Blueberry Mania Continues!!

Okay, now I haven't actually made these for a few weeks, but I thought I should continue with my blueberry theme...

By popular demand (by several facebook friends...)

HEATHER'S (Moody Bible Institute-Famous) BLUEBERRY MUFFINS!

This is yet another adaptation from an allrecipes.com recipe... but I have heard nothing but "OHMYGOSH THESE ARE SOOOOOO GOOD" from those who have tried them...

For The Muffins:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cut white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup applesauce
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen is fine)


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease muffin tin or line with muffin wrappers.
2.  Mix 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, and baking powder.  Place applesauce in a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup.
3.  Mix these liquids with the flour mixture.  Add vanilla.  Fold in blueberries.  Fill muffin tin right to the top.  Top with crumb mixture (see below).
4.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

To make crumb mixture, combine 2 tablespoons flour, 5 tablespoons sugar (I prefer to use brown sugar, but either work fine), and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl.  Cut 2 tablespoons butter with a fork or pastry blender until mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

Now, the KEY to the crumb mixture for the top of muffins (and coffee cakes, ect) is the BUTTER.  Ugh.  I have had more fights with butter than I know what to do with.  Recipes like this one call for butter that is soft enough to easily chop into little pieces, but hard enough that your topping won't just glop all over the place.  The problem is, when I cook, it's usually not very well planned out.  What I mean by that is, I'm spontaneous enough that when I decide I want to make muffins or cookies or whatever, my butter is usually still sitting in the fridge, hard as a rock.  So, I attempt to soften it by microwaving it.  BAD IDEA.  I usually end up with a pool of liquid butter which simply will not work for the reasons stated above.  And putting the melted butter in the freezer to fix THAT problem doesn't work, either.  There's something about the chemistry of the butter that's been tampered with that makes a bad situation even worse.

So what's the solution?  Well, I have invested in a butter keeper.

What, you may ask, is a butter crock?  Well, according to the product website (and my dear friend, Amy Gatschenberger), a butter crock is a bell shaped lid into which softened butter is firmly packed.  Cold water is poured into the base of the crock, and then the lid is placed upside down back into the base of the crock.  This apparently keeps the butter soft, fresh, and perfect for recipes like the one above.  Apparently, the water seals out the air keeping butter much fresher than it would be simply in a butter dish.  I haven't gotten my crock, yet, but I hope it will save my muffins!!!   

Happy Crumb-Mixture Making!

Heather