I have to say, we made some delicious baked goods for our guests at Main Street Bed & Breakfast – especially the Blueberry Muffins. Thirty plus years later, I’m still making them, and my daughter and her family are, too. I guarantee they’ll be a favorite of yours as well.

Back in the B&B days (1987-92), I was baking every day. The house smelled fabulous on the days I made granola! Coffee cakes were usually made the evening before serving, but muffins hit the morning breakfast table “fresh from the oven.”

Our Main Street B&B Blueberry Muffin recipe was published in the April 1988 issue of Colonial Homes magazine and a few bed and breakfast guide books. When we sold the inn, I received numerous written requests for the recipe from former guests. So when cousins on my mother’s side were rounding up recipes for a family cookbook, I sent them the muffin recipe.

You’ll see in the last sentence of the recipe that there are two baking time options – 20 minutes if you bake them right after mixing, or 25 minutes if you bake them from frozen batter. Baking from frozen dough “hockey pucks” let me sleep a little later at the B&B, and now that we’re empty nesters, it allows me to serve a hot, fresh muffin any morning I like!

I freeze the filled muffin pans topping and all. When they’re solidly frozen, I cover the pan with aluminum foil and return to the freezer. When I’m ready to bake, I use a small paring knife to loosen the edges of the frozen “puck”, pop it out carefully so as not to scatter the topping, and place in another greased muffin pan to bake. Baked from frozen, they actually crown a bit higher and are far superior to those frozen after baking! (And as we deal with grocery shopping during this Covid-19 pandemic, unless you’re feeding 8+ people at a time, “freezing for later” will stretch your supplies and eliminate food waste.)

As you might expect of a former B&B owner, I have several muffin pans… If you don’t, you could remove all the frozen uncooked muffins to a plastic freezer container to store until ready to bake. If you use a freezer bag for this, most of the topping will end up at the bottom of the bag, which would be a shame! (You can certainly use bags if you’re making muffins without a crumb topping. Perfect for corn muffins, for example.)

Blueberries beginning to ripen in the front yard on Indiana Cave Road.

I prefer using fresh blueberries, but frozen berries are just fine. I had blueberry bushes in the yard before I moved back to downtown. We planted them mostly for the birds to enjoy, but they usually left me enough for at least one batch of muffins. I also get fresh Rykers Ridge Blueberries in my Madison Area Growers CSA bag – large, juicy, and plenty to freeze.

My daughter, Carrie, and her family live near Seattle, Washington and enjoy berry picking at a u-pick farm. Her boys LOVE it, and they bring home a haul that is nothing short of amazing.

Carrie makes these blueberry muffins with the boys, and I have a feeling they will continue the tradition when they grow up! She also makes blueberry jam, blueberry compote, blueberry ice cream, and blueberry pie – and probably several other delicious things I’m forgetting to mention! (She also takes great photos, don’t you think?)

I hope you’ll try this blueberry muffin recipe. It has a wonderful crumb texture and isn’t overly sweet. All you need is some lightly salted butter and a cup of coffee or tea. Heaven. Maybe these muffins will become one of your traditions!

Written by

sallymcw

One thing that makes my journey unique is that all of my interests are driven by a joyful and genuine curiosity. I delight in finding less expensive ways to make something or creative ways to enjoy something longer. Finding and creating joy - and sharing it - is core to who I am.