Blueberry Angel Muffins

BLUEBERRY ANGEL MUFFINS

Origin:  The Perfect Finish Cookbook

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray, for the muffin cups
• 2/3 cup cake flour (2.67 ounces, 76 grams)
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar (2 ounces, 57 grams)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (1/25 grams)
• 1 1/4 cups blueberries (6.5 ounces, 185 grams)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8 grams)
• 8 large egg whites  (7 ounces, 200 grams), at room temperature
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar  (3.5 ounces, 99 grams), plus 6 teaspoons additional for sprinkling
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven.  Lightly grease a standard size muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray, or use ungreased paper muffin cups.
2. Sift the cake flour, confectioners sugar, and salt onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper and set aside.  In a small blow, toss the blueberries with the vanilla.
3. In a clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on med/low speed until frothy.  Add 1 tablespoon of the granulated sugar and beat at medium until soft peaks form.  Beat in the remaining granulated sugar, and raise the speed to high.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  While the eggs are beating, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
4. When you have stiff peaks, stop the machine and remove the bowl.  Immediately sprinkle the dry ingredients and lemon zest over the egg whites and fold in with a rubber spatula, working carefully to avoid deflating the whites.  Fold in half of the blueberries.
5. Divide the batter among the muffin cups so that each is two thirds full.  Top each muffin with a few more blueberries and sprinkle each with 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar.
6. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven, and place on the center rack until the muffins are golden and a cake tester inserted comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove the muffins from the tins soon as they come out of the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.

My Notes:  I did not use papers, but lightly greased the muffin tins.  After they came out of the oven, I propped the tins up, and let them cool….so that they didn’t sink or deflate.  When I removed them, I placed them on a wire rack.

Make sure your egg whites are room temperature before beating.  You mixing bowl and whisk must be very, very clean.  The meringue should be beaten stiff…..It could hold up a coin on it’s surface!