Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

It's funny how I can wander all about the house all day long when I'm home alone without making a sound ... but when I'm trying to make breakfast while everyone else is asleep, I invariably drop a muffin tin or slam a cupboard door or knock over a bowl filled with metal measuring spoons.

And sometimes all of the above.





Maybe it's the rush to get everything in the oven before anyone else is awake? (Everyone but Zo the Wonder Dog, who at 95 years old has to get up to pee three times a night and tends to keep me company in the kitchen in the wee dark hours of the morning.)


Not sure why I'm rushing ... takes about ten minutes to whip up muffins from scratch. Maybe I should slow down, try not to drop things, and stretch it out to twelve minutes?

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

Heat your oven to 375º. (Why do they always say "pre-heat"? It's just heating it. Pre-heating it would be the things you do before you heat it, like make sure it's plugged in, cleaning it, putting the rack in the right position.)

Butter or grease your muffin tin (12er)

Dry Ingredients:
2.5 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (oops! forgot that one today)
1 Tbs orange peel or zest of one orange (lemon will do as well)

Mix all of the above in a largish mixing bowl.

Wet ingredients:
1 egg (beaten, of course)
3/4 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup light or neutral oil
1-2 tsp vanilla extract




Beat the egg, then add one item at a time and give the batter a good stirring before adding the next. Gently, gently, gently pour the wet into the dry, and with a largish silicone or rubber spatula, mix very gently right up to the point in which they are blended.


Final ingredient:
1-2 cups blueberries

Fold in the berries, just barely cutting through the batter with your spatula so as not to overmix the batter.

Scoop largish spoonfuls of batter into the muffin tin and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee. Maybe you can even sneak 1-2 before anyone else wakes up.