Burst of Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins

I am one of the rare ones who, given adequate time, enjoys grocery shopping. But… following multiple warnings about Corona-virus variants, I gave up a month ago and began having my groceries delivered, at least until I am vaccinated and build some immunity. On my appointed “shopping” morning, as “my shopper” begins to collect my grocery items, my phone begins pinging. The store is out of those on-sale blueberries I ordered; would I like frozen berries instead? 

Wait a minute. Blueberries in February? Well, yeah, this farm girl is pretty spoiled with the rich variety of fruit grown next door in California and down south an hour or so in Mexico. With a stretch it’s local-ish, but most certainly not in season… We had to settle for apples, pears and citrus for the week, which took me back to winters on the farm. 

Fresh fruit was a summer luxury. Mom would visit the local fruit farm to pick amazingly delicious strawberries, which she made into her yummy strawberry glaze pie and strawberry shortcake. A few survived for fresh consumption, then freezing took the remainder. A few peaches and Bing cherries might be sprinkled in as the summer rolled on, but with very brief seasons. Come late summer we’d be making applesauce for the winter. And then would come an endless parade of canned fruit. I was mightily grateful when canning in light syrup made its debut. Blueberries would have been either canned or frozen, neither of which lived in our pantry or freezer, in any season!  

Now though, I just happen to have a few blueberries left from last week, enough to make blueberry muffins. My most favorite blueberry muffin recipe was in a 2005 issue of Cooking Light magazine, which highlighted Maine blueberries. The recipe was actually a contest winner from a local girl, lightened by the test kitchens at the magazine. While the magazine no longer exists , their lightened version was popular and is still available on a number of sites. (https://www.food.com/recipe/cooking-lights-blueberry-cinnamon-burst-muffins-170250) But even the lighter version was a bit cupcakey, which in those days was just fine by me… what I loved about it was that the cinnamon rich streusel was folded into the batter before baking, rather than being sprinkled on top. And the sugar, of course… don’t forget the sugar.

Rather doubtfully, I decided to try a second lightened-up version that I could comfortably eat. Start by switching the white flour for white whole wheat. Use butter only in a reduced amount of streusel, with vegetable oil subbed in for the batter. Oh! And don’t forget to cut the amount of sugar in half. I took them out of the oven with great trepidation, but they were perfect. Tender, moist and full of the cinnamon bursts for which they were named.  We’ll be finishing the batch for breakfast tomorrow morning. Next time I have blueberries left at the end of the week, I’ll make them again. No matter the season.