Fannie Farmer Blueberry Muffins

This recipe is from the 1959 Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook. For the tenderest muffins, use pastry flour and avoid over-beating [fold nuts, berries, fruits in with spatula till all are gently mixed in. BATTER SHOULD NOT BE SMOOTH! Choose between 2 cups of pastry flour OR 1-7/8 Cups of all-purpose flour. This recipe can be altered by the leaving out the berries, or substituting as follows: Using 1/4 cup bacon fat instead of butter, plus 3 Tablespoons crumbled cooked bacon; Using huckleberries instead of blueberries; Add 1/2 cup sliced pitted dates or 1/4 cup raisins; Add 3/4 cup candied orange peel, chopped fine; Add to the milk 3/4 cup peaches, peeled and diced; Use 1/4 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup chopped pecans [then before baking muffins top with sugar/cinnamon and more nuts]; Substitute 3/4 cup coarse whole-wheat flour for 1 cup of the flour, Do not sift it the whole-wheat; and last variation is: Spread in a buttered 8 or 9 inch square tin [sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, bake @ 375* about 25 minutes, cut in squares].

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 12 muffins or 6 large

Ingredients

• 2  cups  pastry flour or 1 7⁄8 cups  all-purpose flour reserve 1/4 for sprinkling over blueberries
• 2  cups fresh blueberries
• 3  teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1 -2  egg, slightly beaten
• 1  cup milk
• 1⁄4 cup butter, melted
• 1⁄2 cup sugar

Directions

1. 1. Preheat oven for 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. 2. Sift into a mixing bowl all dry ingredients (reserving 1/4 cup flour for add in berries). DO NOT USE both pastry and all-purpose flour. Use one or the other.
3. 3. Mix in another bowl remaining ingredients (save berries for last).
4. 4. Pour wet mixture over the flour mixture. Stir only enough to dampen the flour.
5. 5. Mix 1/4 cup of flour with berries, add 1/2 cup sugar.
6. 6. Gently fold berries into batter.
7. 7. Spoon into buttered muffin tins (or paper lined tins), having the tins about two-thirds full.
8. 8. Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
9. Makes 12.