Blueberry and Maple Syrup Muffins.
These muffins came to me in a dream. I was happily mixing maple syrup and blueberries together in a bowl, yelling something about making muffins. When I woke up, it still seemed like a delicious idea. Maple syrup and blueberries remind me of my time in Connecticut. So, I added all the other things that make me long to be back in North-east of America. Well, maybe not all the other things. It’s very hard to get Fall and lighthouses into muffin batter!
Muffin Ingredients.
One cup of a light flavoured oil.
One cup of maple syrup.
One cup of strong coffee.
Two tablespoons of vanilla essence. (See tips).
A heaped tablespoon of cinnamon.
One teaspoon of salt.
Two and a half cups of self-raising flour.
Two cups of blueberries.
One tablespoon of flour (for prepping the blueberries).
Crumble Ingredients.
Half a cup of toasted walnuts.
One forth of a cup of oil.
One forth of a cup of maple syrup.
Half a cup of cornflour.
One teaspoon of salt.
One teaspoon of cinnamon.
One tablespoon of vanilla essence.
One cup of blueberries.
Finishing touch.
Six pinches of salt.
Six tablespoons of maple syrup.
Cinnamon to dust.
Instructions.
Preheat your oven to 240c (464 f).
Line your muffin tin with parchment paper. This mixture will make six big, café sized muffins or twelve regular muffins. The cooking time is given for large muffins. Adjust accordingly.
Mix the oil, syrup, coffee, vanilla essence, cinnamon and salt. Mix. Add the two cups of flour. Fold in. Do not overmix at this stage.
Wash the blueberries. If the berries are frozen, wash until the water from the colander runs clear. Toss the berries with the extra tablespoons of flour. This will ensure your berries do not sink to the bottom of the muffin.
Add your berries to the batter. Very gently fold the berries into the batter. Aim to spread them evenly through the batter and stop as soon as you have accomplished this.
Spoon the mixture into the tin.
Put your muffins into the hot oven. Bake at 240c (464 f). for ten minutes. Remove your muffins from the oven and lower the temperature to 220c (428f). This ensures tall, café style muffins.
While your oven cools, prepare the crumble topping.
Mix the topping ingredients in the order they are listed. Add the blueberries last and avoid smashing them as you mix them in.
Spoon the crumble on to the top of your slightly baked muffins. Press it lightly into the unbaked muffin tops to prevent it falling off.
Bake for another 25 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
Remove from oven. Allow to cool for about five minutes. Sprinkle each muffin with one pinch of salt. Drizzle one tablespoon of maple syrup over each muffin. Finish off with a generous dusting of cinnamon.
Tips.
Baking with an alternative sweetener to refined sugar requires a sensitive touch. Unlike refined sugar, maple syrups and honeys have a range of different flavours. With honey, this is the result of bees harvesting their pollen from different flowers.
With maple syrup, the different flavours are created by, (among other things), the kind of soil the tree grows in.
Because of this, my flavouring and spice quantities are only a suggestion. You must taste your way through these recipes, respond to what your taste buds pick up, and adjust accordingly.
