Getting home an hour earlier than expected + The best blueberries I've had in years in the fridge = 

The recipe is from "The Best Recipe" by the "Cooks Illustrated" folks. These are "Lemon-Blueberry Muffins." I made 3/4 of a recipe. (That's the real "math.")

And for the rest of the "crumb shot" obsessed:

It was hard to decide what to have for dessert - fresh out of the oven muffin or a slice of ....

My wife's Plum Cake (inspired by the recent postings about this).

I went with the muffin. There's always bedtime snack.

David

I went on a baking frenzy today, thanks to George Greenstein's Secrets of a Jewish Baker.  I followed one of his "Morning Baking" programs at the end of the book and made muffins, milk bread, whole wheat bread, and Italian bread.

Posted on www.evilshenanaigans.com  4/8/2009

I am a bacon devotee.  I'm not sure if you have noticed, but I love the stuff!  That's why when I was challenged to create a sweet and savoury bacon muffin I jumped at the challenge!

But, this is a tale of sadness, regret, but eventual triumph! 

Two months ago, on a cold January evening, I was contemplating new ways to use bacon in my baking when my husband asked, "Can you make a bacon cupcake?"  A cupcake?  No, not that, never that.  However, a muffin I could do!  So, off to research.  I formulated a recipe with a brown sugar crumble and gave it a whirl.

They tasted great, but looked about as pretty as homemade soap.  Not a shining moment for me, but I moved on.  Next I tried no crumble and more maple.  They were far too sweet and had the texture of sticky cornbread.  BLEH!   Long story short (too late, right?), after a few more failures I struck the right balance of salty and sweet in a tender, bulging muffins!  It is this that I present to you, the perfect brunch bread. .. Maple and Bacon Muffins!   

Maple and Bacon Muffins   Yield 1 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup real maple syrup

Heat the oven to 400 F and line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners, or grease and flour the pan well.

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt well.  Mix in the crumbled bacon.

In a separate bowl mix the milk, eggs, oil, and maple syrup.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it.  Fold gently until the dry ingredients are wet.  It will be lumpy.

Scoop into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Serve warm.

Does anyone let their muffin recipe soak for 1-4 hours if using freshly ground flour?  I have done so and they seem to have a really nice texture.  Like in bread, perhaps, the flour needs time to soak up moisture. Would this make a difference or am I just wasting time?

Thanks

Baking at High Altitude and Sharing Mountain Recipes are 2 scrumptious cookbooks offering experienced high altitude adjustments and recipes that have been requested for decades.

The Muffin Lady chose to write these books as an offering of flavor and ease to all who live and visit regions located at higher elevations. Through the years she has collected and developed palatable treasures and through much trial, efforts, tossings and tastings has found her niche.

Here's a tried and true recipe I've used for at least fifteen years. I got it from a magazine or newspaper, I think. You can add fruit, nuts, chocolate, or just bake them plain. Not overly sweet, and with some nutritious ingredients. They come together quickly. You can decide to make them and be taking them out of the oven no more than 30 minutes later. Yields about 2 dozen minis or 1 dozen large, though I rarely get more than 10 big ones.

Yogurt Muffins

Heat oven to 375F.

I used some of my starter that would have been discarded last night during refreshment to make some english muffins.  I found this recipe about 3 years ago on the KAF Baking Circle.  It was submitted by a user going by the name chard.  It makes great english muffins!