Let’s all take a moment and be grateful for Joy the Baker. I’ve liked her from the moment I discovered her blog, but after yesterday I have a new-found love for all things JTB. Can we call her that? I hope so. She has seriously delivered in the muffin department, as I discovered yesterday.
I woke up yesterday feeling remarkably sub-par. Stuffy, scratchy, generally under-the-weather. Blargh. The thing about working from home is that, even on a sick day, you feel like you need to get things done all the time. I decided to let myself take it a little bit easy, but that basically just meant making delicious muffins and drinking ten gazillion cups of tea. Greg Mortenson has nothin’ on me!
Really though, I made these for Derek. He requests two things, usually: sushi salad, and blueberry muffins. Perhaps he spiked my tea in the morning, because yesterday I made BOTH. Lucky dude, eh?
The blueberry muffin request is always a bit hard to fulfill, partially because it’s usually not blueberry season, and partially because I hadn’t found a recipe I particularly loved yet. I’ve made some I liked, but knew I had to keep looking. This recipe, in my mind, is the holy grail. My search is over, and we have the most glorious muffins EVER. It also helps that I recently bought an oversized muffin tin, which makes muffins SO much prettier. Highly recommended.
This recipe starts with browned butter. If you haven’t ever browned butter, do it right now. Your nose will thank you, then your taste buds will too. Especially if you make this giant cookie. The rest is fairly straight-forward, and I’ll even throw in a tip about using frozen berries (because I used them!): Keep them in the freezer until the last possible moment, then quickly toss them in flour before adding them to the batter. It will keep them from running and turning your batter entirely purple. Of course, fresh blueberries are always recommended.
[If you don’t already have it, the Joy the Baker Cookbook is ON SALE on Amazon right now! Get it while you can!]
- 7 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1½ cups flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- 2 cups blueberries
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold
- ½ cup flour
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- Preheat the oven to 375, and prepare a muffin pan with either butter or liners.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Continue to cook the butter, as it crackles and pops, until the crackling stops and the solids have turned a medium-brown color.
- Remove from heat and pour the putter into a separate dish, as not to burn it.
- Let the butter cool at least 10 minutes.
- Whisk together milk, egg, yolk, and vanilla until fully combined. Add the brown butter and whisk together.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix to combine, then add the wet ingredients all at once. Stir gently to combine.
- Fold in the blueberries, and divide batter into the muffin tin.
- For the topping, use clean fingers to combine the butter, flour, and sugar until crumbly. Divide among muffin cups, topping each muffin liberally.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes. Muffins should be golden and crisp on the top, and a cake-tester will come out clean.
- Let the muffins cool 15 minutes in the pan before removing.
Approximately how many muffins does this recipe make?
I usually make these in jumbo muffin tins, and it makes 5. I’d guess about double that (or maybe even 12) for a normal muffin tin.
I just took them out of the oven. I had to sample one. Oh my dear goodness, these muffins are absolutely divine! The recipe did make 12 standard size muffins.