Bountiful Blueberry Muffins

Nothing is more disappointing than biting into a beautiful blueberry muffin at a bakery or coffee shop and finding out that there aren’t very many blueberries inside. Unfortunately, this happens more often than it should (and it really should never happen) because some bakers will stud the outside of their muffins with berries and skimp on berries in the batter. When you bake your own blueberry muffins, you can have complete control of how many berries make it in to each bite – and these Bountiful Blueberry Muffins are just packed with them.

The muffins are simple, with a warm buttermilk flavor and a light sweetness that really allows the blueberries to “pop” in every bite. Blueberries are definitely the star here, and eating a muffin where the blueberries stand out so much also shows you how many other muffins mask the flavor of blueberries a bit – or simply don’t play it up enough. I used fresh berries in my muffins and always prefer to use fresh when I can get my hands on a fresh basket of them. If you are using fresh berries, be careful when you fold them in to your batter so that you don’t burst any of them. You can also use frozen berries. If you are using frozen, toss them in a teaspoon or two of all purpose flour before stirring them in, so that they don’t “bleed” any frozen berry juice into your batter and turn it pink.

This muffin batter is thick, which means that the berries will stay firmly in place during baking and won’t all sink to the bottom of the muffin. It also means that you can really heap the batter into your muffin cups, filling them up a lot more than you would with your average muffin recipe (usually you aim for 3/4ths full). A thick batter like this one will rise up a lot during baking, creating a muffin with a lovely, large top. Don’t be alarmed that the baking time is longer than it might be for some other muffin recipes, either, since bigger muffins with thicker batters often need a little extra time in the oven to cook all the way through. Just be patient, check your muffins for doneness with a toothpick and you’ll be enjoying a batch of these before you know it.

Bountiful Blueberry Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 pint (16-oz) blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup mufin tin with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together butter, sugars, egg, vanilla and buttermilk. Pour these wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing until the batter is almost combined and some streaks of flour still remain. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula, ensuring that they are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Fold until no streaks of flour remain visible.
Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Muffin cups will be very full.
Bake for 23-27 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean and muffins begin to golden brown on top.
Turn out muffins onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12.