blueberry muffins
May 14, 2008
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I made blueberry muffins the night before last in response to a request. Since I can only get local blueberries from the farmer' s market, these muffins were both time-sensitive and valuable…$10 for two piddley pints.
I was really nervous about the investment. I' d never made blueberry muffins before and was prepared for something to go awry. Only one thing did: at the last minute the Streusel topping was over-mixed and turned into a glaze rather than a crumble. Worse things have happened to me.
The recipe I used was for Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins from allrecipes.com, one of my favorite food sites. This one was vetted by over a hundred users, had a very high rating, and included lemon zest. I was sold. Plus my go-to cookbooks, The Joy of Cooking and The Silver Palate lacked exciting muffin options.
I learned a couple of very nifty things: first, one must dust the berries with a tablespoon (or two) of flour to keep them from running in the oven once they are folded into the batter. This prevents purple muffins. Can you believe it? Ingenious.
Second, I realized that a lot of important mixing gets done in a larger bowl than you' d anticipate. For example, I had to mix 2 cups of flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl that was not as large as the bowl I used to mix a single stick of butter, some sugar and two eggs. Hmmm.
I wasn' t sure why I was putting the relatively small slab of butter into my biggest glass bowl, but as the recipe unfolded, the mystery was solved—because the dry mix and berries are folded into the butter / sugar combination, and there must be enough space to accommodate the burgeoning batter. So much thought into this budding dozen.
I' ve photographed most of the steps I took in the process, though not necessarily in order. My only piece of advice is not to over-mix the butter/ sugar mix at the very end, or your topping will melt instead of Strudel-ing.
When I pulled my muffins from the oven, I noted that some of the topping had crusted over the baking tray and crystallized. Instead of letting all of that golden goodness go to waste, I stuck the sharp edges into the dough in artistic shapes—like those thin wafers that fancy restaurants prop into ice cream and mousse. I am really moving up in the culinary world.
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