Goji and Blueberry - super berry muffins

I used to laugh at my mother for needing reading glasses to read the newspapers.  Yes, yes, nasty of me.  But the laugh's on me now.  I. Need. Glasses.  Quelle horreur!

I swear it happened overnight.  One day I was happily rattling off the fine print on a bar of chocolates.  The next, it was all a blur. Vanity dictated that I put off glasses as long as I could, but reality soon hit with a thud. It's a dead giveaway when you start holding everything at an arm's-length anyway.

Okay, so enter the goji aka wolfberry 枸杞.  Chinese mamas will tell you for good eye sight, eat goji berries.  In our kitchen, we always throw some goji berries into soups.  In recent years, goji has been hyped-up and touted as some kind of super food in the English media.  All I know is that it is likely that its rich anti-oxidant properties makes it good for the eyes.

There were some plump juicy goji berries sitting in the fridge and I wanted to explore using them beyond

soups.  I was inspired to use them in muffins as they reminded me of raisins.  A quick search later and I

netted this wonderful recipe.  It also uses blueberries, making this into a super-muffin.  Blueberries are

rich in anti-oxidants too.  The combination of sweet blueberries tempered with the slightly tart goji berries

make this a wonderful muffin - great to kick start breakfast or as a snack.  The muffins are literally

bursting with berries.

The muffins are suitable to freeze, but believe me, there's no chance of them even hitting the freezer as

they are so good.

Recipe adapted from SylviaH
Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients:2 cups - 315g plain flour
3/4 cup -185g brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 egg - lightly beaten
5 tbsp - 75g - unsalted butter - melted
1 Cup - 250g  buttermilk
2 cups - 250g berries - I used a combination of goji and blueberries

Method:1.  Preheat oven to 375F/190C and line the pans with muffin cases.
2.  Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl.  Add the sugar.
3.  Make a well in the center, add the egg, melted butter and buttermilk.
4.  Stir just until evenly moistened.  Batter will be a little lumpy.  You want lumpy batter.
5.  Fold in the fruits using a large spatula, gently.  Be careful not to break the blueberries.
6.  Spoon the batter gently filling each muffin cup.  Do not push the batter down into the cups.
7.  Bake until light golden brown, and springs back at the touch.  25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway
through the bake. 
8.  Leave in muffin pan for 5 minutes, before removing onto a wire rack to cool down.
Best served warm or at room temperature.

Notes:
Don't over mix the batter, or you'll end up with tough chewy muffins.
I had dried goji berries, so I washed and soaked them with some hot water for 5 minutes to rehydrate.