Blueberry muffins (or any flavor you like!)

I wear many baking hats at the club, making desserts for the dining room and private functions; I bake bread from time to time, make biscuits or a cracker for the savory menus, and I make a ton of breakfast pastry. Out of all the things I make, I think the thing I receive the most compliments on are my blueberry muffins. And the truth is, I love to make muffins. Simple, highlighting the seasons brightest flavors, a fresh muffin is a delight.

Muffins are tiny quick breads, a mixture of flour, leavening, fat and eggs. Most muffin recipes call for vegetable oil as the fat, and I think this is a big mistake. For a tender crumb and the best flavor, the fat has to be butter. Here is how I do it!

Blueberry muffins

1 3/4 cups unbleached white flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of 1 orange and one lemon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3 ounces of butter, cold and cut into bits
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup light cream
2 cups of fresh blueberries.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 F, and spray a muffin pan with veggie oil spray, and line the tins with muffin cups if you have them-if not, make sure you spray really well.

next I measure out all the dry ingredients into one bowl, including the zest. add the butter. using a food processor with the steel blade, or using a stand mixture with the paddle attachment cut in the butter, until the mixture turns a pale yellow and looks like coarse corn meal. I think it is easiest to use a food processor, but a stand mixer works just as well-just make sure you do not over mix.

In a large bowl whisk together the vanilla egg & cream. plop the butter/flour mixture on top, add the berries, and gently fold it all together. If you are gentle enough, the berries should not break apart. it is o.k. of you see little chunks of butter here and there, but not too many. You know you are finished folding when you do not see any bits of dry flour. as soon as this is true, stop! you do not want to develop the gluten. treat it as if it were pie dough-be nice!

fill the muffin cups all the way up for a good looking, big domed pastry. I always sprinkle the top with sanding sugar-the coarse big chunky sugar that looks like crystals-for a sweet crunch, but they are fine without. Place the pan in the middle of your oven, and give the pan a 180 degree turn every 10 minutes for even baking, until they are done-in about 30 minutes. Use a toothpick or cake tester in one of the middle muffins to check for done-ness. The top will spring back when you give it a poke as well.

if you did not have paper liners, after 10 minutes of cooling, lift the muffins up and let them finish cooling on their sides, still in the pan. this will keep them from sticking, and will keep the bottom from getting steamed.

this recipe is a great one to play with-use any fruit you like. really juicy fruits like peaches should be tossed in a little flour so they will not leak too much liquid, altering the proportions. hard fruit like apples should be sauteed first until they have a little give. take away the orange zest, triple the lemon zest and add poppy seeds. when you are feeling tropical, try mango with lime zest-yum! the other day I took the zest out, whisked instant espresso powder into the cream/eggs and added banana chunks and chocolate chips-these were the chef's favorite. but do not forget the humble blueberry-the classic muffin.