XI

During the week, I start my mornings off with a spinach omelette. Weekend mornings, however, are reserved for more indulgent starts, such as pancakes, biscuits, and scones. I've had a blueberry muffin in my recipe queue for quite some time and it just so happened that I had buttermilk in the fridge and blueberries in the freezer. A blueberry muffin is not worthy of eating unless it's topped with streusel...a lot of it. I typically like the ratio of streusel to muffin to be about 2 to 1 but then it'd be more of a crumb cake than muffin.

For this muffin, I used the Cook's Illustrated Best Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping recipe. The muffins were good but not amazing. I found it lacking in flavor and it wasn't as moist as I'd like it to be. I'm still on the search for the end all, be all of blueberry muffins so if anyone has one, please do tell.

Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins
recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated (May/June 2009) via Joelen's Culinary Adventures

Streusel Topping:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

pinch table salt

½ cup plus 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

5 tablespoons warm, melted unsalted butter

Muffin Batter:

2 cups frozen blueberries

1 1/8 cups plus 1 teaspoon sugar

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

2 large eggs

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING: Combine all the dry streusel ingredients in small bowl. Drizzle with the warm, melted unsalted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms large chunks with some pea-sized pieces throughout.

FOR THE MUFFINS: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup frozen blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.Rinse the remaining cup of berries under cold water and dry well. Toss dried berries in 1 tablespoon of flour and set aside.

Whisk the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl and set aside.In another bowl, whisk remaining 11/8 cups sugar and eggs together until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened.

Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle prepared streusel evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.