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–+ servings

Over the Top Blueberry Muffins

The breakfast classic made better with an oversized, crisp, sweet muffin top and plenty of tangy blueberries.
I try to make a habit of going back from time-to-time to retry my recipes from the past, and recently I decided to pit my two blueberry muffin recipes against each other. The recipe from my second book, I’m Just Here For The Food, was designed to be kind of course and rustic, and the one from Good Eats was formulated to be softer and more cupcake-like. And I decided I didn’t like either of them. But a hybrid blueberry muffin is just right. Oh, and I upped the portion, not because we need bigger muffins, but because everybody likes a muffin top.
Both U.S. standard and metric measurements are listed, but for deliciously consistent results, go metric.
This recipe first appeared on altonbrown.com.
Photo by Lynne Calamia
Over the Top Blueberry Muffins on a wire cooling rack.
ACTIVE TIME: 30 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 1 hour
Yield: 13 muffins

Software

  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 16 ounces plain whole-fat yogurt, not Greek-style
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest, from 1 large naval orange
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 2 tablespoons demerera sugar

Procedure

  • Heat oven to 375ºF. Coat a standard 12-cup muffin pan and one small oven-safe ramekin with nonstick spray.
  • Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a second bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, egg yolks, yogurt, and orange zest until smooth.
  • Make a crater in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir with a rubber spatula until just barely combined. Resist the urge to overmix — there should be some lumps of flour in the batter.
  • Fold in the blueberries, mixing just to combine.
  • Drop a scant 1 cup of batter in each of the muffin tin's wells. Whatever's leftover can be dropped into the prepared ramekin. The cups should be quite full.
  • Sprinkle the muffins with the demerera sugar and bake or until a toothpick inserted into the bottom of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and turn out, upside down, onto a clean tea towel to cool completely. This step is key in preventing mushy muffin bottoms, which nobody, and I do mean nobody, likes.
  • Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.