Gwynnie's Blueberry Muffins

Pessimistic though I was about the arrival of Gwyneth Paltrow's cook book (would it too easily fall into the celebrity-turned-everything-else-but-in-a-rubbish-kinda-way category?), I must say that aside from a few rather dubious sounding items, such as Vegenaise (?!!?), I am actually quite the fan, and thank you to my lovely mum for ordering it for me.

There is nothing ground-breakingly jaw dropping, but her recipes appear to be homely, balanced and tasty too. The book is grounded on a foodie family, all with a bit of context which is always nice as food does evoke certain memories and resemble certain things to certain people. Firstly, she doesn't write the book under the pretense of a professional chef; rather she declares upon the first page 'I am not a professional cook. I am an amateur and a lover of all things culinary'. Once renound for her extreme macro-biotic diet she does offer healthy options in her recipes, sometimes with a completely alternative ingredient list. You'll be glad to hear, though, there is nothing scarily extreme and for the most part you won't need to schedule a visit to some health shop or chemist, but simply your local supermarket.

My first foray into the world of cooking as guided by Gwynnie was an attempt at her blueberry muffins (the less healthy versions, incase you're wondering!). My lovely friend Lizzie and I set about making these little wonders yesterday afternoon. It was very easy and enjoyable with a short and simple ingredient list, that let the fresh blueberries speak for themselves. In a moment of culinary creativity (and also due to the fact Tesco metro had failed us) we decided to make the muffin cases ourselves from squares of baking-parchment to give the oh so deli-esque touch.

The resulting golden buns, packed with oozing, bursting blueberries were divine and I couldn't resist popping one back in the oven to re-heat for breakfast this morning... so much tastier than the bought variety that are have that synthetic 'blueberry-flavour' taste.

Here's the recipe:
125g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large free-range eggs
125ml milk
225g plain flour
175g caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
300g fresh blueberries

-Preheat the oven to 190 C
-Pop some muffin cases into a muffin tin, or impress and alternatively make your own (a la Lizzie!) with 14cm squares of baking parchment pressed into the muffin tin so the corners spike up at the sides
-Whisk together the eggs, milk and melted butter
-In another bowl mix the dry ingredients together (salt, flour, sugar and baking powder)
-Combine the wet ingredients into the dry, apparently 8 stirs is sufficient and ensures the muffins are not too dense
- Divide the mixture equally between 12 cases and sprinkle a little sugar on top of each before baking in the oven for around 30mins. Blueberry bliss!