Recipe: To start the day the American way
MOST Americans will have made blueberry muffins for Sunday breakfast - not from their grandmother's recipe, but from a packet mix including tinned blueberries. This is not necessarily to be sneered at: blueberries tin (and freeze) well. Anne Willan, the British cookery writer, was so impressed by this muffin recipe, which she found on the side of a sack of flour, that she included it in her book Real Food.
BLUEBERRY ORANGE MUFFINS
Makes 12
Ingredients: 10oz/300g blueberries
12oz/375g wholewheat flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
5oz/150g sugar
1tbs wheatgerm
2 eggs
1 1/2 oz/45g melted butter
Grated rind and juice of 1 large orange
Preparation: Heat oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6 and butter the muffin tins. Rinse, dry and pick over blueberries; if frozen, do not defrost. Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Stir in sugar and wheatgerm. In a separate bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Stir in orange rind, juice and butter. Make a well in the flour, add orange mixture, plus a little water if necessary, and lightly stir. Add blueberries. Do not over-mix: the batter should be slightly lumpy. Spoon batter into tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.
BLUEBERRIES are not just for breakfast. The Silver Palate Cookbook, by Lukens and Rosso, suggests blueberry glazes for chicken, mayonnaises infused with blueberry vinegar, blueberry zabaglione. Here follows their recipe for a lemon-blueberry tart.
SILVER PALATE LEMON BLUEBERRY TART
Serves 8
Ingredients: 8fl oz/225ml lemon juice
5tbs finely grated lemon zest
4oz/110g melted butter
6 eggs, lightly whisked
8oz/225g sugar
9in shortcrust, baked blind
10oz/275g blueberries, rinsed, sorted and dried
Preparation: Preheat oven to 400F/200C/ Gas 6. Whisk lemon juice, grated zest and butter in a bowl. Beat in eggs and sugar. Pour into shortcrust shell and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Arrange blueberries over filling. When cool, dust with icing sugar.
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