Blueberry-Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze

I'm going to try a tutorial, so let's see how this goes. This is adapted from a 1969 Better Homes & Gardens Bread cookbook that I inherited from my mother. We use this book a lot, for everything from biscuits to pancakes to quick and yeast breads. It's pretty beat up, and some of the pages have been stuck and unstuck, but isn't that a sign of a good cookbook?

This recipe was made with the so-called "standard" method, which calls for using your spoon to push the flour from the edge of the bowl to the center, turning the bowl slowly. Go around the bowl once, then chop through the mixture several times with the spoon to combine the ingredients further, without stirring. Stir just enough to dampen all the flour but resist with your life the urge to stir with abandon, beat, whip, or torture the batter. The batter will be lumpy; that's OK and what you want.

Blueberry-Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
2 T Splenda
2 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 well-beaten egg
3/4 c milk (I used nonfat lactose-free)
1/3 c vegetable oil

1 c fresh or frozen blueberries, well drained
1/4 c roasted, chopped pistachios

Glaze:
1/4 c confectioners sugar
2-4 T lime juice (use the real thing!)

Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together to mix well. Make a well in the center.














Combine the egg, milk, and salad oil. Add all at once to the dry mixture, using the mixing directions above.















When the batter is mixed and lumpy, add the blueberries and the pistachios and gently fold them in.
















Fill muffin pans (either grease or use paper liners) about 2/3 full. Scrape your bowl with a rubber or silicon spatula to get every bit of the batter into the pan. Look at this - what looks like a pretty well-scraped bowl and what was liberated by the spatula. Surprised me, all right.













Bake at 400 for 25 minutes. This will make a dozen.

If you want them warm go ahead and remove them from the pan and serve.
If you're going to cool them in the pan tip them on their sides so the tops don't steam and go soggy.













Let them cool a bit before glazing. To make the glaze, dump the confectioners sugar in a bowl and add the lime juice a little at a time stirring until it's smooth and runny enough to flow off a spoon easily. Drizzle as much or as little as you like over the muffins.

They're not very sweet on their own, but the glaze makes them just right. If you don't want to glaze the muffins, I would up the sugar/Splenda to 1/3 cup total.

I hope you like these. The pistachios add a very subtle flavor, and the glaze makes you want to lick the bowl. Go ahead. I won't tell.