What's Baking in the Barbershop?!: Blueberry Muffins

I wish I had a more exciting title for this post other than just "blueberry muffins." But alas, I don't. I used a recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction for Sparkling Jumbo Blueberry Muffins. But since I didn't make mine jumbo-sized, and I didn't add sugar on top to make them sparkling, I'm down to just blueberry muffins. No sparkling or jumbo here.

However, there is a whole lot of deliciousness here! Don't let the simple name of blueberry muffins fool you. These are some darn good blueberry muffins!!

A while back I had purchased a lot of organic blueberries (i.e., 5 pints) when they were on sale at Whole Foods. And I froze most of them! And those frozen berries were perfect to use in this recipe. All in all, this recipe is very simple and comes together in no time!

One very important tip for this recipe involves oven temperature...and it works! So listen carefully. In her recipe, Sally recommends that you start baking the muffins at a higher temperature (425 degrees Fahrenheit) for 5 minutes, after which you turn the oven temp down to 375 degrees for the remainder of the baking time. The result? Higher muffin tops! They are much more dome-like. In the initial higher temperatures, the muffins rise up quickly and will remain taller than if you baked them at a lower temperature the entire time. Who knew?! What a great tip. Thanks, Sally! I totally noticed that the tops of these muffins were higher than other muffin recipes I've made too.

Another tip is that you do not need to toss the blueberries in flour before adding them to the batter. Many recipes suggest that you do that so the blueberries don't sink down to the bottom. However, this batter is so thick that the blueberries won't sink. And it's true! My blueberries were evenly dispersed throughout the muffins without having to toss them in flour first.

Also, one small change I made to the recipe was to replace one of the cups of all-purpose flour with one cup of white whole wheat flour. The recipe below is written as the original is (with the 3 cups AP flour) but feel free to change it up, if you'd like. Oh, and the four teaspoons of baking powder you see in the recipe? Not a typo! You really add four teaspoons. :) And no, there's not an overwhelming taste of baking powder in the muffins at all, so don't worry.

If you have a jumbo muffin tin, definitely use it for this recipe! I did not though, so I just used my standard muffin tin. You could also make mini ones, if you'd like.

Ingredients:

-3 cups all-purpose flour

-4 tsp. baking powder

-1 tsp. salt

-1 tsp. ground cinnamon

-2 eggs, room temperature preferred

-1 cup sugar

-1 cup milk (I used 1% but you could use skim, almond, soy, etc.), room temp preferred

-1/2 cup canola oil

-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 and 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

-coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line with paper liners. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until combined. Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything by hand until it's well-combined, being very careful not to overmix. The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour batter into prepared muffin tin, filling cups all the way to the top. If using, sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes, then turn oven temperature down to 375 degrees. Continue to bake for 15 to 20 minutes (the time will vary greatly depending on whether you're making mini, regular, or jumbo muffins: 15 - 20 more minutes is for regular sized, 25 more minutes is for jumbo, and for minis, bake them at 375 degrees the entire time for 12 - 13 minutes).

When the muffins are done baking, the tops should be a light golden brown with some cracks in them. Let sit in muffin tin for 10 minutes before removing to cool on cooling rack completely. Or, enjoy the muffins warm, right out of the oven....

For me, this recipe made 18 regular sized muffins.

These muffins were definitely bursting with blueberries! The one and a quarter cups of blueberries was the perfect amount. Not too few, but not too many. And the flavor and texture of these muffins were also fantastic. Tons of berry flavor (as you'd expect :)), slightly sweet, and soft and airy. Everything you want in a muffin!