Lactose Free Super Yummy Blueberry Muffins

Lactose Free Super Yummy Blueberry Muffins

Everyone always brings salads or meat to a BBQ. So cliche.

We have a gorgeous Blueberry bush which invariably gives us a bumper crop every year for about a week- and so we try to make everything we can with the glut. This is why I was the "cool" person rocking up to a BBQ with muffins, and seeing as the guest of honour Jayne is Lactose Intolerant, I decided to try adapting a recipe that I know works well.

Here is the original recipe- it's great as you can convert from USA to Metric, and choose how many you want to make and it automatically corrects the ingredient weights.

The only change I made to the actual muffin recipe was to replace the Milk with Olive Oil (equal measurements) and then a touch of water to make the consistency to my liking. To get beautifully risen, tall cafe style muffins, use deep muffin trays and tall tulip muffin cases.

For the crunch on top (which I highly recommend!) replace the butter with cold lactose free butter or Ghee. These things aren't the easiest to find, but good supermarkets (especially Sainsbury's) have great Lactose free sections so target that first. If you can't find any, leave the crumb off and add cinnamon to your muffins.

And Voila- these yummy muffins were even transported in a wicker basket and a linen cloth like they do in the good old USA. I am happy to report that they were devoured by the lactose loving and the lactose intolerant alike!

Rachel x

Big Blueberry Muffins For Breakfast

When most folk buy a new camera what do they do? Oh you know, maybe take a walk and photograph some landscapes, take pictures of their friends, family, maybe even their pets. What did i do? Headed straight for a quick and easy but damn yummy blueberry muffin recipe from my magnolia bakery book to create some little bundles of blueberry joy that would make for the perfect test subjects for my new camera. I was picturing big fluffy white muffins with bright blue spots all over them to make for fantastic foodie bloggy photos.
What i got was even better! Big proud, fluffy, but dense (good dense, buttermilk was involved, however full fat milk works fine) with bursts of burst purple blueberries, specks of white chocolate chips and lovely glazed tops.
Why did i add white chocolate? Er cause. Chocolate.
Oh they also read the manual. I have a certificate somewhere that says i'm pure BA boss at photography, so i left the manual in the box and headed straight for the kitchen. So really i still have no clue how to use my new camera.

Next time i make them i will 100% use chocolate chunks from an actual bar rather than chips, there wasn't enough chocolate! Are you a crazy woman i hear you all cry. Well when i took them into work Hayley who sits on the desk opposite noticed pretty much straight away. And if a fellow lady notices there isn't enough chocolate about, well, we have a problem!
However when you did get a bite of the dense soft sponge, big soft blueberry and a decadent swirl of the white chocolate all at once then it was the perfect combination i had pictured when fruit, chocolate and breakfast foods join together in holy muffin matrimony.
They made for welcomed thursday breakfast treats in the office and in the saxton household. Apart from my sister who is weirdly allergic to white chocolate. The milky bar kid is tres sad.

The really quick and easy one bowl recipe from the magnolia bakery book is in the link after the pics. Bring that cliche freshly baked muffin smell into your casa pronto!

Tips:
-I made my own DIY cases with squares of baking paper cut 20cm wide, place them over the muffin tin and use a small cup to press them down into the tins. The muffins cooked fine in them and have a real home baked look about them without the lines you normall get from shop bought cases.
(I used normal cases too for the ones to take to work with leftover batter)
-This makes them look great on a plate (poet wheeey) in little nests of scrunchy baking paper. 
-Try and find small blueberries, as in smaller than already quite small blueberries?! (i have officially gone mad) mine were a little too big (?!) and left quite big pockets in the sponge. However win some/lose some cause they also meant for that great purple dye on the sponge and when they burst they left an almost sweet jam like texture. 

-Use big big big chunks of good quality white chocolate for real rich decadence.

-Remember to spinkle with caster sugar before you bake them- this creates the lovely golden brown tops!

If you dont eat these warm with butter i won't ever talk to you again. Cheers.

Holly x

CLICK BELOW FOR RECIPE