Sunday, 8 2010
kitchy weekends: browned butter blueberry muffins
contributed by guest food blogger Becoming Lola
Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins
via Joy The Baker adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook
makes 12 glorious muffins
Ingredients:
7 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
Method:
Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on the butter. Melt and cook down the butter until little brown bits appear in the pan. The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that. Keep a close eye. Remove from heat.
Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined. Add the brown butter and stir to combine.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl Add milk and butter mixture all at one and stir gently to combine. Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries.
Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.
For Crumble Topping:
3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl (pssst…I added some brown sugar too! yes, the blog banner does say indulgent journey into baking, so don’ act so surprised) and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.
These were so moist, perfectly crumbly and delicious! I really am lacking the adequate adjectives to even do them justice here on my humble little blog. I hope my brand spankin new camera is helping me out, making up in stunning imagery where I lack in flowing prose. All I can say is, MAKE-THESE-NOW! Well, tomorrow morning will suffice as well.
WHAT I LEARNED:
Mmhmmm, this was the most successful bread based recipe all week! And here I thought I hated muffins. Hmm, I still do kind of. But not homemade ones anymore. As long as I can keep up with the moist yet crumbly consistency, I am tres excited about all the flavor combinations I can make now…without having to worry about added preservatives and chemicals form store bought crap. Woot, woot! And whilst making these bad boys, I learned allot, including some two cents from Granny when she came home and mucnhed on one straight away. Lock in the moisture by storing them right after cooled into an airtight container (unfortunately she said hers was a tad dry. sigh). What else? For one, the butter really does subside from the crackle noise and brown right away, so although I started on my milk/egg mixture simultaneously, definitely keep an ear and eye out! Second, when you pour the browned butter into the milk, it cooks the eggs. Yuck (you guys know already how much I hate that) but thanks to handy dandy Martha videos, I’ve learned you can either a) temper the egg mixture first before pouring all or b) strain out the cooked eggs, which is the option I chose. So get a small strainer and pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Lastly, no matter what muffins I make or eat, I love the sugar crust on top. Don’t ask me when I took a liking to that, but all I know is I like it. So I added a nice dose of lemon icing sugar (from Whole Foods AJ!) on top of the crumble. Oh and you know what, they don’t really bake up that brown, so I might try a slight butter/egg wash next time… golden brown muffins are oh so pretty!
