recipe: blueberry muffins

Of all my recipes, I have a select few that I don't think I ever need to improve upon. Strawberry pie, for example. Whenever I see a recipe for strawberry pie in a cookbook or online, I skip right over it -- my grandma's recipe is perfect already. Same goes with chocolate cake. If I already have the recipe for the best chocolate cake ever, why would I need to try any other recipe for chocolate cake? 

Now I can add blueberry muffins to that list. Whenever I make blueberry muffins -- from now until I'm a little old lady -- I think I'll be using this recipe. I tried out this recipe, adapted from America's Test Kitchen, a few weeks ago. I brought them to my in-laws' house in Ohio a few weeks ago to offer for breakfast during the weekend of my brother-in-law's wedding. My father-in-law, who's not an easy man to impress when it comes to desserts, ate two. I take that as a compliment.  

This isn't the simplest recipe out there, but all the steps definitely are worth it.

Blueberry Muffins

Streusel topping

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar 
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• pinch of salt
• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffins

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest 
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice plus 1/2 cup regular milk and let sit 5 minutes) 
• 2 cups flour 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries 

Preheat oven to 375. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin. 

Combine flour, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Drizzle butter and toss with fork to mix. 

Whisk egg, then add vanilla, sugar, and lemon zest. Whisk 30 seconds. Whisk in butter and buttermilk. 

Set aside 1 tablespoon flour. Mix remaining flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold egg mixture into flour mixture. 

Toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon reserved flour. Fold blueberries into batter. (ATK recommends using frozen blueberries in this recipe and keeping them in the freezer until the last minute to prevent blue bleeding into the batter. I used fresh blueberries, and they worked perfectly.) 

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Pat the streusel bits onto the top of each muffin. To keep things neat, use your free hand to form a wall around each cup as you pat the streusel in. 

Bake on the center rack, 22 minutes (or up to 28 minutes) until only few crumbs remain on toothpick. Cool muffins in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Makes 12 muffins. 

Happy National Blueberry Month!

<3

From the archives: 

recipe: pancakes

recipe: brigadeiros