Blueberry Muffins

That's right.  It's finals week at the New England School of Acupuncture.  Guess who has two thumbs, and is going to kill her finals?  This girl.

Here's another rhetorical question, how does the future best acupuncturist on the planet (again, this girl, HEYO) stay alert, focused, and energized while spending an absurd number of hours in the library? Coffee and.....study snacks!!!

Without further ado, I present to you study snack #1: Blueberry Muffins.

I'm sure there's some Harvard educated doctor out there telling you that muffins aren't good study snacks because they have too much sugar and blah blah protein makes your brain run blah blah blah.  What do I say to that doctor? Go back to Cambridge.  On this side of the river we eat muffins whenever we want!!!




Blueberry Muffins
1 1/2 C All purpose flour
3/4 C White Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 C Vegetable Oil
1 egg
1/3 C Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 C Blueberries
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/3 C All purpose flour
1/4 C butter, cubed
1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line muffin pan with muffin liners
2) Combine 1 1/2 C flour, white sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
3) Place vegetable oil into a 1 C measuring cup, add the egg, and fill to top with milk.
4) Add this to the dry mixture.
5) Fold in blueberries and pour into prepared muffin cups (fill almost to top).
6) For topping, combine remaning ingredients, mix with a fork, and sprinkle over the muffins.
7) Bake about 20 minutes or until done.

On Blueberries:
I feel you on the dilemma of fresh vs frozen. You want to buy fresh because you think they're better, but the frozen ones are 1/10th the price for 5,648 times more.
Food for thought:
The fresh ones were probably shipped from California (depending on where you are that's pretty far), and were likely picked under-ripe, then exposed to ethylene gas to help them sweeten up just as they arrived at their final destination.  The frozen ones were probably left on the bush until ripe, and then flash frozen at the fruit farm yards from where they were picked.  The only real downside to the frozen blueberries is that water expands when it freezes, so the cells of the blueberry basically explode with ice crystals as they freeze, making their texture mushy.  BUT, when you cook blueberries, they explode from the heat, making their texture exactly the same sort of mushy, so this really shouldn't matter.

Conclusion: frozen blueberries are fresher than fresh, and cheaper, win win win.

The thug life of a muffin posse

*Please note that the muffin pictured above is served in a coffee filter.  This is indeed the only correct way to serve a blueberry muffin.  Growing up at daycare this is how my AMAZING daycare provider (Cheryl) would give us all snacks, and to this day it just feels.....better.....to eat blueberry muffins out of one.