Mrs. McIntrye’s Blueberry Lemon Muffins

I put in 2 grams / 1 teaspoon of Swedish vanilla sugar – a powdered sugar with BIG vanilla aroma, into the Dry Mix to give it a more warm, mellow end.

The Gear

• • High-sided mixing bowl, 2Qt or greater;

• • Soft spatula

• • 1 Litre / 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup, or bowl with pour spout

• • 2 glass mini prep bowls

• • Spoons for transferring raw ingredients;

• • 2 oz. ladle

• • Williams-Sonoma mini cheesecake pan, or muffin pan;

• • Tulip muffin cups for each spot on the pan (12-16);

The Stuff

The Dry Stuff

• • 272 g. / 2-2/3 c. King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

• • 127 g. / 1/2 cup organic cane sugar

• • 13 g. / 1 tbsp aluminum-free baking powder

• • 8g. / 1.5 tsp salt

The Wet Stuff

• • 237 ml 1 cup whole milk

• • 1 ml / 1/8 tsp  Beanilla Madagascar bourbon vanilla ( http://goo.gl/LFnr0W )

• • 2 large Vital Farms Eggs or other pasture-raised

• • 158 ml /2/3 cup expeller-pressed canola, safflower, almond oil, rice bran, or avocado, or other mild hexane-free vegetable oil (why expeller-pressed matters)

• • Zest of one small lemon, or half large.

The Last Add-In

• • 222g 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries (Frozen never work as well as they’re already popped, and the explosion is what gives these things their magic) – Don’t stir them in until you get the wet ingredients added.

The Topping

Into one of the small glass work bowl, add:

• • 75 g. / .33 cup organic cane sugar

• • Zest of a small lemon or 1/2 large

• • 4 g. / 1 tsp. of Swedish vanilla sugar

In the second small glass (microwaveable) work bowl, add:

• • 42 g. / 3 tbsps Kerrygold Pure Irish butter

The Heat

Heat the oven to 190°c 375°F. 

The Steps

The Muffin Pan Prep

The Smart ‘Paper-Wrapped’ Method

Pull out your pan. I prefer a 12-slot mini cheesecake pan, 59ml/2oz wells,, to a muffin pan, with fancy tulip-style paper cups, because they dress up the muffin, and they help get them out faster.. It’s easier to get things loose with the disk bottoms should we have any problems with something spilling over. Easier clean too. Grab a 12-slot muffin pan for 2oz. muffins

Put your parchment tulip baking cups into the 12 slots.

The Manual Purist’s Method

“Tulip cups? Are you serious?” You’re muttering to yourself. Of course, you CAN use a 2 oz. non-stick muffin pan. Be sure to still use either a baking-grade shortening, or baking-grade spray, avocado oil spray (Smoke point of 260°c / 500°F) is great. Using cheap sprays, like PAM, with low smoke points, will turn the oil both toxic and bad-tasting.

The Mix

• • Add the ingredients in The Dry Stuff list to the high sided 4-8qt. work bowl.

• • Create a well in the flour to the bottom;

• • Add in the blueberries to the hole that you just made in the center;

• • Add in the liquid bowl, scraping out all of the ingredients into your dry mixing bowl;

• • GENTLY TURN, not mix, the liquid and flour until it is all incorporated. We’re trying to avoid creating too many hard gluten strands. If you want muffins delicate, and crumbly, gluten strands have to be irregular. Even though your grandma will smack me for daring to suggest that you don’t have to get every last lump out of a batter, stir as little as you can to moisten. We’re looking for an irregular, crumbly, wonderful muffin that’s part egg, part risen dough.
    • • A soft spatula is best for this.
    • • Go from bottom, to top, scraping any loose flout and TURNING it into the wet mix.
    • • Make sure that you run your soft spatula from the edge, down to the bottom of the bowl, DOWN-UP-TURN-TO-CENTER to get rid of the large dry flour pockets. Small ones, about the size of a small crouton? AOK. They wet out as they cook.

The Load

Using a 59ml/2oz ladle, Spoon into the paper muffin cups, or tins, to about 2/3ds full on the full size muffin.

The Bake