Not Without Salt

On a quest for a little adventure my sister-in-law and I decided to drive to the orginal Cascadian Farms. We went out in search of the last blueberries of the season. So with her two kids and my one we piled into her car and set out with very vague directions. Turns out it was more of an adventure than we bargained for. Thinking it was just a couple miles off of the freeway we quickly realized it was further than we thought. 40 miles later we arrived. Cascadian farms is set below the magnificent Cascade mountains and across the street a river flows. We set out to pick our berries but they had just picked the last crop. With three kids we would have only had the chance to pick 1/2 a pint anyway. So instead we enjoyed homemade blueberry ice cream and bought 4 lbs of frozen berries.

An adventure was had and we walked away with bellies full of delicious ice cream and blueberries waiting to be baked into something wonderful.

First of probably quite a few blueberry recipes.

Blueberry Muffins with Cinnamon Crisp Topping

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Sift dries. Set aside. Combine wet ingredients. Toss blueberries in dry ingredients then gently stir in the wet.

Topping: Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add butter. With your hands break up the butter clumps and blend until pea size clumps form.

Fill muffin pan 3/4 way full and sprinkle with topping. Bake 350* 15 min for mini muffins 25 min for larger size.

NOTE: I followed this recipe word for word!!! (Wonder why this is such an accomplishment? Click Here) But there are changes I would make and will try soon. First I would use brown sugar instead of white for more moisture and flavor. I would add a touch of orange zest for more depth of flavor. Then I would use either buttermilk or sour cream instead of the milk. Changing that then I may have to experiement with adding some baking soda to balance out of the acidity of the buttermilk or sour cream. Also I would decrease the sugar in the topping and make it slightly more like a crumble rather than a sugary, crispy topping.

…what Baron was doing while the muffins were in the oven.

Looks like an ordinary orange… (except for the slice in the middle)

Surprise!! There’s a Orange Cranberry Muffin baked inside!

A muffin baked in an orange. An unusual presentation of a wonderfully orange flavored muffin studded with tart dried cranberries.

My Sugar High Friday #23 submission! 

Orange Cranberry Muffin

1 tsp. orange zest

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

2/3 cup oil

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/8 tsp Baking Powder

3/4 tsp Salt

Sift dry ingredients in one bowl. Combine wet ingredients in another. Mix the zest and cranberries together and add to dry ingredients. Mix wet into dry – until just combined. Batter is very wet. Put batter in hollowed out orange filling it 3/4 full. I placed my orange halves in a muffin tin to keep them upright.

Bake 350* for 20-25 minutes.

Baking in the orange gives the muffin an incredible orange flavor. When I hollowed out the orange I left some fruit in tack to add moisture, flavor and to protect the bitter pith from flavoring the muffin.

Use this trick as an alternative to muffin liners or this would also work if you are camping and don’t want to bring extra pans. Wrap orange in foil and through in fire. Apparently the boy scouts have done this.

Also, for those of you who have been following my previous posts you would be proud to know that I followed the recipe exactly. Then I tried brown sugar instead of white (as you see written above). I also adjusted the orange flavor as baking in the orange itself provides plenty of orange scent so I decreased the zest. Next I want to try the recipe again using sour cream or buttermilk for added moistness and flavor.

And of course who could forget Bouchee. Without her our kitchen floors would not be so shiny.