Blueberry Muffins V

 My obsession with the perfect blueberry muffin continues.  This is the fifth installment (hence the "V").  That said, this effort was a FAIL, by my fault alone.  I don't know how many times I have to tell myself NOT to try baking first thing in the morning, but I did it again.  And I made mistakes.  Mistakes that dramatically affected the outcome.  So I can't give a fair assessment of this recipe at this point.  (Some day I'll remake it, properly, and update this page.)

I was really excited about this recipe, not only because I know the author really does her research, but because also it uses only a small amount of milk (which meant they wouldn't be too soft and delicate) and because the batter was very thick and you're encourage to pile it high (which meant the muffins would have a nice, high dome.)  Those were two very promising characteristics.

The problems arose from making only half the recipe.  Couple that with the measurements being given in multiple formats (volume and weight) and it was all too much for this bleary-eyed night owl who'd just rolled out of bed.  I mismeasured the flour, the sugar, and the milk.  The milk!  That's critical to the texture!!  I soldiered on.

For 6 high-domed muffins (using her whole wheat option), here's what I was supposed to use:

3¼ oz (3/4 cup) white whole wheat flour
2¾ oz (5/8 cup) all-purpose flour
2⅝ oz (3/8 cup) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/16 teaspoon nutmeg
2⅝ oz (3/8 cup) virgin or refined coconut oil, soft but cool (or 3 oz unsalted butter)

1/4 cup milk
1 large egg, cold
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
5 oz (scant 1 cup) fresh blueberries

Heat oven to 350F.  Grease 6 muffin tins.  Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a mixing bowl.  Add the coconut oil or butter and mix on low speed until it becomes a mealy powder, about 2 minutes.  (If using coconut oil, the mix can be made up to this point and stored long-term.)

Add the milk, egg, and vanilla to the dry mix and stir to create a thick, dough-like batter, then gently fold in the blueberries.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, piling the batter high.  (Top each with a sprinkling of sparkling sugar, if desired.)  Bake until domed and firm but still pale, about 22 minutes.  Serve warm.

The first mistake I made was dumping in an equal amount of AP flour before realizing it was slightly less than the amount of whole wheat flour, so I scooped some out.  I think I did okay there.  The next mistake was dumping in the full amount of sugar (for 12 muffins); I scooped out what I could, but there was probably some extra in there.  The worst mistake was dumping in the amount of milk for 12 muffins-- that couldn't just be scooped out.  It rapidly soaked into the flour and sugar.  I sucked out as much as I could with a turkey baster (which also resulted in sucking out some of the extra sugar, since it dissolved in the milk), but by weight it wasn't nearly enough.  I probably ended up with about 3/4 the full recipe amount, rather than half.  This made the batter softer than it should have been (bearing in mind that whole wheat flour is "thirstier" than AP, which helped some), so the muffin tops spread more than expected.  The extra milk also might have been the reason why I had to bake them a few extra minutes, about 25.

Conclusion:  For all the failings, these turned out alright.  They weren't too sweet, there was a good amount of berries... even the texture wasn't bad.  I didn't use the nutmeg, but I think I'll try it next time.  I definitely need to try the recipe again, properly.

Recipe:  Blueberry Muffins via Bravetart by Stella Parks