Hello and welcome to Adventures In Baking! Blueberry Muffins. Is there a more perfect muffin out there? I think not. I've tried my fair share of blueberry muffins but I have yet to find one that compares to the muffins at the Student Center where I went to college. On the days when I had the dreaded 8am class (seriously, what was I thinking!) I'd detour through the Student Center to grab a blueberry muffin and a carton of OJ. They stand out in my mind for several reasons, the first being that they were close to twice the size of a normal muffin. The second thing I remember about them is that they were warm and moist but didn't fall apart so you could eat one while hurrying to class. But the most memorable aspect of the blueberry muffin was the crumble on top. I don't know what was in that thing (probably a whole lotta butter and sugar), but it was yummy! I'd eat the bottom half first and save the best (the top half) for last. I knew I wanted to try my hand at blueberry muffins this week and was excited to find a recipe here on Baked Perfection.
The ingredients. The sour cream surprised me. As I was grabbing ingredients for the pic, I paused and thought 'huh, no eggs in this recipe?' And then I checked the recipe. Nope, no eggs. OK, whatever. Took the picture and moved on.
Let's get started. Mix together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Little bit of a side note: After my first couple of baking adventures, I've been pretty good about reading the directions and not making too much of a mess. But today.....oh, today.....I have digressed. This first direction is simple enough.....Mix the four ingredients. For some reason, rather than using a spoon I decided to use a whisk. Not just any whisk. This is my Le Creuset whisk. Ooh la la....fancy. And awkward. The handle is heavier than the whisk end. So I gave the flour a good little whisk and left it in the bowl to grab the camera. The whisk did a back flip right out of the bowl and took a little bit of flour mixture with it. Not a lot, but enough.
Next step. In another bowl, beat together eggs, white sugar and brown sugar. Eggs? What the.... Yep, right there in the ingredient list. First item. Two eggs. At this point I'm not sure if I feel stupid for not being able to read or smart for *knowing* there should have been eggs in the recipe back when I was pulling all the ingredients together...... Which is why I double checked the recipe. And didn't see them listed on the first line. And we're back to stupid. Maybe I need to get my eyes checked, lol!
And then. Mix in oil, vanilla and sour cream. Mix dry ingredients into wet mixture, but don't over-mix. Gently fold in blueberries. Messed this part up also. In the ingredients list it says 'blueberries dusted in flour'. The flour keeps them from sinking to the bottom. Do those blueberries in the picture look like they're dusted in flour? No? You would be correct. Little bit of flour dusting the inside of the bowl, but not a speck on the blueberries. Scoop batter into muffin tin until cups are 2/3 full.
Final step. Mix together sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon. Mix with fork (which was taking entirely too long so I just used my hands) and sprinkle over muffins before baking. I narrowly averted disaster here as well. I put the pan in the oven and started making the crumble. For some reason I thought the crumble went on after they came out of the oven. After only a couple of minutes, I pulled those babies out of the oven, added the crumble topping and baked for 20 minutes.
Taste test. They smell good. They look good. They taste.....well, they're not bad ..... but they don't have much taste. Nice texture. Good crumble. The blueberries didn't all sink to the bottom, so yeah on that part! It may just be the out of season blueberries.
The clean up. This recipe yielded 12 muffins. I think I'm done with the muffins and breads category when there are so many other exciting options in the world.
On the next episode of Adventures In Baking......We're taking this show on the road! I'm heading home for Easter weekend and my dad has requested a cookie. Nothing more specific, just a cookie. What can I come up with? Check back next Wednesday to find out!
Till next week
-Teddra
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