Best Blueberry Muffins!

Yes indeedy!  These make me feel greedy!

I read about these on one of my favorite local food blogs The Bitten Word.  They agreed with Cooks Illustrated’s claim that these were the best blueberry muffins, so being the skeptic that I am, I decided to try them too (plus I like to have stuff like this around for food on the go – and the fruit ingredient makes me feel like I’m giving my daughter healthy, even if it is sugary…oooooh well.).  Verdict?  Yes.  They are incredibly good.  Wow ‘em with these suckers at your next brunch.

BEST BLUEBERRY MUFFINS*
(makes 12 muffins)

Lemon-Sugar Topping:

• 1/3 cup (21/3 ounces) sugar
• 1½ teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

Muffins:

• 2 cups (about 10 ounces) fresh blueberries, picked over
• 1 1/8 cups (8 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 1/2 cups (12½ ounces) 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

1.  FOR THE TOPPING: Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

2.  FOR THE MUFFINS: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease standard muffin tin.  Bring 1 cup 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.

3.  Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.  Whisk remaining 11/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds.  Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.  Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.  Combine egg and flour mixtures.  Using rubber spatula, fold in remaining cup blueberries until just moistened.  [Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.]

4.  Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups).  Spoon 1 teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each batter-filled cup.  Using a toothpick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion.  Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

5.  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.

*  The Bitten Word offers some topping varieties that you can try, as well as a recipe for using frozen blueberries instead of fresh.  I suspect that you could also substitute blackberries or raspberries for some of the blueberries if you wanted a multifruit muffin.  Yummers!