When Life Gives You Blueberries

When I saw these organic blueberries on sale at 2 boxes for five dollars what could I do but buy them?  I'm not even a huge blueberry fan, but rather a more recent convert to them for their antioxident qualities.  I slather them on top of my Special K in the morning and pat myself on the back for at least trying for a healthy breakfast.  I don't think I even tried tasting a blueberry until I was at least forty.  To me, they ranked down low on the fresh eating scale right above rhubarb.  I'm much more a strawberry or  bing cherry kind of gal.  But today these huge blueberries almost the size of my thumb seductively whispered "Buy Me...I'm gorgeous...You know you want me...Just close your eyes and do it."  So, I did.  Then What?  Well, when life hands you blueberries, make muffins.  Okie Dokie then...away I go.

I decided to take a look at the King Arthur Flour website to see if I could find a recipe that looked like it might do the trick.  I buy a lot of King Arthur flours and other baking products.  The company is located in Vermont and is one hundred percent employee owned.  Some years ago when I was forced to carry malted seven grain flour back from England because I needed it for bread making and couldn't locate it anywhere, I ended up phoning King Arthur company on their 800-number.  Imagine my surprise when I was connected to one of their bakers.  We had a lengthy discussion about European wheats vs North American wheat, flour "heaviness" and milling processes.  Malting is a process not used in North America unless one has flour custom milled and buys in fifty pound bags.  For a Foodie, getting that phone connection to an honest to goodness King Arthur baker was akin to getting a direct line to God.  Another thing King Arthur company does is guarantee certain recipes they publish either in hard print or on the web.  If one of their guaranteed recipes flops, they will send you a check to defray the costs of ingredients.  How cool is that?   Here is a direct link to the recipe I used.  I used vanilla yogurt rather than sour cream and I kicked the vanilla extract up to 2 tsps. 

The muffins were the absolute best I have ever made or eaten.  I love the sparkling sugar on the top (I ordered mine long ago from the K.A. catalog) because not only am I a sweetaholic, but that sparkling sugar makes the muffins look gorgeous.  Husband and I each ate two muffins warm from the oven.  Were they scrumptious!  As soon  as the rest cooled, I took six of them, bagged them and hid them in the freezer before we overdosed on their awesome goodness and left two out for a later treat.  If you love yourself, you'll try these muffins as soon as you can get your hands on some fresh blueberries.  The photos below chronicle my efforts (place your cursor over each square to see the full-sized photo)...