Better than Betty's Double Blueberry Muffins

I'm trying to steer TSM away from his normal breakfast of a cup of coffee and cereal bars claiming to have all sorts of nutritious grains, but they're really just High Fructose Corn Syrup, preservative, artificial colors, flavors and GMO delivery systems.  Thankfully, he likes scones, which we've made plenty of lately so I thought I'd try my hand at making homemade muffins.  Turns out, these homemade muffins are easy and fabulous!


Yes, I *do* have a from scratch recipe for muffins from culinary school, but it's one of those overly heavy, super dense, almost gummy types of mammoth muffins, and that's not happy food in my opinion.  I like my muffins to be somewhat light and fluffy and moist.  Let me guess...you HATE the word moist.  Well, I'm sorry, but telling you these muffins are juicy or wet or un-dry just doesn't work and my thesaurus isn't very helpful either.  The fact is these muffins are moist, without being overly dense and they're certainly not gummy!  They're splendid.

I scored a bag of Wild Blueberries from Trader Joe's as well as a bag of dried Wild Blueberries to use in homemade scones.  I had more than enough left over after using them in other recipes and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the remaining berries when suddenly a light bulb went on over my head and I said to myself "Shaniqua, gurlll,  you IS brilliant!"... and the idea to add some of the dried blueberries as well as the frozen ones to the batter was born.  Wham! Double Blueberry Muffins!
I can neither confirm nor deny if the sky parted and Angels started singing, so you're just going to have to agree with my alter ego, Shaniqua, and understand that adding two types of blueberries to this muffin makes them extra yummy, and extra happy.  Who doesn't need a little more happy and yummy in their lives?  I know I do.

This recipe is a fantastic base recipe for any type of muffin you could dream up.  After reading roughly 2,000 reviews on a muffin recipe online, I took notes on all the tips offered and played around with the recipe and am pleased with the final result.   I didn't top the muffins with anything even though the original recipe calls for a sugar and butter streusel because this muffin doesn't need it.  The batter had great flavor so why mess with greatness?  If you like having a little sumpin'-sumpin' on your muffins, add a little sanding sugar or sugar in the raw crystals to the top of each muffin before they go into the oven.  Simple, but it will look pretty and won't detract from the taste of the muffin.

Remember, we're baking so have all your ingredients room temperature.  Place your egg (still in the shell) in a container with warm water for a few minutes, and microwave your milk on low until room temperature.


Double Blueberry Muffins
Recipe adapted from: Allrecipes.com
Makes: 12 regular muffins or 6-8 large muffins
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 18-25 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1-1/2 cups All Purpose (AP) flour, sifted. (measure then sift)
3/4 Cup + 2 TB white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg- well beaten
2 TB sour cream
Approx 1/3 cup milk (or buttermilk) See step #2*
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. lemon juice or 1/8 tsp lemon extract
1 cup frozen Organic Wild Blueberries (these are the small blueberries)-rinsed well so you don't turn your muffins blue
1/2 cup dried Wild Blueberries
1/4 cup Sanding Sugar- Optional

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.  If you're using a muffin tin with wells larger than the standard muffin size, grease or line 8 wells and add 1-2 TB water to the empty wells.  
2. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.  *In a 1-cup measuring cup add the oil, beaten egg and enough milk to equal 1 cup of liquid.  Add the 2 TB sour cream to the milk/egg/oil mixture.
3. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix by hand until just combined. 
4. Gently fold in the frozen and dried blueberries.
5. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle with a thin layer of sanding sugar if desired. 
6. Bake for 15-25 minutes depending on muffin size, rotating halfway through baking. Muffins are done when a toothpick stuck in the center of the muffins comes out clean.
   Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from your muffin tin.

If you'd like to add some brightness to these blueberry muffins add a tsp. of lemon zest to the batter.

Other Muffins you can make with this Base Muffin Batter:
Substitute dried strawberries for the blueberries.  I would cut them into a small pieces and use about 1-1/2 cups.  Even add some toasted walnuts if you'd like. If you use fresh strawberries, cut them into small pieces and let them rest on some paper towels for 30 minutes to remove some of the excess moisture.
Dried or fresh peaches, or raspberries with almonds and a little bit of almond extract vs. the vanilla extract would be very yummy.  Heck, add some cranberries and orange extract and orange zest to the batter for Cranberry Orange muffins.
Whatever you decide, this muffin recipe is a great one to have in your recipe box!