Last night, Ferdinand handed me a present all wrapped up in homemade wrapping paper, and said “this is for you Mom, I think you are going to love it.” And I did, I always have. It was a cookbook, the size of a postcard that I bought for myself about 25 years ago. (why shop for your mother when you take things you know she already loves right off the shelf?) It is 100 recipes for muffins, none of them very good, but all of them based on an incredibly exciting outlook of possiblities. Who knew you could make a peach muffin with toasted coconut and almonds. It inspired me to throw caution to the wind and not worry so much about the wrong and the right of what went where and with whom.
And after all of that traveling to the corners of the muffin earth and back, my favorite, hands down, no competition in my heart of hearts, is King Blueberry.
There is no muffin that delivers to me like the classic, perfect balance of butter to flour to sugar and fresh, bursting blueberries:
Bring all ingredients to room temperature.

1 3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
3 teaspoons of baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all that together with a whisk, or sift it through a sieve.

In a bowl, mix 1 egg with 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter that has been melted and brought back to room temperature, and 3/4 cup of milk. If your ingredients are not room temp, they will harden the butter and toughen the muffin.

Now with your hand or a rubber spatula, gently mix the dry ingredients with the wet just until you see no more powdery flour. Lumps are OK. Don’t try to get them out. With one motion, add 1 cup of washed and dried blueberries.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven in a greased muffin tin. Fill the tin right to the top, but not over the top.