Blueberry and Polenta Muffins

Treat yourself to some delicious and easy to bake Blueberry and Polenta muffins this weekend. You will be so pleased you did. Blueberries are the perfect fruit to add to a muffin batter because of their colour, flavour and size, and even though blueberries aren't grown around here in North Queensland, except for a few native bushes that people might grow, I used frozen ones, and they worked perfectly.

Let's talk Polenta, a favourite Italian staple food with a rich history in Italian culture. Polenta is made from cornmeal and can be coarse, medium or fine. I suggest you use the finest you can find for this recipe. Polenta is an ingredient that I don't cook with very often, but I'm always so pleased with the results when I do.

There are countless muffin recipes out there now, particularly blueberry ones, however I think that the addition of polenta to the flour mix improves the texture, flavour and colour, and also makes them a healthier option than just using plain flour. Polenta is high in dietary fibre and low in fat. There are probably finer brands of polenta available from delicatessens, however I bought this Sostanza brand from the supermarket and it worked well. I need to use it up. So combined with the beautiful purple and luscious albeit frozen blueberries, these muffins are a winner. Mr. HRK loved them. 

What's not to love on the weekend? Fruity muffins warm out of the oven, and your home smelling like a bakery. This kind of baking makes cooking so enjoyable. Some of these are already in the freezer, in anticipation of those needy moments that we all have. 

Ingredients

220g plain flour

100g finely ground polenta

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

2/3 cup light brown sugar

2 free range eggs

1 cup milk

120g unsalted butter, melted

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries ( I used frozen and they worked beautifully)

pinch of salt

Let's cook:

Preheat your oven to 180 deg. C, or 160 deg for a fan forced oven.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners. Makes 12 muffins.

1. Mix flour, polenta, baking powder, baking soda, pinch salt, orange zest and brown sugar in a medium sized bowl. Refine any lumps using your fingers.
2. Whisk eggs, milk and slightly cooled melted butter in a separate bowl.
3. Pour the egg mixture over the flour, mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Stirring the muffin mixture too vigorously will toughen the batter.
4. Fold the blueberries in gently with a large spoon. 
5. Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin tin liners, filling each of your muffin papers about 3/4 full or evenly. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick or small skewer inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean. If they are nicely browned and bounce back to the touch and have small cracks on the top they are probably cooked.

Cook's notes:

• I like to use muffin liners in my trays when I'm making muffins, so much easier than greasing each muffin hole, and trying to extract the muffins from the tray and less washing up. Also the muffin liners I used for these peel away beautifully from the muffin making life a lot easier at the table. 
• These larger muffin liners give the impression that I haven't added much batter to them, because of their height. However, this batter makes 12 nicely sized muffins. Please trust me.  If you want larger muffins, reduce the number to 10 for example and they will be larger. I find the ones sold in coffee shops too large for my taste. 
• I try to keep frozen blueberries and raspberries on hand. You just never know when the urge to make muffins will hit you. They are so versatile.

This recipe is borrowed and modified from David Herbert's recipe in the Weekend Australian newspaper a few years ago. David doesn't write his recipe column anymore, more's the pity, but his recipes live on.

If you make these I would love your feedback. I'm on instagram at #happy_retirees_kitchen.

Happy baking,

Warm wishes

Pauline