The beginning - Blueberry muffins

After a while I have finally decided to write. Writing is normally not my favorite thing to do, because I  don’t have a “way with words” like some other people do. It does not come naturally to me, but still I decided I should at least try…in hopes that I don’t make a complete fool of myself ;).

A little about myself:

My name is Sanja, I live with my husband in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Currently I’m still a student of economic, this year I plan to get my masters degree and finish this chapter in my life. Meanwhile I’m making desserts whenever I get the time, that’s why I have decided to write this blog, to share my ideas, successes and failures with people who are interested. I appreciate any comments, suggestions even critics, so that I can improve and grow through this experience.

The whole point of this post is to explain what you can expect from this blog, and why you should even care what I write. So the story is, a couple of years ago I have discovered a love for baking. I have started with easy things like muffins and cookies. The more I baked the more I realized that this is what I like or even love to do. I love seeing people react to my desserts (so far most reactions were positive :) ) and listening to feedback like what to improve or what to correct in the future. The thing I also love about creating desserts is every day I learn something new, like tempering chocolate, making cakes, making macarons, making pies and tarts…the options are limitless. For some time I have been doing pies and tarts, but then I have discovered French macarons and I had to try to make them. At first it was a challenge, the first batch was not good (putting it mildly :)) but the second was better and so on, till they were really good. But macarons are unpredictable and I never know if they will come out perfect or not. As much as I hate it when things don’t go my way (just ask my husband :D ) this is also the part of baking that I love, baking can be challenging but then when you make it perfect and you see people enjoying what you made it is all worth it. The last few weeks I have decided to learn how to temper chocolate and make my own chocolate bon-bons. The first attempt was good but not what I wanted, so after a few attempts I have made really good ones, and I plan to show you how I make them and fill them with different fillings. They don’t look perfect like store bought versions but they are handmade and they taste very good, and I know exactly what is in them, which is always good to know.

That is a short story of my baking adventures and I hope to have many more to share with everyone who is interested in similar things. I figured it would be appropriate to start with one of the first desserts I made, so here are my blueberry muffins, the recipe is not my own but you can find it here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/muffins/BlueberryMuffins.html. I know the pictures are bad, I took them with my mobile phone 5 years ago…but I think they still look quite good :D

The recipe is simple and reliable, even if you never made muffins. I think is best to use frozen blueberries and save the fresh ones for desserts where the fresh blueberries are really needed and are visible, like in fruit tarts. The key thing about muffins is that when you mix the wet and dry ingredients together it is crucial that you don’t over-mix it. This means that you should only mix until combined, there will be a few lumps but with baking they will disappear. If you mix it too much the muffin will be dense and not as fluffy and light.

That’s it for my first post, hope you like it. Happy baking! :)