Blueberry Muffins with Kefir, Six Small Ones

Six small muffins: an egg, a splash of kefir or yogurt, oil, flour, sugar and a handful of blueberries. Mix the dry, mix the wet, fold the two together, and 20 to 25 minutes in a hot oven. I bake them with quinoa and whole-grain flour; plain wheat flour works just as well.

• 130 g (1 cup) flour: I use quinoa and whole-grain; all-purpose wheat flour works
• 50 g (¼ cup) sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 50 g (¼ cup) vegetable oil
• 90 ml (6 tablespoons) kefir or plain yogurt
• 60 g (½ cup) blueberries

Makes 6 muffins.

1. Heat the oven to 430°F (220°C). Line a muffin tin with 6 paper cups or grease it.
2. In one bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar and baking powder.
3. In another, whisk the wet: the egg, the oil and the kefir or yogurt.
4. Pour the wet into the dry and stir just until no dry flour is left; the batter should look lumpy. Fold in the blueberries.
5. Divide between the cups and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in the tin.

The lactic acid in kefir softens the flour's gluten, so the crumb comes out tender and a little moist, with a faint tang under the sweetness. The sugar helps in the same direction: it holds water that the flour proteins would otherwise take. Baking powder starts working the moment the liquid hits it, so the batter goes into the oven already rising. Mixing dry and wet separately and then barely stirring them together keeps gluten from forming, and the crumb stays open. The hot oven sets the outside fast, so the tops dome and brown while the inside is still rising. Blueberries burst in the heat and leave pockets of sharp juice against the sweet crumb.

Yes, straight from the freezer, tossed in a spoonful of the flour so they do not sink or bleed.

Buttermilk, or milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice left 5 minutes.

A hot oven gives the tops a fast rise and a good dome. If yours runs hot and the tops brown before 20 minutes, drop to 400°F for the last few.

The 50 g of sugar is modest; you can go to 40 g, but below that the crumb gets denser.

Two days in a closed box at room temperature. They freeze well; warm them 10 minutes in a 300°F oven.

I am Marina Staver, a private chef in Miami and South Florida. I cook dinners in people's homes: birthdays, anniversaries, dinner parties, quiet evenings for two on a Wednesday. I plan the menu around what you actually like, shop for it, cook it in your kitchen and leave it clean.

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