Blueberry Polenta Muffins

I was having some people drop by on short notice for afternoon tea.  What to make? What to make?  What to make when you only want to use what you've already got in the cupboard but yet still want to impress?  I turned to my hefty and woefully underused 'Kitchen - Recipes From The Heart Of The Home' by Nigella Lawson.  I love her to death but quite honestly, I haven't had a moment to give it due attention and pore over the recipes since it arrived from Amazon some months ago.  It was time to rectify the situation.  The answer, was Blueberry Cornmeal (Polenta) Muffins.  Cornmeal is just polenta with it's American coat on.  Quick, easy and incredibly high in kilojoules. Perfect!

Blueberry Polenta Muffins

• 150g plain flour
• 100g quick cook polenta
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 ts bicarb of soda
• 150g caster sugar*
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 125ml buttermilk or plain runny yoghurt
• 1 egg
• 100g blue berries or other mixed berries
• 1 x 12 cup muffin tin & patty cake/muffin papers

Method
- Preheat oven to 200c and line muffin tin with papers (a bit of spray & cook won't go astray either)
- In a large bowl, mix flour, polenta, baking powder, bicarb and sugar
- In a measuring jug, pour in oil, buttermilk or yoghurt, and whisk in the egg
- Stir wet mix into dry mix and stir until all ingredients are just combined. A few dry bits or lumps won't hurt
- Add in 1/2 the blueberries or other mixed berries
- Divide between the 12 paper cases and gently press remaining blueberries on top of muffins
- Bake in oven for 15 - 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Leave the muffins in tin to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes then remove muffins, in their cases to the rack to cool.
-  These are best served warm to small children and enthusiastic adults at a Sunday Brunch.

Poppy & Scarlett enjoy a muffin or two

 Notes
- I used frozen blueberries and they were fine. For my second batch at a brunch, I used frozen blackberries that you can see topping the muffins. The colour bled a little but they tasted great
- *That's a lot of sugar. I knocked it back to 125g - still plenty sweet enough so I'm trying 110g next time
- These won't rise heaps as the polenta is quite heavy. They are more a dense and chewy muffin treat