I’m afraid this comes with a story, though I’ll hold that till later.

The basic objective here is to recreate a blueberry-bran muffin recipe that used to be sold (by me and eventually my nieces) to the cruising sailors who spent the night at the guest moorings in the harbor of Sorrento, ME. So bear in mind that this is the first of a series of experiments and by no means definitive. The recipe card from my mother’s experiments has been misplaced, but I’m pretty sure I remember it.

Ingredients

Wet

• 1 1/3 cup all-bran cereal
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar

Dry

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Optional

Any combination of the following that adds up to about a cup

• Maine blueberries (the small (proper) ones)
• raspberries
• Pecans
• Walnuts
• Sunflower seeds
• Etc.

Steps

1. Oven to 375°
2. Put all bran and milk in a mixing bowl to soften
3. Grease a 12 muffin tin, or use paper cups if you prefer, I don’t recommend them, but your decision.
4. throw all the remaining wet ingredients into the bowl and mix well.
5. In another bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together and toss in the berries to dredge.
6. Dump the flour and berries in to the wet ingredients and stir until you have just moistened all the flour. Don’t over mix.
7. Scoop the batter into the muffin tin. I find a 1/4 cup works well as a scoop.
8. You shouldn’t if you are careful, but if you end up with any unused muffin cups, put a bit of water in the empty buttered cup, to prevent the butter from burning on.
9. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Could be anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. Test at 15 and 20 and adjust accordingly.

Note, blueberry size/type matters. The western giant variety are bland, too sweet, not tart enough, make terrible muffins. The closest thing I have found in the pnw to a proper Maine blueberry is some huckleberries.

Jen says they’re good, so I’m off to a good start anyway. More experiments and the accompanying stories to follow.