This recipe has ended my search for the perfect Blueberry Muffin. For years, I was disappointed because even though they always looked delicious, biting into one was a major disappointment due to either stinginess on the berry elements, not much structure, or muffins so sweet they wanted to give me a headache. I had sworn off blueberry muffins altogether until I met these guys…. They have a nice, firm texture that can hold up to the tons of blueberries inside and is just the right amount of sweetness. They’re topped with a buttery, crunchy streusel and just a little whisper of cinnamon that’s guaranteed to put a big smile on your face. This recipe, like so many others, appears to have a long and winding history. I first discovered it when my niece, Toni, made some for us from a recipe she found on Pinterest. I made a few tweaks just because I can’t keep my hands off of any recipe, and this is the result. After all, this is the world of cooking – everybody has their own spin on the classics, and that’s a very good thing. The only little trick about making a good muffin (other than having a good recipe that is), is to avoid over mixing the batter at all costs. Muffins don’t like to me over stirred because the more you stir, the more gluten is formed. Gluten formation is really good when baking bread because it gives structure to a loaf, but for muffins you don’t want any rough stuff – tender is the way to go with these guys, so be gentle and you will be rewarded.
Here’s another little trick: for these guys, the dry ingredients are mixed together, and then the blueberries are gently tossed in (so as not to get squished) before you add the liquid ingredients. Many recipes will have you toss the berries into some flour and then mix in with the rest of the dry ingredients, but that seems to be a giant time waster to me since you have a perfectly good bowl full of flour and sugar already sitting right there. The point of the tossing into flour is to try to help the blueberries stay afloat in the muffin – in other words, they have a tendency to sink to the bottom and the theory is that if they are tossed in some flour, they won’t venture down. I’m not so sure that works very well, but what the heck? So I did it. Personally, I had mixed results, so I’m not sure it’s really a good trick or just some old cooking lore.
Hope you enjoy this one, and thanks so much for reading today!!
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, just send me an email to: birdsnestbites@gmail.com I promise to answer each and every one.
Blueberry Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel Topping
Ingredients
- FOR THE MUFFINS
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1- teaspoon baking soda
- 1- tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 8 tablespoons 1 stick butter – melted and cooled
- 1 cup milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- FOR THE TOPPING
- 2 to 3 teaspoons butter melted and cooled
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- FOR THE TOPPING
- In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon.
- Set aside until you’re ready to pop your muffins in the oven.
- FOR THE MUFFINS
- Preheat oven to 375 and get your muffin pans ready. Either use those cute paper liners or give the pans a good spray with cooking spray. You can use butter if you want to get really fancy.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Toss in the fresh blueberries and gently mix them into the flour.
- In a separate, smaller bowl, combine the melted stick of butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Mix together enough so the eggs are smooshed up in there.
- Gently mix the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir just long enough so everything is combined. You don’t want to overmix muffins, because overmixing forms gluten, which makes the muffins tough.
- Fill your muffin tins about ¾ full. If you have an ice cream scoop laying around, it does a great job of handling this part of the effort. You’ll end up with close to 1 ½ dozen muffins.
- Sprinkle the muffins generously with the topping mixture.
- Bake at 375 until they are firm to the touch and have started to turn golden. If you are unsure, use a wooden skewer or toothpick and push it into the center of one of the muffins in the center of the pan. It should come out clean, or just have a few crumbs sticking to it.
- Remove from oven and let cool in the pans for about 10 minutes so they can set up. Remove from pans to a cooling rack and that’s all there is to it!