I first became familiar with the Taste of Home magazine shortly after my grandmother died.  My mother was executor of her estate and all of her mail was forwarded to our house.  One thing sent to us was a Taste of Home magazine.  I tried a few of the recipes contained therein and absolutely loved them.  Readers send in recipes and that’s how they are shared.  The recipes you find are like your mother’s recipes or grandmother’s recipes.  That speaks to me and I love it.

Inside of this first magazine sent to my deceased grandmother was a recipe for a blueberry muffin from a small restaurant in Chesaning, Michigan called the Heritage House.  Instead of bread baskets at your table, guests were served baskets of these blueberry muffins.  The story intrigued me and I tried the recipe and was delighted at the outcome.  What I got was something that was not as dense as muffins sometimes are but was moist and fluffy, like a good cake.  And also I adore blueberry muffins.

Bonnie’s Blueberry Muffins

Heritage House, Chesaning, Michigan

TOH Collector’s Edition 1997

2 cups AP flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 Tblsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Additional melted butter

Additional sugar

I’d like to insert a quick note about ingredients before we get started here.  When baking, if you expect a superior end product, then you must make sure that the ingredients are superior.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that you must buy the most expensive ingredients, but you must make sure to get quality.

For instance, this recipe calls for ground nutmeg.  Instead of buying the little jar of nutmeg powder, buy whole nutmeg and use a microplane to make it a powder.  The taste is much more pungent and fresh.  Also, when using vanilla extract, use real or pure vanilla extract instead of imitation.  It costs a little bit more, but I use a generic brand that is not much more than the imitation stuff.  The flavor is much more superior and you do notice a difference.

Depending on the time of year, you can either use fresh or frozen blueberries in this recipe.  A bag of frozen blueberries is a staple in my freezer.  I use it for making blueberry pancakes and muffins all the time.  I love blueberries.

If you are using frozen blueberries, measure out the 2 cups needed for this recipe and rinse them well.  Then pat them dry and place them in a bowl.  Sprinkle with 1-2 Tblsp. of flour to make sure that the berries become suspended in the batter and don’t sink to the bottom.  You only want a very thin coating of the flour on the blueberries.  No more.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl, beat eggs.  Blend in milk, butter, nutmeg and vanilla;

pour into dry ingredients and mix just until moistened.  Make sure not to overmix.  If you over mix this batter, the gluten in the flour will activate and you will get a tough muffin rather than a fluffy muffin.  Fold in blueberries, gently.

Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups two-thirds full.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.  Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar as soon as they come out of the oven.

YIELD:  1 dozen

As a side note, it seems that the Heritage House of Chesaning, Michigan is no longer in business.  That’s a shame.  But I hope that you enjoy the recipe as much as I do.  Enjoy everybody!

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