Hi, I'm Georgiana, your English teacher.
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Okay, let's start.
In today's lesson, I will talk about baking.
I will teach you how to bake my favorite blueberry muffins.
So if you want to enrich your English vocabulary and try out my favorite muffin recipe, I suggest you continue listening.
And with a point-of-view lesson, you will improve your English grammar intuitively.
Without memorizing any rules.
Unbelievable!
Today is episode 120.
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And remember, you can get the transcript at speakenglishpodcast.com.
Okay, let's start.
I don't know about you, but I love baking.
And the easiest recipe I know and the one my friends like best is blueberry muffins.
People are very used to eating all sorts of pastries that contain an incredible amount of sugar.
Yet, one of the things they love most about my cakes is the fact that I add very little sugar.
That's why I started baking.
I'm not too fond of pies with a lot of sugar either.
Are you excited?
I'm sure that if you try these muffins, you're gonna love them.
If you've never heard of the word muffin, then you probably know the term cupcake.
A cupcake is very similar to a muffin, but it's always sweet and often covered with frosting.
Wait a minute, what's frosting?
It's a sweet mixture that we use to decorate and fill cakes.
Muffins, on the other hand, are generally considered healthier than cupcakes.
They are usually made of whole wheat flour and loaded with fruit.
It's not easy to describe how a muffin looks.
But the only real difference between a slice of cake and a muffin is the shape.
But just to give you an idea, a muffin looks like an oversized mushroom.
It's very easy to make them.
It doesn't matter if you're a master chef or if you never set foot in the kitchen.
All you need is 30 minutes.
10 minutes for preparation and cook for 20 minutes.
And don't worry, because you don't even need a food processor.
A food processor is an electric machine that cuts, slices and mixes food quickly.
But in this case, you only need a mixing bowl.
Before we start cooking, let's take a look at the ingredients we need for the muffins.
This is an essential step.
You have to make sure you have all the ingredients ready before you start baking.
This will speed up the preparation and ensure that no ingredients are missing.
This had happened to me more than once.
The other day I wanted to make a carrot cake and I was pretty sure I had some carrots in the refrigerator.
It turns out that there weren't any carrots in the fridge.
So I had to shop for groceries, and that ruined the moment.
Before we go any further, let's get a little better understanding of how we measure the ingredients.
In the United States, we use cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons in our recipes.
To follow this recipe, you'll need some measuring cups and spoons.
You can get them online or in your local store.
Let's see how this works.
One cup is 8 ounces or 236 milliliters.
One tablespoon is 15 milliliters and one teaspoon 5 milliliters.
But what if we want to use half a cup or one third of a cup?
That's a little more confusing for you.
So let's take a look at some examples.
We say half a cup or one half a cup, one third of a cup, two thirds of a cup, a quarter of a cup, two quarters of a cup, three quarters of a cup, one fifth of a cup, two fifths of a cup, three fifths of a cup and four fifths of a cup.
These are the ingredients for the blueberry muffins.
One and a half cups of all-purpose flour.
Three quarters of a cup of granulated sugar.
Two teaspoons of baking powder.
A quarter of a teaspoon of fine sea salt.
One third of a cup of oil.
One large egg.
Half a cup of milk.
1 1⁄2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries.
I usually use frozen blueberries, by the way.
If you use frozen fruit, do not thaw it.
Don't defrost.
With these quantities, you will get 8 large muffins, 10 standard muffins, or 20 or 24 mini muffins.
First, heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 204 degrees Celsius.
You'll need a muffin tin or a muffin tray and some paper liners or paper baking cups.
Add the paper liners or paper baking cups in the muffin tray.
For the large muffins, you'll need 8 paper liners, and for the medium ones, 10.
To make sure the muffins bake evenly, fill the remaining cups with 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
So, how do we make the batter?
By the way, the batter is the mixture of ingredients used in baking.
To prepare the batter, you'll need to whisk the flour sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
When you whisk something, you stir it quickly and lightly with a kitchen tool, which is also called a whisk.
