Homebaked Blueberry Muffins

I bought a tiny box (1 cup worth) of blueberries from Isetan on Friday, as it was RM 8.90 (RM 1.00 cheaper than usual). A splurge as I haven't baked from fresh blueberries before. They're right when they say one shouldn't go shopping when you're hungry, or you'll end up doing impulse buying.

Now, Coldstorage at KLCC sold muffin pans that I needed, but I didn't have the measurement to make sure it'll fit my small oven or not. So, after bringing Panya back from the vet, we went out to look for a muffin pan, but to no avail. We found an ok baking supply store but they ran out of muffin pans and there was a long line due to a festive season coming.

I ended-up placing a standard sized muffin papercup into my aluminium jelly molds and baked them. They ended up turn out not too bad, fluffy and muffinny. =)

I used N00bcook's recipe which gave credit to the original Jordan Marsh Blueberry muffin recipe that worked quite well for me. Her pointers of use the middle part of muffin tray to be evenly baked is very useful. Becareful not to stir the muffin batter too much so the muffins wouldn't end up too dense. I actually handmixed my muffin batter than using an electric mixer as I halved the recipe. For those who have access to cheap blueberry, you could make a big batch (double or triple the recipe) and keep them in the fridge (fresh muffins in the mornings) or freeze them (ready muffin batter) for future.

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins
Credits: Recipe from ‘True Blueberry’ by Linda Dannenberg
This muffin recipe is that of the famous Jordan Marsh’s
Framingham Store (which closed down in 1983)

Ingredients:
(Makes 12 standard-size muffins)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
110g lightly salted butter (or 1 stick), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a medium bowl & set aside
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar and cream at low speed until the mixture is smoothly blended. At low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, and blend
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk a little at a time, alternating one with the other, and beat until blended, then remove the bowl from the mixer
5. Add 1/2 cup of blueberries and gently fold them in with a wooden spoon or spatula. Add the rest of the berries and gently fold them in
6. Place paper muffin cups into the muffin tin, and fill each cup with slightly more than 3/4 of batter. (Note: if not using paper cups, grease the muffin tin)
7. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the muffin tops, then bake in the center of the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and puffy
8. Remove to a wire rack and cool in the tins for 1 hour before serving

To avoid spending RM 10 to make 12 muffins, I halved the recipe (genius suggestion from hubby) I ended-up with 6 and a half fluffy muffins to enjoy. It's even good enough that I'll give one to Samantha, a small thank-you for getting me nice seasalt and rosemary herbs from Greece. I can't wait to use them in my cooking! ^_^

Junk Story: Snille Castor Chair

Snille Chair

This would be my 2nd best find after the rattan chair. Found it at a corner of the building, missing 1 castor wheel. I think the old guards used it to sit while on duty.

The chair itself doesn't cost that much. RM 45.00. But, that was before I knew it didn't cost that much.

Replaced new wheel purchased at RM5.00 at IKEA

It was white, and fit the colour scheme of my corner, the plastic seat didn't suffer major damages (minus the missing wheel), otherwise, the cats have lots of fun sniffing it that I used a mixture of vinegar and dishsoap to sanitize the chair.

Junk story: Rattan Chair

Rattan chair on the deck

My best find thus far. Sitting on top of a pile of trash was this almost flawless rattan chair. I know this chair is IKEA (cost around RM69), and only have a small hole on the seat. Not huge gapping hole, but a little tear.

Not too shabby, me thinks

Just right to have it out in the deck. I picked-up a white IKEA seat pad last week. They are kept in a cupboard while not in use since it's not water proof.