Honey and Blueberry Muffins

Unlike our luxury honey and poppy seed muffin recipe that used buttermilk, butter and quite a lot of ingredients, we've made this muffin recipe as simple and inexpensive as possible while still producing perfect muffins that are delightfully moist and tasty! Other than the blueberries all the other ingredients are common cupboard items and you've probably got them to hand already. Honey and blueberries are one of our favourite dessert combinations and it works brilliantly in these muffins. They are the perfect little treat for sharing with friends and family over a cup of tea.

This quick and easy recipe will make around 12 muffins.

Time to make and bake is around 40 minutes.

To make honey and blueberry muffins you will need:

• 60ml vegetable oil
• 125ml milk
• 1 medium sized egg
• 1 tablespoon of Just Bee Original Vitamin Honey
• 110g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
• 200g self-raising flour
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 75g fresh blueberries (cut into halves)

• a large mixing bowl
• a hand whisk (a fork will do if you don't have one!)
• a muffin/cupcake tray with suitable paper cases

1. Turn the oven on!

Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 6 or 200c (180c for a fan assisted oven). We want to get the oven nice and hot so our muffins rise nicely when we put them in. It won't take long to make the muffin batter so don't delay!

2. Preparing the tray

Pop your muffin cases into your muffin tray! Put them aside ready to be filled with your muffin batter in just a few minutes.

3. Making the muffin batter

We promised quick and easy and that's what we will deliver!

Take your large bowl, add the egg and whisk for a minute.

Add the vegetable oil, milk and honey then whisk until just combined, then add the caster sugar and beat for a minute more.

Throw in the blueberries and lastly add the flour and the salt and stir the batter with a spoon or spatula until the flour is just combined.

Top Tip: As with all muffins do not over mix the batter at this stage or your muffins will become tough and lose their light, soft and airy texture. It's better to under mix, any little lumps you see in the batter won't matter!

 4. Filling the cases

There are various methods you could employ at this stage to transfer the batter evenly across the muffin cases, so feel free to use whatever method you are used to or find easiest. The best for me is to spoon the mixture out of the bowl and just push the batter into the cases with a damp finger.

Top Tip: If you have an empty Just Bee honey pot, fill it with a little warm water and use that to keep your finger damp and clean while you fill the cases!

As long as you don't mind getting a slightly messy finger I would highly recommend it.

The cases should ideally be around ¾ full, a little over or under won't matter but don't fill them right up to the edge or you could end up with a bursting over muffin top! If you need to, put any extra mixture aside and bake a couple of extra muffins for yourself after the first batch!

Once your muffin cases are ¾ full of mixture add a sprinkle of granulated sugar evenly over all the muffins to give them a nice sweet crunchy topping.

5. Pop them the oven!

Place the tray on the middle shelf and bake for around 20 minutes until golden brown and firm on top. Check the muffins are fully cooked by inserting a skewer or chop stick into the centre of a muffin and making sure it comes out clean. If there is any batter sticking to the utensil then return to the oven for a few minutes more until it looks clean when you pull it out.

Top Tip: To  help get an even golden glow on the muffin tops, you can turn the tray around after 10 minutes of baking.

6. Remove and cool.

When the muffins are done, remove from oven and leave the tin to cool off until it's not too hot to handle. Once the tin has cooled enough to do so, remove the muffins then let them cool completely on a wire rack. The muffins should have a nice, slightly crunchy, texture on top in contrast to the soft moist muffin underneath.

Top Tip: Once cooled fully store them in an airtight container and they will stay moist and delicious for days.

Ideas and alternatives.

We hope you enjoy these muffins as they are, but this simple muffin recipe can be adapted to meet your own needs and tastes quite easily if you wish to.

We used our Original Honey for this recipe but alternatively for an additional citrus twist you could use our Valencia Orange Honey instead, which also works really well with the blueberries.

If you aren't a fan of blueberries they can also be replaced with chocolate chunks, nuts or another berry of your choice.

If you have a intolerance to lactose you could try using a milk substitute to replace the milk. We've not tried this ourselves but if you've had success using a milk alternative please do comment below to let us and others know!

Don't forget to check back soon for the next honey recipe which will be some deliciously spicy 'hot honey meatballs' perfect for serving with spaghetti for a really tasty meal that all the family will be sure to enjoy!