It’s a day that ends in “Y” and you need something quick and delicious to eat. Cue in these small-batch brown butter blueberry muffins.
A perfect count of 6 bakery-style domed muffins to satisfy that buttery, tart, and sweet craving.
Ingredients you will need for brown butter blueberry muffins:
Brown Butter: Browning the butter gives these blueberry muffins their unique flavor. If you are running short on time, opt for melted butter. But, let me ask...isn't that richer nutty brown butter worth the extra time? I think so.
Milk & Greek yogurt: both play a role in creating a moist and tender muffin. The acidity in the Greek yogurt also reacts with the baking soda to create a fluffier muffin.
If you don’t have Greek yogurt, don’t worry! You can substitute for sour cream.
Blueberries: I tend to use fresh blueberries because it’s an easy way to use them up when I overzealously purchase blueberries when they’re on sale.
Don’t have fresh blueberries? Not a problem, you can swap in frozen blueberries.
All-purpose flour: when making fluffy muffins you want a thicker batter. This is because muffins and pancakes are in the same quick bread family. If you have ever made pancakes, you’ve probably noticed the thicker the batter, the thicker the pancakes.
Baking powder & baking soda: both are used in this recipe to give the rise we are looking for in the muffin tops.
Granulated Sugar: used to sweeten the batter and compliment the blueberries.
Egg: the binding agent to bring everything together.
Vanilla extract & Salt: both used to enhance the flavor.
How to make brown butter blueberry muffins:
The best thing about muffins is how easy they are. Mix dry ingredients, whisk wet ingredients, combine wet and dry ingredients, and you are ready to bake your muffins. The longest part of this recipe, outside of the bake time, is browning the butter. But once you start to smell the delicious aroma of the brown butter, it will be worth the wait.
Make brown butter: to brown the butter, you are essentially cooking the butter down past its boiling point. This allows the water to evaporate, leaving behind butterfat and milk solids. Through the Maillard Reaction, the butterfats and milk solids brown, giving the distinct flavor, smell, and color of brown butter. Set aside to cool while you are pulling together the other ingredients.
In separate bowls, mix dry ingredients and whisk wet ingredients
Combine dry and wet ingredients: one of the keys to perfectly fluffy muffins is to make sure you don’t over mix. It’s even better to err on the side of a lumpy batter.
Rinse and coat in flour, and fold in blueberries: this helps retain the moisture that is released while baking.
Line muffin tin and fill: don’t be afraid to fill the muffin tins all the way to the top, this will help with the domed muffin top that we are going for.
Bake 425° (12 min) → 350° (6 mins): To get a bakery-style muffin top, temperature plays a large role. See the below section for more details on why.
Tips to get a bakery-style domed muffin top:
Have you ever struggled with getting those iconic bakery-style muffin tops when baking at home? Same.
I always thought it had to do with the recipe I was using. But I have come to learn that it has less to do with the recipe and more to do with technique.
Across the internet, I have seen many tips and tricks but ultimately what most of them come down to is temperature.
Don’t get me wrong, depending on the type of rise you are going for, the amount of leavener in your recipe is important. But, ultimately, increased baking temperatures allow the batter to quickly rise to create the foundation of a prominent domed muffin top. Higher temperatures also allow the Maillard Reaction to take effect, creating a golden-brown crust with a slight crunch to it.
For example, in this brown butter blueberry muffin recipe, the initial bake temperature is set at 425° for 12 minutes and then shifted to 350° for the remaining bake time. The initial temperature allows the muffin top to quickly form, while the second temperature allows the center of the muffin time to finish cooking.
While you don’t have to bake muffins at multiple temperatures, I definitely recommend it. Aren’t muffin tops the best part anyway?
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Happy Baking!
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Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins (small-batch)
- Total Time: 33 minutes
- Yield: 6 Muffins 1x
Description
Fluffy, moist muffins that are filled with savory brown butter bits and bursting with sweet and tart blueberries. This small-batch recipe makes 6 bakery-style muffins, perfect for when there’s just a couple of you.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ c + 1 tbl (for blueberries) All-purpose flour
- ½ c Granulated Sugar
- 1 ½ tsp Baking powder
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 Egg, room temperature
- 3 ½ tbl Greek Yogurt
- ¼ c Milk
- 6 tbl Butter (¾ stick of butter), browned and cooled
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¾ c Blueberries
Instructions
Prep baking instructions:
- Bring eggs, milk, and Greek yogurt to room temperature
- Line muffin tin with liners
- Preheat oven to 425°
To Make Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins:
- Preheat oven to 425° and line 6 muffin tins with paper liners.
- In a small saucepan melt butter on low-medium heat. As the butter melts, you should see big fast bubbles and hear the butter crackle. Give the pan a swirl every 30 secs or so to ensure the butter melts evenly. After about 5-7 minutes, the bubbles will become small (almost like foam) and the crackling sound will stop. At this point, the browning process will begin. Pay close attention, you don’t want to burn the butter. It will gradually change to an amber color. Once it does remove from heat, pour into a bowl, and set aside to cool.
- Rinse blueberries and coat in 1 tablespoon of flour. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In another medium bowl, lightly whisk the egg. Add in greek yogurt, milk, browned butter, and vanilla, whisking together until combined.
- Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. It’s ok to have a few streaks of flour leftover, it will come together when you fold in the blueberries.
- Add coated blueberries and fold into the batter.
- Evenly fill 6 muffin tins with batter. The batter should fill to the top of the liner.
- Bake at 425° for 12 minutes. At the 12 minute mark, lower the baking temperature to 350° and bake for another 4-6 minutes.
- Muffin tops should be golden brown and the middle should be set.
- Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the muffin. If a few moist crumbs come out on your toothpick, your muffins are done. If not, keep baking in 1-2 minute increments.
- Pull out of the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack and let completely cool.
Notes
- Muffins in an airtight container will last up to 3 days at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Don’t have fresh blueberries? No worries, you can use frozen. Just make sure to give the frozen blueberries a good rinse, dry, and coat in flour before incorporating them into the batter.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 18
- Category: Quick Bread
- Method: Baking
Keywords: brown butter blueberry muffins, small-batch blueberry muffins, bakery-style blueberry muffins, greek yogurt blueberry muffins, blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries
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