THE BLUEBERRY SPICE BUTTERMILK MUFFIN

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If I'm going to eat a blueberry muffin there are two requirements: 1. Lots of blueberries, it's a BLUEBERRY muffin after all, and 2. It's not a cupcake, so hold back on the sugar please. You can go right ahead and feel pretty good about starting your day with these muffins. Thanks to all those blueberries, they're loaded with antioxidants and very easy on the sugar. Heck, they're good for you, have 2. 

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Blueberry Spice Buttermilk Muffins

Makes 12 regular-sized muffins

Preheat oven to 375°

½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature

½ cup sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

¾ cup buttermilk

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

dash of ground cloves

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 heaping cup fresh blueberries

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• Combine dry ingredients, set aside

• Cream butter and sugar together with a mixer. Then beat in eggs, followed by vanilla.

• Add dry ingredients a little at a time, alternating with a little buttermilk until all is combined.

• Carefully stir in the blueberries by hand. When I was a kid, my mom made blueberry muffins and accidentally mixed the blueberries into the batter with the mixer. We literally had BLUEberry muffins. They were still as good as they'd alway been, just an interesting color. 

• Scoop the batter into a lined muffin tin, trying to keep them all as even as possible.

• Bake at 375° for 25 to 30 minutes. They should be a nice golden-brown color when done.

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Let cool just long enough to be able to touch them without burning yourself. Add a little butter and enjoy! Feel free to repeat.

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Buttermilk Biscuits

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I’ve made many a biscuit in pursuit of the perfect version. Some recipes use self-rising flour, some use yeast, some are treated like a laminated dough to give lots of layers. The yeast versions, while good, take more time and sometimes you just want a biscuit like, now. The greatest thing about a classic biscuit is they can be pulled together and in the oven in a matter of minutes and you know what that means? You’ll be eating them, slathered with butter and maybe some jam in no time at all. Welcome the weekend with the smell of biscuits baking, then eat 2 or 3 ... or maybe 4, who’s counting.

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Preheat oven to 500° 

Makes about 9 to 12 biscuits, depending on the size biscuit cutter you use. I used a 2 ¾ cutter and got 9, when I've used 2 ½ I get about 12.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, use a good one like Kerry Gold or Plugra

1 cup cold buttermilk

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Slice the cold butter and with a pastry cutter, cut butter into the flour mixture. You’re good when you have pieces of butter the size of peas throughout the flour. Add the cold buttermilk and toss together with a fork, just until it comes together into a shaggy clump. Dump the clump of dough out onto a lightly floured board and gently knead. Gently! You just want to it to come together. Pat it out into something like a roundish square and very lightly, like almost no pressure, roll to about a 1 inch thickness. Cut the biscuits out using a well floured cutter. Cut straight down, no twisting. You want these biscuits to rise to their full potential in the oven and if you twist that cutter, it’ll pinch off the dough and keep them from reaching lofty heights. Bake them for about 12 to 14 minutes at 500°. Brush the tops with a little melted butter when they come out of the oven. Then of course more butter, naturally.