Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

Although this came to me quite recently, I have now decided that everyone needs a fantastic blueberry muffin recipe in his or her back pocket. After coming to said decision, and embarking down the blueberry-studded recipe development path, I have also concluded that a “fantastic” muffin is trickier to create than you might think. But rest assured: I have done so with these blueberry sour cream muffins.

These sour cream muffins are generously peppered with berries, and I even include a trick for working with frozen berries, which can often impart a green hue to baked goods. They are sweet, but not overly so – this is very much a muffin recipe, and not a cake one. The sour cream in the batter adds the subtlest tang and makes for an uber-tender muffin and a hefty glug of vanilla is the perfect compliment to the berries. The oil and extra yolk make for the moistest of breakfast treats and the muffins rise and dome beautifully in the oven (which is not always easy to achieve when muffins are baked at home in a conventional oven). And, finally, they have the most gorgeous, sparkly tops from a hefty teaspoon of raw sugar sprinkled upon each and every one.

Truth be told, I went through several versions of these blueberry sour cream muffins, before finally achieving muffin-perfection. My first attempt was a delicious but flat-topped, cake-like treat that was, sadly, tinted green (a discovery made when cutting into the first muffin). By rinsing and drying my frozen berries before folding them into the batter, I was able to retain the traditional colors of the blueberry muffin’s middle. And by filling my tins almost to the top, plus baking the muffins at a high temp, and then dropping it, I was able to produce the muffin crowns of my dreams. I reduced the sugar as well, in order to keep this treat out of the cake family altogether, and due to the hefty final sprinkling atop each one. Truth be told, I don’t actually mind when my muffin tastes like cake, but I realize I am in the minority here. Long story short, my friends, I am hoping this recipe makes it into your repertoire, or, at the very least, that you give it a shot next time the craving hits, which I’m hoping might be right about now.

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Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

Recipe Author Jessie Sheehan

Servings 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp table salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 2 cup blueberries frozen is fine
• Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400-degrees. Place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin and set aside.
• Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and whisk to combine.
• In a medium-sized bowl, combine the oil and sugar and whisk vigorously to combine. And the egg, yolk and vanilla, and whisk again. Add the sour cream and whisk a final time.
• Gently fold the dry into the wet using a rubber spatula, but stop when streaks of flour are still quite visible. Do not over mix.
• If using frozen blue-berries rinse them in cold water several times until the water lightens a bit in color. Then dry them thoroughly. If using fresh, this is not necessary. Add the blueberries to the flour-streaked batter and fold them in only until just a streak or two of flour remains. Do not over mix.
• Place a slightly rounded 1/4 cup of batter in each cup, and lightly sprinkle the muffins tops with 1 teaspoon each of the Turbinado sugar. You may use up all the batter filling a 12-cup tin, or you may have enough left for one or two more muffins.
• Bake for about 20-25 minutes, at the halfway point, drop the oven temp to 350-degrees and rotate the tin. Begin checking on the muffins at about 20 minutes. The muffins can be pulled from the oven when a tester inserted in the center comes out clean or with only a moist crumb or two. If your berries are fresh, the muffins will bake more quickly.
• Once cool enough to handle, remove the muffins from the tin, bakeoff the extra batter, if you have some, and serve warm or at room temperature.