Thursday's Ramblings - Best Blueberry Muffins

“Through enjoyment we endure.”

                                     ~Florence Ditlow 

 

 

The other day I posted some photos on my Facebook page of some yummy blueberry muffins I had just baked.  It was a new recipe I tried and not only were they delicious, but they turned out perfect.  I found it on Pinterest and it was shared by Sweet Little Baker...

 

I had plenty of blueberries in our freezer and decided I would make a blueberry pie.  Then Mr. Cottage told me he would really prefer blueberry muffins.  So muffins it was...

I'm going to throw in a couple of tips before I give you the recipe. 

1. If you use frozen blueberries, take them out of the freezer, put into a colander in the sink and let them thaw.  I gently ran cold water on them several times to remove excess coloring from the blueberries.  Then I spread them out on a few layers of paper towels to dry off a bit and for the paper towels to absorb more color from the blueberries.  By doing this, you should avoid the funny coloring of the batter that can occur once your muffins are baked.
2. When you do add the blueberries to your batter, do so VERY gently with a spatula.

Please note that I made just a few little tweaks to her recipe 

Bakery Style Blueberry Streusel Muffins

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 cup milk, can use regular or buttermilk
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups blueberries

     Streusel Topping

• 1/3 cup granulated or brown sugar, either will work
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 2 tsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and lightly grease or line a 12 cup muffin baking pan.  Prepare the streusel topping in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Set aside.
3. In another bowl, mix the melted butter with the sugar, add the eggs and mix well, then add the milk and vanilla and mix again.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and GENTLY combine using a rubber spatula until everything is moistened.  It will be lumpy, don't worry about that.  Then VERY GENTLY, fold in the blueberries.  DO NOT OVER MIX!
5. Fill the muffin cups to the very top.  Then crumble the streusel topping over the tops.
6. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees.  Leave the muffins in the oven and after 5 minutes, reduce the heat to 375 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.