Overnight blueberry muffins

I first heard of Paul Hollywood, the chef, when I watched a recent TV show/competition to determine Britain’s best amateur baker. The contestants were amazing, their skills superb – they were absolutely NOT amateurs. I mean, if at all they were “amateurs” it was only in that they were not famous “professional” chefs, running restaurants or publishing cookbooks. Otherwise, in terms of skills, talent and imagination, I’m pretty certain they would have given any “professional chefs” a run for their money if they (the professionals) were in the competition rather than merely judging it!

Anyway, Paul Hollywood is an expert on baking, and I came across his recipe for blueberry muffins on the BBC Food website. According to him, they were the best muffins ever. I would probably have just glanced at the recipe and continued browsing, had it not been for a couple of things – the minimal number of ingredients and the simple instructions and, more intriguingly, his advice to refrigerate the batter, preferably overnight, before baking the muffins.

Refrigerate? OVERNIGHT? And here I’d been under the impression, courtesy the gazillion muffin recipes on the Net, that the biggest selling point of this particular type of baked goody was that it was practically instantaneous – basically, make the batter (don’t even stop to break up the lumps) and bake the muffins.

He said his recipe would make 12 muffins. I thought that the batter wouldn’t stretch to 6 muffins never mind 12, there was so little of it. But it did, just... although the 12 muffins were the size of small cupcakes. (I never like to specify the number of muffins, in any case. It’s such a subjective thing, depending very much on how small or how large you wish to make them.)

I made only one change to Mr Hollywood’s recipe – I added some vanilla extract because I love it, because I simply can’t help myself, and because I’m not entirely sure that I would ever love just nutmeg as a flavouring.

And so to the muffins... Oh. My. God. They were not so much muffins as fairy cakes, so light and lovely that I was quite happy there were others in the house to eat ‘em, or I would have demolished them all myself. They were THAT good. I dunno if it was the overnight resting, or the butter in the recipe (it’s been a while since I used butter in a muffin recipe) but the muffins were sensational!

I try to learn a new technique or ingredient from every recipe I try, familar or unfamiliar. The abiding lesson from this recipe was: Always stud the batter with blueberries after putting the batter into the cake cases (this goes for any berry or soft fruit), rather than mix them in with the batter and THEN fill the cases. That way you can control where the berries go so they don’t burst messily against the side of the cases while cooking; they stay in the centre, where they were placed, making for a neat result. This really is a brilliant tip, one to always remember. I don’t know why I couldn’t have come up with the idea myself, it's so simple. But sadly I didn't, and a vote of thanks is definitely due Mr Hollywood!

Recipe for: Overnight blueberry muffins


Ingredients:

1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
pinch nutmeg
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together till fluffy.


2. Then add the eggs one by one.

3. Mix for three minutes. Then add the flour, baking powder and nutmeg,
stir to combine into a thick batter. Do not beat.


4. Refrigerate the batter for at least an hour, preferably overnight. Just before baking, stir in the vanilla.

5. Place paper cases in a muffin pan. Place a spoonful of muffin mixture into each muffin case, filling each to just over half way.


6. Stud each muffin with 5-8 blueberries, pushing them very lightly into the batter.


7. Bake in an oven set at 200C/400F for 20 minutes, or until golden on top.

Serve warm.


RECIPE: OVERNIGHT BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
pinch nutmeg
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together till fluffy.
2. Then add the eggs one by one.
3. Mix for three minutes. Then add the flour, baking powder and nutmeg, stir to combine. Do not beat.
4. Refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
5. Place paper cases in a muffin pan. Place a spoonful of muffin mixture into each muffin case, filling each to just over half way.
6. Stud each muffin with about five blueberries.
7. Bake in an oven set at 200C/400F for 20 minutes, or until golden on top. Serve warm.