Blueberry Cornbread Muffins - Easy Recipe | The Worktop (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to use fresh or frozen blueberries for muffins? ›

A really big difference for muffins is that if you use frozen blueberries, many, if not most, of the berries will have burst. Even if you strain them (which you will pretty much have to do), you will have purple muffins. Personally, that doesn't bother me at all.

Frozen fruit should work fine in anything baked or cooked. Keep in mind that some recipes may require additional thickener to balance the extra juice. Rinse frozen fruit to prevent colors from bleeding. Thaw frozen fruit first if what you're making has a short baking or cooking time.

Coating the berries with a spoonful of the recipe's dry ingredients prevents sinking. Instead, it helps the berries adhere to the batter, keeping them well distributed throughout the muffin. And if you're using frozen blueberries, the flour will also help minimize how much the berries bleed into the batter.

What causes the muffins to be tough, heavy or rubbery? A. Two things: too much egg and using a dark, nonstick pan. A large-size egg, about 1/4 cup, will give you the best results.

Muffins, scones, cake, and coffeecake are quite another, frozen berries bleeding juice into batter to turn these golden-hued beauties a sickly shade of purple-green. This doesn't have to happen, you know. There's a simple solution. Rinse your frozen blueberries before you use them.

We recommend adding 1/2 to 1 cup of fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) fruit. Gently fold into the batter. Bake as directed.

To prepare: Remove the muffins from the freezer, carefully unwrap them, and let thaw at room temperature. To serve warm, reheat the unwrapped muffins in the microwave for 30 to 45 seconds on HIGH. Or heat oven to 400F, place the foil-wrapped muffins on a baking sheet, and warm for 10 to 15 minutes.

Blueberry Baking Chemistry

Blueberries turn greenish-blue in a batter that has too much baking soda (or grey in a smoothie with a lot of dairy), which creates an alkaline environment. That's why mixing a little lemon juice into your batter or smoothie will give you a more vibrant color.

The light coating of flour around the berries will absorb some of the fruit's liquid, making them less likely to sink. This is especially helpful when the batter is thin; thicker batters are a little better at cradling the fruit and keeping it suspended.

Lemon can enhance the flavor of blueberries by adding a touch of acidity that brings out their natural sweetness. Both lemon and blueberry are versatile flavors that can be used in a variety of dishes, from sweet to savory.

Is it better to use butter or oil in muffins? ›

Many muffin recipes use cooking oil instead of butter. Oil, being a liquid, distributes easily in the quick-mix batter and is readily absorbed into the baked muffin, producing a light non-greasy texture. Vegetable oil is ideal because its mild flavour doesn't compete with the main flavour of the muffin.

Rest the Muffin Batter

The first, most hands-off way to make your muffins pop (literally) is to let the batter rest. Make the batter, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the batter rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. If you're short on time, just 30 minutes can make a difference.

If cooking your berries into a pie filling, you may need to add additional thickening agents because frozen berries tend to release more liquid than fresh and will lead to a runnier consistency. For best results in your baking, don't defrost the berries before use but instead toss them in flour.

As each day passes, the berries slowly lose the nutrients that were so concentrated when they were picked. In comparison, frozen berries are almost always flash frozen the same day that they are harvested, preserving the natural nutrients and antioxidants that are present at the peak of freshness.

Instead of using real blueberries, some companies use blueberry "bits" and "particles," which typically consist of various sugars and starches coated with food dye to make them look like blueberries, the documentary shows.

Researchers analyzed the anthocyanin content of blueberries frozen for one, three and five months and found no decrease in antioxidants over fresh berries. They also retain similar or greater concentrations of thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, folate and fibre.