This overdue spring post just has to be published! I’ve already traveled to two Russian cities and have more recipes and impressions to share with you so let’s just move on : ) The only thing is that spring is still lingering here, being quite slow to come into force and say a definite goodbye to winter. So probably I’m not THAT very late with the tulips. This post will be short.
Here’s a version of a muffin recipe I have accidentally come up with after I bought a large jar of blueberry jam. It was so very … blueberry that jam that I thought I would love to bake something with it. You see, I usually bake with black currant jam or just black currants (usually frozen) since we have them in abundance at our dacha. But what I really love out of all the berries are the blueberries! So to make muffins which are really blueberry muffins and not a substitute was really joyful (baking people will understand : ). And yes, we’re almost finished with the last year harvest of black currents and the jam made with these!
The original recipe Marmalade & Earl Grey Tea Cakes which can be found at sugarcrafter.net got transformed into Tea Muffins with Blueberry Jam – the recipe will make smart looking muffins with soft jammy part inside.
My changes to the original recipe:
I used the blueberry jam I told you about and since it was quite runny (just sugar, water and berries) and well, very blue in color, I decided not to incorporate the jam inside the batter but rather add it as a middle layer or a filling. So I just filled the 1/3 of the muffin cup with the batter then added a bit of the jam and finally topped the jam with some more batter. I used muffin cups instead of the proposed mini loaf tins, thus getting ship-shape muffins as the result : )
I used the leftover tea from our breakfast, so it was not that famous bergamot tea but just plain black tea with fresh mint leaves. The rest was the same.
{with a mug from my favourite Aegina island}
A year ago – Travelling Muffins and Wandering Bread and Crostata and Challah, United
Two years ago – BOUGATSA!!! and Pies with Greek Flavours and Tough and Rakish 90s in USSR / Russia and Bring Some Artisan Bread to Your Life
By the way yesterday (was it?) I listened to a radio program saying that Earl Grey tea is particularly beneficial to your health (although there’s caffeine of course) thanks to the bergamot oil added to the tea leaves. They say it lowers cholesterol level. So if you can get the bergamot tea for these muffins, do it : )
Result: These spicy muffins keep shape, look nice and taste good! Use your favourite jam and decide for yourself whether it would taste and look better as a part of the batter or in between : ) Also the tea leaves that you’re supposed to add to the batter are not distinct very much, I even forgot that they were there when I was eating the muffins.
Special thanks to my sister for the flowers!
Will come back with more soon.
G.
hep-i-book'a 