Freeze and bake blueberry cornmeal muffins

A delicious way to enjoy fresh muffins on demand!

I tried something new this week in my kitchen and I have to tell you: it was mind-blowing. Did you know you can freeze unbaked muffins, right in the paper liners? How does a enjoying a couple of hot, freshly-baked muffins ‘on demand’ sound to you – no mixing or cleanup required? I don’t know why I never tried this before but I can assure you I will be testing this technique with all my favourite muffin recipes very soon. I can attest to the fact that it worked like a charm for these flavour-packed beauties which are both delicious and satisfying, while being neither too dense nor too sweet.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (136 g) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (120 g) cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon (4 g) baking soda
• 2 teaspoons (16 g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (4 g) freshly ground cardamom (or ground cinnamon)
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) melted butter or oil (allow melted butter to cool slightly)
• 1/4 cup (60 g) plain or vanilla yogurt (I prefer full-fat for this)
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) milk
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons (2 g) freshly-grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup (148 g) fresh or frozen small blueberries (do not thaw if using frozen)

Method

• Line a 12 compartment muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. If baking immediately, preheat oven to 400F (skip this step if you are freezing the muffins to bake later).
• In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients but not the sugar.
• In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients; sugar, melted butter, yogurt, milk, egg, lemon zest and lemon juice.
• Combine the dry and wet ingredients but do not overmix so muffins stay light and fluffy.
• Fill each muffin cup 1/3 full with the batter. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons (8 g) of blueberries over top (this keeps the berries from all sinking to the bottom) then gently fold the remaining blueberries into the remaining batter. Top each muffin cup with remain berry-studded batter.
• At this point you can pop the muffin pan in the freezer. As soon as frozen solid (about 2 hours), transfer the muffin batter (and paper cups) into an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
• If baking fresh (i.e. not frozen) muffins, bake for 16-18 minutes in preheated 400F oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. If baking from frozen, transfer muffin batter and paper liners back into a muffin tray; add 3 – 5 minutes to baking time, till tester comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Baked muffins, stored at room temperature in an airtight container, will stay fresh for 3 days or can be frozen for up to 4 months.

Makes 12 large muffins.