And if you don't have a whisk, just use a fork.
Add the oil, the egg and then the milk.
Pour in the vanilla extract and whisk to combine.
Add the liquid mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients.
Then use a fork or a whisk to combine.
After that, add the blueberries.
And how do we bake the muffins?
We fill 8 to 10 cups until the batter reaches the top of the baking paper cups.
We will bake the muffins for 15 to 20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 204 degrees Celsius.
The mini muffins take about 10 minutes to bake.
I use a mini muffin tray that allows me to bake up to 24 mini muffins.
When we take the muffins out of the oven, we'll place them on a cooling rack until they get cold.
So, what's a cooling rack?
We use a cooling rack or wire rack to allow the air to circulate freely to cool the muffins.
That prevents them from getting soggy from condensation.
Once the muffins are cooled, we place them in a plastic bag, seal and store at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
That's it.
Now you can enjoy some delicious blueberry muffins.
Just let me know if you tried my recipe.
Please write a comment on my website, YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.
Okay, let's continue with the point of view story.
Now let's practice some grammar.
Don't worry, you don't have to memorize anything.
Just listen carefully, because I will tell the same story twice.
Are you ready?
I will tell the story from Mike's point of view in the past tense.
Last year, it was my wife's birthday.
So I wanted to bake a birthday cake for her.
I never baked before, but I was confident it wouldn't be such a big deal.
I didn't think it would be too difficult.
After all, my wife Emily bakes all the time.
So I went to the supermarket and bought all the ingredients on the list.
For the batter, I bought some flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, oil, eggs and some milk.
And for decorating the cake.
For the icing I bought some cream cheese, vanilla extract and some butter.
After buying all the ingredients, I started making the cake.
After five hours, I was completely exhausted, but also incredibly proud of myself.
The cake came out beautifully and looked delicious, and I was confident that my wife would be pleased.
However, to my surprise, Emily didn't like the cake at all.
She said it was too sweet.
Oops!
I guess that I've made a small mistake when reading the recipe.
I've added 10 cups of sugar instead of just one cup.
Considering that it was the first time I ever baked a cake, I was still proud of myself.
Now, let's hear the story from Emily's point of view in the future tense.
Next year, it will be my birthday.
So I guess that my husband Mike will want to bake me a cake.
He won't think baking will be too difficult.
After all, I bake all the time.
So he will go to the supermarket and buy all the ingredients on the list.
For the batter, he will buy some flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, oil, eggs and some milk.
And for decorating the cake.
For the icing he will buy some cream cheese, vanilla extract and some butter.
After he will buy all the ingredients, he will start making the cake.
After 5 hours, he will be completely exhausted. but also incredibly proud of himself.
The cake will come out beautifully and will look delicious, so he will be confident that I will be pleased.
However, to his surprise, I won't like the cake at all.
I will say that it's too sweet.
That's because while baking, he will make a big mistake when reading the recipe.
He will add 10 cups of sugar instead of just one.
What a disaster!
Considering that it will be the first time he will ever bake a cake, he'll still be proud of himself.
Poor Mike!
It turns out Emily didn't like the cake because it was too sweet.
I guess Emily's like me.
I imagine that she adds the minimum amount of sugar to her cakes.
Perfect!
It's the end of this point of view lesson.
Have you seen the power of the point of view technique?
We have checked a lot of grammar by merely using the same story.
It's very easy to compare the different structures because you compare them in parallel.
Let me ask you something.
Is my podcast helping you with your English?
Though the podcast is a useful resource, because of time limitations I can hardly develop these lessons, although they allow you to try out my method.
But if you're serious about learning English, I recommend my premium English courses.
These are complete programs designed to improve your spoken English dramatically.
In fact, the courses contain hours and hours of questions and answers and point of view lessons.
It's like a podcast episode but multiplied by 100.
Get my English courses at That's it for today.
I will be back next week.
Bye-bye.
Did you enjoy today's episode?
