Claiming the Blueberry

More on these blue berries...

Many states here in the U.S. have particular foods that they claim as "their own".

The blueberry is popular.

Three states here in the U.S. (Maine, New Jersey and North Carolina) claim the blueberry as "their own" State Fruit.

For those of you who are wondering about our state fruit here in Massachusetts, it's the cranberry.

Further, Minnesota has a State Muffin.

And it is a...

Yep, you guessed it: blueberry muffin.

And nope, not all states have a state muffin.

To find out more,

check out this curious list of state foods if you have a moment.

Moving on to America's favorite muffin...

The Blueberry Muffin!

Above are "To Die for Blueberry Muffins" that I made.

And below is the recipe allrecipes.com.

(Psst, the website has a button for metric conversion.)

Ingredients for 8 muffins with crumb topping

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.2 Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture. Fold in the blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

3 Crumb topping: Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4 Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until done.

Notes from the pastry chef.

I made 12 smaller muffins instead of suggested 8, just because I wanted to use my new muffin tin and liners from IKEA.

And, I used less crumb topping because I dropped the bowl with the crumb topping mix on the floor. Oooops! Unfortunate, because the crumb topping makes the muffin top veeeery delish.

And here is where I'll sit.

On a bench by the apple tree.

Eating my really yummy muffins.

Waiting for the apples to ripen.