Just Baking

My great-grandmother never made her blueberry muffins for me, but I found her recipe while looking through my mother’s recipe box a few years ago. I made the recipe and was an instant admirer of the muffins — delicate and moist, the sweet batter hugging each and every blueberry.

I decided to make the muffins this weekend and went to the store for the ingredients. In the baking aisle I happened to stop in front of the display for Bob’s Red Mill products, as I always enjoy looking at the variety of interesting flours produced by them. The Bob’s Red Mill All-Natural Hazelnut Flourinstantly caught my eye and I thought how good it might taste in the muffins.

The flour is actually a fine ‘meal’ of ground hazelnuts and is suggested as only 1/4 of the flour used in baked goods. I figured the nutty flavor of the hazelnuts would pair nicely with the blueberries. And although the recipe didn’t call for lemon zest, it popped into my mind that this might create a light background note to the other flavors. The new recipe quickly came together in my mind and I hustled around to rest of my ingredients. I decided to buy roasted hazelnuts as well, to chop up and sprinkle on the muffins.

I returned home with more items than I originally intended to purchase. Sometimes you just need to give into your ideas and let a new recipe to emerge. I unpacked my bags and quickly got down to business with making the muffins.

The muffins turned out well, as moist and light as I remember. The hazelnut flour added a very slight nutty flavor and added nice dark flecks of color to the muffin itself. I enjoyed the chopped hazelnuts on top as they added a crunchy contrast to the texture. Next time, I might increase the lemon zest by another teaspoon. Also, I don’t suggest that ‘more is better’ when it comes to adding the blueberries. I had an extra 1/4 cup or so that I threw in and it compromised the structure of the muffins (a few fell apart when being removed from the muffin tin).

Enjoy the recipe — I’ll definetly make them again with a few adjustments. And although I love the original blueberry muffin recipe, I’m sure my great-grandmother would approve of this new version.

Hazelnut Blueberry Muffins
1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted shortening
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour (meal)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

Mix flours, salt, baking powder and sugar until combined. Add shortening, egg, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. Mix until ingredients are just well-mixed, then fold in blueberries.

Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full with the mixture. Sprinkle each muffin with chopped hazelnuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from muffin tin. Makes 12 muffins.