September 11, 2010

{recipe} Blueberry Muffins

Weekly Test Recipes - week 36!

This recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen.  Check her out.  She cooks a lot of fancy things that I normally would think I'd never be able to make, but she makes it look really easy and provides detailed instructions.  She also adapts lots of recipes to make them simpler. 

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (SmittenKitchen)

5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1 large egg
3/4 c. sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. blueberries, fresh or frozen (don't defrost if frozen)

Combine butter and sugar with mixer until fluffy.  Add egg and beat well, then add sour cream and lemon zest.  Sift dry ingredients together and mix into batter just until flour disappears.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Preheat oven to 375* and grease muffin tins.  The batter is very thick, so use a couple spoons or an ice cream scoop to fill muffin cups 3/4 full.  I got 10 muffins out of this recipe. 


Bake 20-25 minutes until golden on top and toothpick comes out clean.  Insert knife around edges to release muffins, then cool on wire rack, or devour immediately.  I like mine cut in half with butter spread on the inside. 


I thought these were scrumptious; Tony thought they were missing something and needed to be a little sweeter.  I used sour cream because that's what I had on hand, so maybe that took away from the sweetness.  Another thing I liked was how high they got.  They were nice and tall and fluffy, not flat like other blueberry muffins I've made.  These rose nicely above the muffin tins.
Next time (and there will be a next time!) I'll use plain yogurt and see if they're a little sweeter.  Also, 3/4 c. blueberries seemed to be waaay too much when folding them in and when filling the muffin tins, but they came together nicely when baking.  These were really simple and took no time at all to stir together.  I think I'll go have another one!

Rating: EXCELLENT!

3 comments:

  1. I heartily endorse these muffins. We doubled the batch and still ate them all in one day. Thanks for the great recipe!

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  2. Actually, now that I think about it, these reminded me a lot of scones, rather than just muffins, kinda biscuit-y. Maybe it was the self-rising flour I used...but still stand by that excellent rating!

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  3. Hmmm, mine were very soft and muffin-like. Maybe the flour does make a difference, or the amount of time spent mixing. You should do a science experiment with the home-schoolers and see if different flours or mixing times matter. I wanted to try putting some wheat flour in these but decided to make as-is the first time.

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