Add this sauce for super tastiness.

INGREDIENTS

- 2 cups frozen blueberries

- 1 cup water

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 2 tbsp cornstarch

- 2 tbsp lemon juice

METHOD

1. Bring blueberries, 3/4 cup of the water, and sugar to bubbling in a saucepan. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining 1/4 cup of water and add to pan. Stirring constantly, bring back to bubbling and let thicken. Stir in lemon juice and serve.

Waffles and Blueberry Sauce

Who doesn't love a lazy Saturday morning that begins late and ends with homemade waffles? Ahhh . . . . Of course, I should point out that sleeping in for us means 7:00am. Oh, parenthood . . . . These waffles are very tasty, easy to make, and taste great with this blueberry sauce.

Vegan Blueberry Waffles
Makes about 16 waffles
INGREDIENTS
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp ground flax seed
- 2 2/3 cup rice milk
- 1/3 cup oil

METHOD
1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. Mix liquid ingredients and flax seed in a small bowl. Add to dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Let batter sit for 5 mins to let the flax seed absorb some liquid.
4. Cook according to whatever waffle iron you are using. I oil the iron down with a pastry brush, and use 1/4 cup of batter per waffle square.

Blueberry Sauce
Put 1 1/2 cups of frozen wild blueberries in a saucepan with scant 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring to bubbling. Dissolve 1 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch or arrowroot powder into 2 tbsp of water and stir into the blueberry sauce. Stir in 1 tsp of lemon juice.