The Great Blueberry Muffin Battle

Written By Amanda Barusch
Two blueberry muffins on a floral-patterned plate, placed on a wooden surface.

Blueberry Muffins

The mid 1980s saw heated debate in the De Gustibus column of the New York times. Who made the best blueberry muffins in Boston? The Ritz-Carlton or Gilchrist’s department store? In keeping with our department store theme, I favored Gilchrist’s, even though they are defunct.  (Great word, defunct!) Yesterday I discovered yet another defunct department store: Jordan Marsh. Of course, they made marvelous blueberry muffins and of course I adapted the recipe, cutting the sugar and adding nuts. I made some for my neighbors. (Felt terribly virtuous carrying the plate up the hill in my mask). They were declared “fantastic, especially the nuts.” Yippee! Here it is:

 

Preheat to 375

Blend until smooth:

½ cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix:

2 cups flour

½ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

Add the creamy blend to the dry ingredients, stirring them in along with:

½ cup milk

Before you fold in:

2 cups blueberries picked on a south-facing hill during a light rainstorm

Take ½ cup of the berries, crush them with a fork, and mix into the batter

NOW, fold in the whole berries. Gently. No, 2 cups is not too much.

Add:

1 cup walnuts

Spoon the mix into your muffin cups, filling them to within ¾ inch of the top.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

I cooked these in an extra-large muffin tin and ended up with eight. (Six disappeared before I could get out the camera.) I guess in a standard tin it’ll make twelve.

Amanda Barusch

Amanda Barusch has worked as a janitor, exotic dancer, editor, and college professor. She lives in the American West, where she spends as much time as possible on dirt paths. She has an abiding disdain for boundaries and adores ambiguity. Amanda has published eight books of non-fiction, a few poems, and a growing number of short stories. Aging Angry is her first work of creative non-fiction. She uses magical realism to explore deep truths of the human experience in this rapidly changing world.

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