Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Making Muffins on a Busy Morning

Last night I got a craving for blueberry muffins. It was a bit too late to start a batch, and I wasn't hungry at all so I decided it could wait until morning. The normal recipe I use is actually pretty healthy, substituting flax seed meal for oil to give it a rich, nutty taste.

But last night as I flipped through the latest issue of Self magazine (which is getting increasingly irritating as I can't wear any of the clothes, do most of the workouts and certainly won't be going on any diets anytime soon), I came across a few recipes from Gwyneth Paltrow.

You know, the waif-like movie star who happened to do her own cooking show with some famous Spanish chef and now has a cookbook and looks like nothing over 150 calories ever passes between her lips?

Yeah, her.

There was a recipe for--wouldn't ya know it--blueberry muffins that she asked her mom to make all the time while she was pregnant. Not exactly as healthy as my recipe, but looked much more delectably tasty so I thought I'd give it a shot for the morning.

If you're like me, though, mornings are usually pretty rushed and I pat myself on the back if I can remember to eat a bowl of cereal while I'm putting my makeup on. But hot, fresh muffins with coffee just sounded so darn good for breakfast I came up with a plan.

Last night I measured all the dry ingredients into a bowl, gave it a few stirs and covered it with a towel. I got the muffin pan out, a Pyrex 2-cup measuring bowl and stuck a stick of butter in it.

The next morning as soon as I got up I started the oven preheating. I unwrapped and melted the butter, and let it cool a tad while I ran upstairs to get the frozen berries. By the time I finished making the coffee the oven was almost ready, so I added the milk to the butter, added the two eggs and whisked around a bit. Added that to the dry ingredients already out, folded in the berries and poured in the ready muffin tins.

By the time I showered and dried my hair I had hot, homemade muffins that were just screaming EAT ME like the cakes in Alice in Wonderland. So I did. And they are very, very good.

Prep time at night? Probably 3 minutes. Total prep time in the morning? Maybe 5 minutes. Eating those steaming lovelies with fresh coffee? Priceless.

Give her recipe a shot...its pretty lip smackin' good!



INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk (I used reduced fat and it was still rich)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tsp sugar, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk butter, eggs and milk in a bowl. Combine flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients; fold in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups; sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp sugar. Bake until muffins are golden brown and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm.

THE SKINNY

232 calories per muffin, 10 g fat (6 g saturated), 33 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein

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