The BEST Blueberry Muffins Ever

Last weekend my daughter and I stumbled upon an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they were making the "Best Blueberry Muffins". I told Logan we were going to make those muffins pronto so we loaded up and went to the grocery store for the ingredients.  I baked the first batch and they were very, very good.  My husband and I discussed the tweaking that needed to be made in order to perfect the recipe.  I baked a second batch with the successful tweaking.  Now I present to you the recipe for ...

The BEST Blueberry Muffins Ever!!

Makes 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS

Blueberry Jam

1 1/4 cups fresh blueberries, picked over

1 tablespoon sugar

Muffins

1 cup fresh blueberries, picked over

1 1/8 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons table salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Brown Sugar Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened

INSTRUCTIONS

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

For the Blueberry Jam

Bring 1 1/4 cups blueberries and 1 tablespoon sugar to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, mashing berries with a spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced, about 6 minutes.  Transfer to a small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

For the Brown Sugar Topping

Combine brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 2 tablespoons butter in a small bowl.  Mix until crumbly.  Set aside.

For the Muffins

Whisk 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.  Whisk 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in a seperate medium bowl until thick and homogenous, about 45 seconds.  Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.  Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.  Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and 1 cup of blueberrries into flour mixture until just moistened.  The batter will be very lumpy with a few spots of dry flour, do not overmix.

Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally in prepared muffin tin.  Batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly. Spoon a teaspoon of cooked berry jam into the center of each mound of batter.  Using a knife, gently swirl berry jam into batter.  Sprinkle brown sugar topping evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden and firm, 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time.  Cool muffins in tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

OTHER INFORMATION - From Me

This is not a mix it up in 5 minutes recipe.  It does take some time and you will mess up a lot of kitchen equipment.  BUT, you will not be complaining about the dishes you have to wash once you bite into one of these goodies.  Best of luck not eating about 3 muffins in one sitting.

My husband has requested that I bake 2 dozen of these muffins for him to take to the office to share next week.  You must understand, Mike is SO not the take-baked-goods-to-work kind of guy.

Enjoy!!