Blueberries or Bilberries can be used for this easy muffin recipe
It has been such a beautiful day on the Isle of Man today – these are the days that make the dreary days of winter well worth it! So with the sun on my back I headed off to hunt down some of the islands most delicious wild bounty – wild Bilberries. If you’ve never heard of them before, Bilberries are the smaller, and slightly tarter, cousins of blueberries.
You might not find them in the supermarket but if you spot them in the fields and hedgerows in your area, make sure to pick some while they’re still around. They grow in the higher elevations of the island and I found a great place to pick them without having to do too much stooping.
Because they’re so small I decided to invest in a purpose-made Berry Picker. An hour picking berries with the Berry Picker results in the equivalent of a full day’s worth of berries if picking by hand. Needless to say, I’m well pleased with the purchase.
PRINT THIS RECIPE
1. Preheat your oven to 160°C for convection ovens and for ordinary ovens, 180°C
2. Line muffin tins with paper OR grease the bottoms only with a little with vegetable oil.
3. Beat milk, oil, vanilla and egg until well mixed
4. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder and salt all at once and just until the dry ingredients are fully moist – the batter will be lumpy.
5. Place the berries in a bowl and sprinkle about a teaspoon of flour over them. Stir well so that flour coats each berry and then fold them into the batter. Coating berries with flour ensures that they wont fall to the bottom of your muffins while baking.
6. Divide batter between the 12 muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool before tucking in.
Image credit for topmost image of Bilberries
These came out great. Neat trick with the berries tossed in flour. Making a second batch now.
Thanks David – the pickers really do work (and thank goodness since I paid £15 for mine 😉
I just saw those berry pickers in a catalog and I wondered if it was just a gimmick. It looks like a great idea, so I am glad to see you used them and found them helpful. Thanks for the review! Also, thanks for the compliments on my blog.
David
These look soo good! Muffins are always so delicious.. even more so when they're homemade.
I've never tasted bilberries but we do love our blueberries. I agree with Matron, it's so rewarding to gather ones own food. I can only imagine how tasty those muffins were.
Oh there are few things as satisfying as foraging for food in the wild. Wonderful stuff!