Cast of Characters

Perficious Eats - Mommy on the lookout for the tasty bite no matter where we live

Mister Obvious - Mountain biking Daddy who makes ice cream, roasts his own coffee beans, and eats everything in sight

Sweet Pea - 12-year old girl who loves reading, math games, tennis and hiking

Little Man - 10-year old who can't get enough biking, running, and laughing

Monday 14 January 2013

Blueberry Banana Blintz Muffins

I will admit it - I am kind of obsessed with blueberry muffins.  We had a pretty chilly weekend here in Colorado Springs (14° F) and these seemed like the perfect way to warm us up.

I made a few changes to Ina Garten's Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffin recipe in an effort to lighten it and to make things different from the usual blueberry muffin.  The cottage cheese and blueberries together reminded me of blintzes, and the banana adds a yummy sweetness that balances the cottage cheese flavor.


8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ripe banana, peeled
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup (about 8 oz) small curd cottage cheese
¼ cup milk
2 ½ cups unbleached flour (all-purpose is fine)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt (kosher or regular is fine)
1 pint frozen blueberries (fresh is fine, but this is not the season for that)

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.  Place cupcake liners in muffin pans.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
Add the eggs 1 at a time on low speed.  Add the banana, vanilla, cottage cheese, and milk.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until almost completely mixed.
Gently fold in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.  (I actually just threw in the blueberries and let the
paddle keep going a few rotations.  This made the batter streaked with blue and purple juices,
which I thought looked kind of cool.  But if you don't like the batter to look "tainted," then make sure
you use the spatula to mix those berries).    

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup almost all the way.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.
These muffins taste best when eaten shortly after coming out of the oven, as the cheese is still soft.
If you want to eat them later on, you may want to reheat them a little bit first.    

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