How To Make Blueberry and Pecan Muffins

How To Make Blueberry and Pecan Muffins

This is a step-by-step method for making delicious blueberry and pecan muffins.

My thanks go to RecipeTips for the recipe, which I have adjusted ever so slightly. This site has been a favourite of mine for a while because it has a great community for cooking fans. I hope that you will subscribe to the site after you have read this 'How To' hub.

I have included photos from when I actually made it and included a movie clip, hope you like it.

And America, I thank you for Muffins - we Brits are getting them at supermarkets in lots of different flavours but these Blueberry and Pecans ones are my absolute favourites.

They can be adjusted with different fillings - banana and walnut also work well.

Gathering your ingredients for Blueberry and Pecan Muffins

Luckily, this recipe is very simple and requires no real 'special preparation' of anything so here is your ingredients list for the muffins.

3 Cups Self-Raising Flour (in the U.S. 3 Cups Flour + 1Tablespoon baking powder)

1 Cup of Sugar (adjust if you like them sweeter to 1.5 cups)

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 ⅔ Cups Milk (I use semi-skimmed and it's fine but you could use full-fat if preferred)

¼ cup of vegetable oil

1½ vanilla essence or extract

1 teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest

½ cup of chopped pecans

1½ cups of blueberries

I have made these twice now and the first time I used frozen blueberries and the second time I used fresh. Now, flavour wise there is not a huge amount of difference but in terms of folding them into the mix, I would go for fresh every time. The frozen ones have more tendency to 'bleed' into the mix so it is more of a pinky-purple colour. If you prefer that, then go for frozen.

In the fresh blueberry version the blueberries actually 'burst' when cooking and there is no bleeding into the mix just lovely juiciness when you bite into them.

Method for How To Make Blueberry and Pecan Muffins

1. Preheat oven to 180C (360F)
2. Prepare your muffin tins before you start. I bought 2 x 6 tins and also bought muffin cases from Asda but most supermarkets in the U.K. sell home baking stuff so you should be able to get the cases and tins without trouble. I imagine the U.S has the same in Walmart etc.
3. Finely grate your lemon peel to create about a teaspoon of lemon zest and leave in a bowl for use later.
4. Finely chop your pecan nuts by hand (see my video with washing machine noises in the background -sorry!) or alternatively chop them in your blender with the blade attachment. Place these to one side in a bowl for use later.
5. Wash the blueberries and leave in the colander for later.
6. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder (if added). Stir these well until all well combined. Make a well in the centre of the mixture - you will pour all of the liquid into this well later.
7. In a small bowl add an egg and beat it slightly before adding the milk, oil and vanilla extract.
8. Beat all of the ingredients gently until well mixed.
9. Pour the liquid ingredients you have just mixed into the well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Fold in the dry ingredients gradually from the side until all of the mixture is moistenend. DO NOT OVERWORK!!!!!! Sorry for the capitals but the trick with making muffins is that you should never overwork the batter - they're very forgiving little desserts - you just get it all wet (no dry flour left) and that's it done!
10. Add and fold in the lemon zest and chopped pecans. Save a few chopped pecans to add to the top of the muffins just before baking.
11. Carefully fold in the blueberries until they are evenly distributed. Be gentle and they won't 'bleed'.
12. Pour your prepared batter into the muffin cases and sprinkle with the saved chopped pecans. If using tall top muffin cases fill right to the top, if not, fill to within about half an inch (cm) of the top. If I made these again, I would fill right to the top - my photo shows you that I filled these to within half and inch and they don't have that 'muffin top' look. They still taste delicious but I miss that swollen look - it's more aesthetically pleasing I think.
13. Place muffin tins on the top shelf of the oven and cook for about 30 minutes.
14. Check them after 30 mins by inserting a cocktail stick down into the centre - if it's clean, they're cooked, if not give them another few minutes and recheck.

Blueberry and Pecan Muffins - Straight From The Oven

After about 33 minutes my muffins were ready but I have a fan oven, albeit a temperamental one so your blueberry and pecan muffins may take slightly less (or more) time.

As well as the cocktail stick test, another good way to test them is to gently press the centre - if they rise back up, they're cooked, if not - back in for a few minutes.

Well that's my Saturday afternoon cooking adventure over, I hope you enjoy your muffins as much as we did.