Bumbleberry Muffins for Breakfast

You may have read my recent post of Bumbleberry Eton Mess. We had friends staying over and this was a nice and easy dessert to literally whip up. Bumbleberry, it turns out is what you call a mix of three or more berries in a recipe. I love the name and think it should be used way more often.

Apparently it stems from pioneer cooking times, where it was a way of using whatever ingredients were on hand.  For my Eton Mess, I’d used strawberries, rasps and blueberries. I had some leftover and didn’t want to waste them of course. So I decided to pop them into delicious muffins with a crunchy sugary crust on top.

We had the muffins warm for breakfast the next day, so it actually complimented the dessert of the night before. We can forget about the copious amounts of wine in-between!

The muffins are very light and moist, thanks to the use of vegetable oil and buttermilk. Here’s how I made them:

Yield: 6 large American style muffins, or 12 smaller ones

Ingredients:

300 grams plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

115 grams granulated sugar

1 large egg

250 ml buttermilk

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

150 grams mixed berries

Sugar crystals for sprinkling

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180oC. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. In a bowl, place all of the dry ingredients, in a bowl and whisk together. In a jug, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and oil. Add the wet to the dry and mix just until combined.

In a separate bowl, much the berries slightly with a fork, then add them to the muffin batter. Mix  through with a wooden spoon and then using a scoop, fill the muffin liners about two-thirds full. Sprinkle sugar crystals over the top of each muffin.

Place into the oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre. Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so. These are best eaten when warm, so if you are eating them the following day, pop them into the oven (at about 150oC) for 5 minutes to warm through. Enjoy :0)