The Jolly Blueberry Muffins!

There are a million and a half recipes online for these, I'm sure most are good. This is my own that I have tested so many times and that comes out great each and every time. They're moist, they're juicy, the blueberries are well mixed into the cooked muffin, they peel off their wrapping cases so easily... Bottom line: there's never enough left over!

Ingredients (makes 12 big muffins):

• 440gr flour

• 2 full tsp baking powder

• 2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1 tsp salt

• 200gr demerara sugar

• 160ml veg oil

• 1/2 cup extra veg oil to brush the cases

• 4 eggs at room temperature

• 400gr sour cream

• 4 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 full tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 full tsp all spice

• 440gr blueberries

• 3-4 Tbsp extra flour to work the blueberries before mixing

You'll also need:

• Muffin baking trays (I use 2 by 6 each)

• 12 muffin papercases

Method:

• First of all take the eggs out of the fridge!

• Wash well all the blueberries and strain them well - then place them in one layer on two clean tea-towels to dry well

• Now lightly brush each paper case and place them as they are in the muffin baking tray

• Mix these dry ingredients together: the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, all spice, salt

• Using a big enough glass or ceramic bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until light and very fluffy

• Start adding the veg oil quite gradually continuing to whisk

• Add the vanilla extra and whisk it well

• Then whisk in the sour cream until all very well mixed and still quite fluffy

• Lower the speed of the whisk to medium (eventually you'll have to lower it to the minimum), and gradually add (1-2 Tbsp at a time, the flour and spices mix)

• You will obtain a batter that is smooth and still quite thick

• At this point the blueberries will be dry enough, so scatter 2-3 Tbsp of flour all over them, right onto the kitchen towel, gather the edges of the towel and lightly toss them around to coat them well

• Lift them into a dry colander using your hands to avoid any excess flour and keep them handy

TIP: the reason you're doing this is so the blueberries will not sink to the bottom of your muffins but will remain scattered around in the middle, as you want them to be

• Pre-heat your oven at 200 degrees C (fan)

• Using a soft silicone spatula (better) or a wooden spatula, gradually start manually adding your dusted blueberries into the batter

TIP: take great care here: you'll notice that the bottom will tend to remain blueberry free (which is not what you want) unless you use your spatula to lift the bottom center of the batter and bring it to the top while adding the blueberries

TIP: I actually use two big bowls: the first has the batter, the second is empty. I add a couple of ladlespoons of batter, then two handfuls of dusted blueberry, and lightly mix, then repeat, until I get to the end. In this way the blueberries are always very well mixed

• Spoon the final batter into the prepared papercases almost to the very top of each (or even to the top of you have enough, at the second pass)

• Bake the muffins at 200 degrees C (fan) for 5-6 mins

• Reduce the temperature to 170 degrees C (fan) for another 20 mins

• Quickly perform the toothpick test: the wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cooked muffin should come out almost dry but certainly clean

• For me, they usually need to go back into the oven for another 5-6 mins

• It is very important to leave the muffins to cool in their tray once done, serving them in their paper cases

TIP: the last time I've done 36 muffins! (doubling etc all the above ingredients) but I only had those 2 tins, so what I did was this: once out of the oven, I put a chopping board very lightly over each mould and quickly flipped it upside down, and very quickly removed the tin revealig the muffins. They're super delicate at this stage, and super warm, so using kitchen tongs an an egg slicer to help me handling them without damaging them, I moved them upright onto another chopping board/tray to let them cool down. This allowed me to proceed to fill in other paper cases with more batter and reuse the mould tins while the oven was still warm.

• In any case, allow the muffins to reach perfectly room temperature before serving or storing them in an airtight container (lined on the bottom and on the top with a paper towel)