Sunday morning seems like a good time to do a post on these incredibly yummy, homemade wild blueberry muffins. A couple of days ago I was browsing through the aisles at S&R Fort Bonifacio, and I was thrilled to see that there were quite a few additions to their product line-up… Their ice cream selection alone was fantastic, with at least a dozen flavors of Ben & Jerry’s, lots of those boxed ice creams that kids love, plus those teeny tiny chocolate coated Dove ice creams that I delude myself into thinking are my reward at the end of the day if I have reduced my caloric intake. At 60 calories for a tiny burst of ice cream coated in chocolate, it is the mental patient’s rationalized view of a diet reward/incentive system. But the Doves are languishing in the freezer as the recent trip to Boracay and one final summer trip up North means my diet efforts are completely suspended until further notice. At any rate, I found some intriguing Fresh Frozen Wild (as opposed to cultivated) blueberries from Maine in smallish 15 oz. packages and for less than PHP200, if I remember correctly…
Blueberries have one of the highest amount of antioxidants, the latest craze in preventing whatever ailments can afflict you in this modern day and age… But more importantly, wild blueberries taste fantastic. I love blueberry muffins and I haven’t found 
anyone in Manila who makes a decent one, with a rich cake and oozing with lots of berries… So I decided to try making my own from scratch. From the internet, I found this great looking and incredibly simple recipe, but I altered the volumes and proportions a bit to suit my own taste… they turned out terrific. If you have a hankering for warm homemade blueberry muffins, try this recipe! Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees and line your muffin pan with those waxed muffin cups. Combine 3 cups all purpose flour, 1.5 cups of white sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 4 teaspoons of baking powder in a large bowl. Next, in a large measuring cup, add 3 eggs, 2/3 cup of canola or vegetable oil and enough milk to make it to 2 cups total (including eggs and oil). Add the liquids to the flour and stir until combined. Do not overmix. Add 1.5 cups of fresh frozen wild blueberries (2 cups if you are using the larger cultivated berries) and fold gently. The dough will turn an incredible shade of purple/blue as these wild berries seem to have far more blue tint in them. Spoon this mixture into the muffin cups, filling the cups all the way to the top. You want to have an intentional overflow of muffin mixture, once in the oven.
Frankly, the muffins bare and “naked†as described above are terrific as is. You could bake them like that for about 20 minutes. But the recipe I found on the internet has the added layer of cinnamon crumble on the top of the muffin and while it might sound over the top to you, it was truly delicious. To make the crumble, mix together ¾ cup white 
sugar, ½ cup flour, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and just over 1/3 cup sweet butter, with a fork until in large lumps. Sprinkle the lumps over the unbaked muffin mixture and then pop everything into the hot oven for 20-25 minutes. If you do this right, the crumble will coat the top of the muffin and when they cool down, the crumble will be crisp/crunchy and the butter will melt and keep the top of the muffin moist. This recipe made about 15 medium sized muffins or probably about 11-12 large sized ones. I don’t even care to speculate how many calories these contain per muffin. But that’s okay, it’s Sunday… didn’t you know that whatever you eat on Sundays doesn’t count towards your weekly caloric intake? Heeheehee. Enjoy!
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Wild, cultivated or organically grown blueberries – they are near and dear to my heart especially blueberry muffins with a hint of lemon. Blueberries jam is good with vanilla ice cream.
One of the only three native fruits found in North America (the other two are cranberries and Concord grapes) they can still be gathered around rocks bordering the great lakes back here. Easier to find though are tubs of frozen wild ones and cheaper too even at the height of blueberry season (which is mid-summer). I mix them with the fresh commercially grown to give them back their flavour intensity that has been diluted by domestication. Great for summer pie (while you are waiting for the peaches to come in).
I just purchased a couple of these Wyman’s wild blueberries a couple of weeks ago and cost P167 plus/ea upon my son’s “discovery” in the frozen food section. He munched some on the way home and made blueberry pancakes the next day. He’s been making kulit about these blueberry muffins. I guess I’m gonna try your recipe,MM. They look yummy plus blueberries are great antioxidants(it’s the ‘tint’) especially for kids!!!
Small portions at a cheap price at S&R? This sounds good. Thanks for the tip.
OoOohhh… reminds me of a summer we spent in Maine once, we freshly picked blueberries every morning to make pancakes! along with a trip on a speedboat to catch lobsters… us kids also decided that we should keep the starfish attatched to the lobster cages as pets.. bad idea.
I lived in Maine for a year and yes, there were lots of wild blueberies near the lake where we lived. Oh, the good old days!
I love blueberries to pieces! :) Now only if I get my oven to be fixed…..
thank you MM, will try this surely………
Yet another blog that will make me hungry. LOL! Yum
wow your blueberry muffins look so blue it must be really packed with fruits
boy the muffins look terribly yummy and homemade, the kind you get at church bake sales…have just discovered how our kitchenaid works (after a year of just taking up counter space hahaha) so might try this out….
tasted the best blueberry muffins on one of our trips to ludlow castle, uk. how about cheese muffins, have you got some recipes to share? been trying hard for some right proportions and types of cheese to use. thanks!
I bought the Wyman’s blueberries from S&R and was so excited to get home and bake something! Sadly though these blueberries are SOOOOO lacking in flavor. You know right after you open the baggie, expecting that bright blueberry aroma, and then you get….. nothing. They are very blue though :). These are going into smoothies just to use them up, but I wouldn’t bother baking with them.
michelle, they are frozen after all. I suspect some of the aroma and taste are seriously compromised by the freezer treatment. But I found them to be pretty good considering a tiny package of fresh blueberries from California, also at S&R run close to PHP300, and though large and “fresh,” they are not that tasty either… Nothing beats freshly picked wild berries at the source…but for me, this will do for muffins/pancakes…
Where can you get fresh blueberries here? Before there was a Makro in Edsa, Cubao. There was a open market there during weekends. I saw a couple of localy grown blueberries before and their quite small.
Chris, they seem to have fresh mt province berries in the baguio market most of the time. If you have a baguio veggie suki, they can probably bring down some berries for you on special order. Alternatively, at the moment, I saw large commercial and probably less tasty imported blueberries at S&R and the other upscale fruit purveyors. However, I should say that the baguio blueberries have a realy thick skin which I find a bit tough…
blueberry crumble muffin sold at Cedele bakery in Singapore is one the best muffins for me!