Wild Blueberry Muffins Recipe

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.

After getting them home, then washing and sorting them, I had over 700 grams of bilberry goodness just waiting to be scarfed. They’re just too good to use in preserves though and since I’d like to extend them as far as possible, most of them will be frozen for use in future pancakes and other goodies. But for today I’ve made Bilberry Muffins…SOOO much better than the blueberry sort. Don’t get me wrong – I love blueberries too. But the combination of sweet muffin bread with tart little bombs of berry juice are just divine!

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