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  • 21
  • November
  • 2008

[Unrivaled] Blueberry Muffins

After posting Champion Blueberry Muffins, more people have come to this site looking for from-scratch blueberry muffins than, as far as I can tell by the search terms that lead people here, anything else. I've been feeling sort of guilty: that post was such a tease. Unfortunately, blueberries are definitely out of season during these dark days; but maybe you stashed some in your refrigerator last August...

Yields 12 standard muffins.

Ingredients:
fresh blueberries 2 cups rinsed and picked over, about 10 ounces
dried blueberries ½ cup 3 ounces
unbleached all-purpose flour 2 ½ cups 12 ½ ounces
baking powder 2 teaspoons
iodized salt 1 teaspoon
white sugar 8 ounces
whole eggs 3 large
unsalted butter 4 tablespoons melted and cooled slightly
vegetable oil ¼ cup
buttermilk ¾ cup
vanilla extract 1 ½ teaspoons
turbinado sugar 4 teaspoons
Procedure:
  1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position to heat oven to 400ºF.
  2. Prepare muffin tins.
  3. Bring 1 cup fresh blueberries and all dried blueberries to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  4. Cook, stirring frequently and pressing blueberries against the side of the pot, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened, about five minutes.
  5. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
  6. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in the large bowl. Set aside.
  7. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Slowly whisk in melted butter and oil.
  8. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.
  9. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in remaining one cup blueberries.
  10. Gently fold in flour mixture until just moistened. Batter will be very lumpy.
  11. Using a large spoon, divide half of the batter equally among the 12 muffin cups. Cups should be about a third filled.
  12. Place a heaping teaspoon of berry mixture on top of batter.
  13. Scoop remaining batter on top of berry filling.
  14. Using a bamboo skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter.
  15. Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top of the muffins.
  16. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes.
  17. Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool for five minutes more before serving.

P.S. For more amazing recipes, you should really go get a membership at Cook's Illustrated. It's totally, totally worth it.