In Boston, there was once a famous department store called Jordan Marsh. It was absorbed into the Macy’s family of stores in the mid-1990’s but the store remains famous for their celebrated blueberry muffins, which were served in the dining room on the top floor of the store. While there is nothing overly special about any of the ingredients on their own, when you combine them together, something purely enchanting happens. It is probably due to the ridiculous amount of blueberries but whatever it is, it is culinary perfection. These are not your typical blueberry muffins, they are lighter, fluffier and blueberry-er.
My kids keep track of how many of these muffins each family member consumes, making sure that each and every person gets their fair share. Their favorite way to have them is at their afternoon tea (which has become celebrated ritual in our house), but they also enjoy them with a big glass of milk for breakfast or as dessert after dinner. If I let them, they would consume all of them in one sitting. They are just that good.
They only take a few minutes to throw together but they taste like they took forever. This is, hands down, my new favorite muffin recipe.
Almost Famous Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from: King Arthur Flour
Yield: 12 Muffins
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup nonfat milk
- 2 ½ cups fresh blueberries, divided
- 1 Tablespoon sugar, for topping
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375°Fahrenheit.
- Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin papers, set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
- Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing until well combined.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Alternate adding the flower mixture and the milk to the butter/sugar/eggs mixture (I like to do half the flour, followed by the milk and then the remaining flour), beat until well combined.
- Mash 1/2 cup of the blueberries until they are a fine puree.
- Add the mashed blueberries to the batter, mixing until just combined.
- Fold in the remaining 2 cups of blueberries.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups.
- Sprinkle about ¼ teaspoon granulated sugar over each muffin.
- Bake the muffins for 30 minutes in 375°Fahrenheit oven or until they’re light golden brown on top, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
- Remove the muffins from the oven, and allow to cool completely in the pan (or for as long as you can wait –try to let them cool for a minimum of five minutes).