BLUEBERRY ginger citrus GF Muffins

I buried my thoughts with these...
sweet BLUEBERRIES and made a wish.

I asked my precious Food Fairy to please grant me

success in making my very first BLUEBERRY muffin.

At this point, I figured that a little childish plea
could not hinder my baking challenge ahead.

 

 

Trial and error in my kitchen has always been an acceptable form

of learning curve that has excelled me into further adventures.

However, for this time, I honestly, just could not handle a failed muffin with

the very few cherished Québec blueberries I was willing to let go onto this baked treat.

 

 

I've mentioned this before...

I rarely let go of berries in their fresh state...

especially from our local crop.

It would be different if these berries would come by the case load...

however, so far...no such glory on the home front.

 

 

During the year, I don't mind baking with the frozen berries...

but for now... call me a little strange...

I do admittedly get a little possessive of them.

 

 

Not only have I never made blueberry muffins before...

I decided to add the extra challenge of also making them gluten free.

Yes...for those who are not willing to go there with me...

a classic form with all purpose flour can certainly apply.

I dove into my experiment full throttle and crossed my fingers

that my experience in baking was going to pay off.

I waited patiently...and then within a short time...

the magic was slowly wafting through the air.

As soon as I witnessed the muffins rising and sensing the aromas in my home...

I started getting that warm and fuzzy feeling of baking euphoria.

To my ecstatic surprise it appeared that I may have got

the hole in one during my very first try.....victory!

The generous Food Fairy granted my wish after all ;o)

As I just mentioned before...

I've been too busy eating one of my favourite berry in its freshness

to even think of putting a bunch of them into any baked goods.

The season is never long enough and I have yet to have my visit at a field of

voluminous blueberries...hopefully next year I'll make it out for extra pickings.

In the meantime, this year for some reason I was itching

to make muffins with these blue sweeties.

If I think back to when this tickle started...

it must have been during a small TV segment I caught of

America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) bragging that they had found the

very best way to achieve the perfect blueberry muffin by

boosting the berry flavour from incorporating intensity through jam.

Then, I started seeing these adorable berry muffs appearing

here and there on blogs...which served to open up my appetite even more.

So...last week, I had finally decided to tackle the incredibly

sought after blueberry muffin with a little twist or two of my own.

What did you think...
I was going to make a muffin with just blueberries?

The one thing I decided to do was to take an excellent piece of advice from ATK about creating a part of the mixture to be in the form of jam.
The rest of the recipe is me experimenting with gluten free baking and of course having fun in my kitchen.  Enjoy.

BLUEBERRY ginger citrus MUFFINS

No mixer required

yields 12 standard muffins

PRINTER VERSION here

INGREDIENTS:
(American / Metric measures)
. 2        cups (500ml) fresh Blueberries [reserve 1 cup (250ml) for the jam part]
. 1-1/4  cup (230gr ) organic sugar [reserve 1/8 cup (25gr) for the jam part]
. 2        xLarge eggs
. 2        cups (260gr) GF flour--sweet white Sorghum (reg. A.P. flour can be used)
. 1/2     cup (65gr) GF flour--Tapioca (reg. A.P. flour can be used)
. 1        tbsp. (15ml) GF baking powder (reg. is fine too)
. 1        tsp. (5ml) sea salt
. 1/4     cup (60ml) unsalted butter (melted and cooled slightly)
. 1        cup (250ml) buttermilk *  note: I used Almond milk instead of cow's milk
. 1/4     cup (60ml) vegetable oil
. 1        tbsp. (15ml) vanilla extract
. 2        tbsp. (30ml) grated fresh Ginger (optional)
. 1        orange or lemon finely zested
. 1/2     cup (120gr ) candied ginger (finely chopped)
.             garnish sprinkle: organic sugar

* Make homemade BUTTERMILK:
For about every 1 cup (250ml) needed...first add 1 tbsp. (15ml) of EITHER white vinegar, cider vinegar or lemon juice. To that, now add the rest in the amount of milk to complete the volume required in the recipe. Let the milk rest for 10 minutes so that it thickens. Afterwards, give it a light stir before pouring into the recipe.

PREPARATION:

. Pre-heat oven to 400F/180C/Gas 6... and position the oven rack on the 2nd level from the bottom.

...JAM making:
Will take about 10 minutes. In a small saucepan place half the amount of blueberries with the sugar and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to medium and stir every so often until the berries and sugar have reduced, thickened and concentrated the berry flavour as the water evaporates.  Take it off the heat and let it cool while preparing the rest of the recipe.

. Prepare the muffin tin with the paper liners and keep the generous oil spraying step for right before the batter is poured at the end. Set aside.

. In a large bowl add and whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and candied ginger...set aside.

. In a small bowl...pour the buttermilk, oil, vanilla, citrus zest, grated ginger and cooled butter. Give it a quick stir. Set aside.

. In another medium bowl...whisk the eggs and sugar until a lightly colored and fluffy consistency appears.
...ASSEMBLY:  Now, that all the components are ready...start putting everything together in this manner:

. Pour the EGG mixture into the MILK mix...give it a good whisk.  Now, take this mixture and pour it into the FLOUR mix...give it a light fold with a spatula without over mixing.

. Spray generously the oil onto the bottoms of every paper liner.

. Now, spoon the batter 1/2 of the way into the muffin tins. Spread most of the remaining blueberries equally throughout and also push some berries down a little.  Spoon in the rest of the batter.  To finish off the tops...spoon the jam and slightly swirl into the batter.  Add some more fresh blueberries for garnish if you wish.  Add a liberal sprinkle of granular organic sugar to finish the tops.

...BAKE for 18 minutes. Once out of the oven...wait no longer than 2 minutes before pulling them out with a tong and onto a cooling rack.  This last important step will ensure that the muffins stop baking in order to give you the moistess gluten-free blueberry ginger muffins ever.

***

I still had some blueberries left to enjoy in their natural state.

I decided that it would be pure indulgence to berry blanket a

special sorbet which was inspired by visiting Barbara's culinary site.

Barbara had successfully achieved a very flavourful...

 Goat Cheese sorbet enhanced by the sweetness of honey.

My personal twist on this wonderful treat...

is to switch the [honey and the lemon juice parts]

with a blend of [Agave nectar and Limoncello liquor].

***

 

I do hope you get to bake up a batch of these scrumptious berry treats soon.

 

Alright then...anyone care to admit which fruit they admittedly feel possessive over?

Flavourful wishes,

Foodessa

The following RECIPES...may also be of interest:
- BANANA CHOCOLATE candied Ginger Muffins
- Chocolate Ricotta Squash muffins