The Perpetual Feast

I have been meaning to make these ever since they appeared in Coconut and Lime’s blog some time ago. But every time I bought vast quantities of blueberries because they were in season and on sale, they’d be eaten before I got around to buying the goat cheese. Or I’d buy the goat cheese, but not get around to buying blueberries in time, so I’d have to eat the goat cheese before it went bad.  This time I bought blueberries, and before they all disappeared in my cereal bowl, in fruit salad, or mixed in sour cream, I made a determined effort to buy the goat cheese. Then I had to think of a way to lower the fat a bit so I could eat them with reasonable abandon.

These muffins have two of my favorite foods – blueberries and goat cheese.  How could they possibly be bad!  And, in fact, they were great. But quite unexpectedly, they did not have a goat cheese flavor – which was just fine, since they were the lightest, most tender muffins I have ever made. I took some of them to a meeting, still warm, and when I passed them around there were moans of ecstasy as my fellow attendees bit into the muffins.  The original recipe also called for 1/2 cup blueberry puree. I thought that this would make the muffins rather purple, which was not an effect I wanted, so I substituted the applesauce.

Blueberry Goat Cheese Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces soft goat cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
2 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups blueberries
optional: demerara or turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 400. Grease or line 12 wells in a muffin tin. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl, mix together butter, applesauce, goat cheese, egg and vanilla until blended. Add the dry ingredients. Mix the batter thoroughly (batter will be thick) then fold in blueberries. Fill each well about 3/4 of the way and sprinkle with demerara sugar if using. (I used turbinado sugar, which gave the tops a nice little bit of crunch.) Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean or with just a few dry crumbs. Remove to rack and let cool at least 10 minutes before serving. Makes 12 wonderful muffins at just under 4 grams/ muffin.