How Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins Changed My Life

What can I say?  These muffins changed my life.  How, you ask?  It all goes back to Joy the Baker.  O boy, am I a fan.  She called these muffins perfect.  I would not have started this blog let alone done all the baking I have done since, if I hadn’t started reading her blog.  She is funny, independent, and she teaches me new things about food.  She is always learning new things too (like a few days ago she had to learn the hard way not to put parchment paper under the broiler).

I had never heard about browned butter till these muffins.  Now, if I see any recipe that calls for browned butter I immediately bookmark it.  Remember back in the day, when everyone popped popcorn over the stove and then melted their own butter on the stove top to pour on top of it?  This is that butter, cooked just a bit longer.  Now, the butter for this recipe in particular is unsalted so even though it smells AWESOME while it is browning, if you try to taste it you will be sadly disappointed.  It won’t be what you are expecting (I had to learn that the hard way, yuck).

When you bite into the muffin though, you will taste it.  That FANTASTIC browned butter smell, it is IN there!  There are recipes for cookies and frosting and cakes with this stuff.  This is only the beginning with my love affair with browned butter.  For me, these muffins are a staple during the berry season which usually coincides with the beginning of school.  They are very easy to whip up right after I send my oldest to school and they will still be ready early enough for me to have them for my breakfast.  I make these a lot, so much so that I have tried fooling around with them a bit to make them a bit healthier.  I tried to replace some of the butter with a bit of applesauce, nope.  Sometimes I do make a struesel topping with a bit of oats in it, but not today.  What I do, and this is the only thing that makes me feel a bit less guilty and keeps the sinful flavor of the muffin intact, is I use white whole wheat flour.  

Today, I only substituted half because I hadn’t made these for a few months and I wanted to be bad.  Usually, though, I do substitute all of the all-purpose flour for the white whole wheat.  Also, I never ate blueberry muffins until this recipe.  I don’t use as many blueberries as the original recipe calls for but feel free to add more if you like.

Now, I pretty much make these once a month until school is over or when berries aren’t on sale anymore.

The struesel topping I still have issues with.  Sometimes it works out great, sometimes just OK.  It is ALWAYS worth giving it a try though!

GeekyLink for today is straight up comic book superheroes.  It is my friend’s birthday today and I had to get her out of her house over the weekend so her family could throw her a surprise party.  We went to see Captain America.  Sure it was a bit cheesy, but it was cheesy in a good way.  It was kind of nostalgic too in a way I wasn’t expecting.  Either way, it sure made me super-duper excited for ‘The Avengers’!

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

slightly adapted from Joy the Baker as she adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

I usually get 12 but today I used my ice cream scoop and got 10 large muffins

7 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk (I just use whatever I have on hand)

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (you can use all white whole wheat or all all-purpose if you prefer)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh blueberries (feel free to add up to another cup)

For the Topping

3 Tablespoons cold butter cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375°.  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.  This is easier to tell in a non coated pan but my stainless steel was being washed.  If this is your first time browning butter, use a non coated or stainless steel pan, it is easier to keep an eye on your butter that way.  The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that.  Do not let it burn, it can happen quickly after it browns.  Remove from heat.

Whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.  Add the brown butter with all the brown bits and stir to combine.

Add milk and butter mixture all at once into the flour mixture and stir gently to combine.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl 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.  I find when using the white whole wheat flour, that it takes a bit longer more like 20-23 minutes.  Cool in pan for 15 minutes (yeah, right), then remove from the pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.