I was thinking of the best way to start off my blog and then (for obvious reasons) I thought, “What would be better than starting with muffins?”

I LOVE to eat muffins. They are the best type of breakfast food. They are filling, delicious, and give me the energy I need to get through the first half of my day (and tbh who doesn’t love to eat cake in the morning?). Muffins aren’t easy to mess up, but harder to master. They can get dry, heavy, caved in, or flavorless. So, for my first blog post I am searching for the road to blueberry muffin heaven 😇.

Step 1: What do you look for in a muffin?

I took a poll from my certified (*cough*) taste testers and they came up with a few qualities that make muffins great:

Fluffy, light, crunchy top (like the Dunkin Donuts banana muffin tops), moist, airy, and not heavy or dense.

Step 2: What ingredients can I use to get those results?

For a basic muffin I need fats, an acid, a reactant, a sweetener, a binder, and flavor.

These are ingredients that will fulfill the muffins’ needs and give them the qualities that we like:

Yogurt- Not only will it add body and acidity, it will make the muffins moist and fluffy.

Vegetable oil- To coat the flour particles, and add to the moisture.

Sugar- To sweeten.

Eggs🥚- For fat and emulsifiers (to keep the batter together).

Flour- To give the muffin shape and form.

Salt- To bring out the flavor and balance the sweetness.

Baking powder and baking soda- To react with the yogurt and help the muffin rise to create a light and airy texture.

Step 3: How do I put the ingredients together to make the best muffin?

First off, the batter can’t be too liquidy (is that a word?) or else the muffins will be dense and flat. I also have to make sure that all of the ingredients are room temperature or the fats won’t be able to make an emulsion. I can not beat or over mix the batter, or the muffins will deflate and I will lose the airy aspect of my muffin. I also need to sift all of the dry ingredients so that the muffins are not grainy.

Finally I need to make the top of my muffin crunchy.

For this I had three different ideas:

1.Sprinkle brown sugar on top

2.Sprinkle white sugar on top

3.Sprinkle a crumb topping that I usually use for apple crumbles on top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried all three, but my taste testers and I were stumped. We couldn’t decide between the white sugar and the crumb topping, so it’s up to you to decide which one you like better.

Another way to make the top crunchy, is to set the oven 20 degrees lower than a recipe calls for. Right when you put the muffins in the oven, set the oven to the right temperature. This way the muffins get a shock of heat and the top becomes crispy 😋.

Now for the blueberries:

My taste testers commented that they don’t like too much blueberry in one bite, but they don’t want too little blueberries in the muffin (they are sooo picky – don’t tell them I said that). I only had abnormally large blueberries, so I cut them into quarters, but 1 cup of regular sized blueberries should work fine.

When I first made the muffins, all of the blueberries sank to the bottom so I coated my blueberries in some of the dry mixture to act as a velcro and stick the berries to the batter.

Now, I apply these steps to a basic recipe, and thus the delicious blueberry cake baby was born 🙌.

 

My Final Recipe:

Blueberry Muffins

(Makes about 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

(Make sure they are all room temperature!)

2 1/4 cups AP (all purpose) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup greek yogurt

1 cup blueberries

For optional crumb the topping :

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix ingredients together with a fork

 

Steps

Preheat oven to 380 degrees F

1.Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl

.

2.In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg, and yogurt.

3.Add the dry ingredients (reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients to coat the blueberries) to the wet ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula (Do not over mix!! Ten mixes should do it).

4.Coat the blueberries in the reserved dry mixture and add to the bowl.

5.With an ice-cream scoop, fill a muffin tin (lined with cupcake liners OR sprayed with cooking spray) with batter.

6.Add either the crumb topping or sprinkle white sugar on top the the batter (whatever you prefer), press down,

and place in the oven. Quickly change the temperature of the oven to 400 degrees F and bake for 20-25 minutes rotating the pan half way through.

Share these with someone you would be muffin without😊

I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Oh, and keep muffin around the kitchen😉