Blueberry Muffins

I doubt I will ever stop trying new blueberry muffin recipes. I'm on an eternal search for a recipe that makes blueberry muffins like the ones you can find at coffee shops and bakeries. Sadly, the recipes I've tried have never compared. They're great, but I want the big honkin', this will keep me full for hours muffin. I'm sure it helps that bakeries make their muffins twice the normal size. Same thing with Costco cupcakes and muffins. Is there a reason they make them as large as a small child's head? No. Do we appreciate that they make 4,000 calorie cupcakes and muffins? Yes.

Ok, ok. 4,000 may be a bit of an exaggeration.

But I found something the other day that might shed some light on how bakeries do it. It's called a crown pan, and it creates those giant muffin tops (in more ways than one) that bakery muffins are marked by. I may be a little behind in learning this is the trick, but I think I will make this my next baking purchase. Has anyone ever tried this kind of pan? 

All of that may seem like I'm inferring that these muffins aren't great, or that I wasn't completely satisfied with them. That is definitely not the case.  I really liked these. The lemon zest in the batter and the sugar sprinkled on top are what really set these apart from some of the more standard recipes. They are very light and not surprisingly didn't last long in my house. Until I find my dream muffin, looks like I'll stick with these. I'm ok with that, but if anyone has a great blueberry muffin recipe feel free to share!



Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from: The Guy Who Cooks

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cups + 2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract/emulsion (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour cream (or yogurt)
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (all stems removed)

Directions:

1.) Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and grease muffin pan or line with 12 muffins cups.
2.) In a separate side bowl mix the flour, salt, and baking soda.
3.)  In your mixing bowl beat the eggs and sugar until evenly combined, about 1 minute. Continue beating and slowly pour in the melted butter and mix until well combined.
4.) Add in extracts and mix until evenly combined.
5.) Add the flour, salt and baking soda mixture alternatively with the sour cream (or yogurt) and mix until just combined (a few dry specs of flour is ok).
6.)  With a spatula fold in blueberries.
7.) Pour batter into muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
8.) With five minutes left, sprinkle the sparkling sugar on the tops of the muffins and bake for another 5 minutes (so that means a 20 minute bake time in total).
9.)  Take out of oven and allow to cool in the muffin pan for five minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
10.) Enjoy! (note: as with most baked goods, these are even better the next day)