For something as important as Mother’s Day I knew I couldn’t just tease my mom (again) with my awesome-looking baked goods, so Farrell and I hopped on a bus (very early Saturday morning) and headed up to Philly to hand deliver the blueberry muffins that had come out of the oven only hours before.
Fresh muffins from several states away, I’m such a good daughter, right mom?
I spent my brief Philly weekend catching up with mom, relaxing, and taking obsessive amounts of pictures of her pets.
And marveling at this picture I found of my mom.
The chub! Look at that chub! I couldn’t help myself, I had to share.
(keep reading for the muffin recipe)
For the best Mom ever, my only choice was to use the best muffin recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. It’s a bit more involved than your average blueberry muffins, but the end result is well worth the extra effort.
One thing that I liked about this recipe is that it made a whole lot more than the 12 muffins it said it would. Maybe I have an abnormally small muffin tin, but I stuffed those suckers full of batter and still had more left over.
…what to do with excess batter?
Mmm…mega muffin.
– Best Blueberry Muffins – adapted from America’s Test Kitchen
Yields: more than 12 huge muffins
2 cups frozen blueberries
1 cup sugar (plus 1 teaspoon)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup buttermilk (or your preferred buttermilk substitute)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
– Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line cupcake tin with liners.
– Combine 1 cup of blueberries and 1 tsp of sugar in a small saucepan and simmer over medium low heat, squishing them along the way. Reduce blueberry mixture to about 1/4 cup of liquid, which should take about 6-8 minutes to break down the berries. Remove from heat and cool.
– Whisk together flours, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, set aside.
– Whisk together eggs and 1 cup sugar until thoroughly combined. Add melted butter, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla; whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture, along with remaining 1 cup whole blueberries, and fold until everything is just combined. Do not over mix; there will be some lumps.
– Fill liners almost all the way to the top with batter. Spoon a bit of mushed blueberry mixture on top of each and swirl it around with a small spoon/chopstick/etc. Bake for about 17-20 minutes, until muffin tops are golden brown.
