Bakery-Style Blueberry Muffins

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven high

   Set a rack in the middle of the oven and heat it to 425°F (220°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Don't skip the full preheat here — that first blast of heat is what forces the batter upward into a dome, so the oven needs to be genuinely at temperature when the pan goes in.

2. 2

   Make the streusel

   In a small bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon. Pour in the melted butter and toss with a fork until the mixture looks like damp sand with some pea-sized clumps. Squeeze a handful together and break it back apart into rubble — those bigger pieces stay crunchy on top. Set it aside while you mix the batter.

3. 3

   Whisk the dry ingredients

   In a large bowl, whisk the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together for a good twenty seconds. You want the leaveners evenly distributed, because any pocket of concentrated baking powder will leave a metallic taste in that one unlucky muffin.

4. 4

   Combine the wet ingredients

   In a second bowl, whisk the melted butter and oil together, then add the eggs and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the sour cream, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. Make sure your eggs, sour cream, and milk aren't fridge-cold — cold dairy will seize the melted butter into little solid flecks. If that happens, set the bowl in a sink of warm water for a minute and whisk again.

5. 5

   Bring the batter together

   Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold with a rubber spatula just until a few dry streaks remain. Stop while it still looks slightly under-mixed and lumpy. Overworking the batter develops gluten and turns tender muffins tough and tunneled, so err on the side of too few strokes.

6. 6

   Fold in the berries

   Toss the blueberries with the tablespoon of flour until lightly dusted, then fold them in with four or five gentle strokes, which should also catch any last streaks of flour. The flour coating gives the berries something to grip so they stay suspended instead of sinking. If you're using frozen berries, keep them frozen and work quickly — thawed ones bleed purple through the batter.

7. 7

   Fill and top

   Divide the batter among the 12 liners, filling each one right to the rim. It will look like too much; it isn't, and it's the reason these bake up tall. Scatter the streusel over the tops and press it down very lightly so it adheres.

8. 8

   Bake hot, then lower

   Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then — without opening the door — reduce the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake another 16 to 18 minutes. They're done when the tops are golden, the domes spring back when pressed, and a toothpick in the center comes out with moist crumbs but no wet batter. Frozen berries may add 3 to 4 minutes.

9. 9

   Cool in the pan, then out

   Let the muffins sit in the pan for 5 minutes so they firm up enough to move, then lift them onto a wire rack. Leaving them in the hot pan any longer steams the bottoms and softens the liners. They're best about 20 minutes later, when the berries have stopped being molten.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  The batter should be thick enough to mound on a spoon rather than pour. If yours seems loose, your sour cream was likely thin — add 2 tablespoons of flour and fold briefly.

• 2.

  For even taller tops, fill only 10 liners instead of 12 and fill them slightly above the rim. Add 2 to 3 minutes to the bake time.

• 3.

  Wild or small blueberries distribute better than large cultivated ones and give you more berry in every bite.

• 4.

  If the streusel looks sandy rather than clumpy, your butter has cooled too much. Warm it for a few seconds and re-toss.

• 5.

  Chilling the filled pan for 20 minutes before baking firms the fat and produces an even more pronounced dome — useful if you're mixing the batter the night before.

• 6.

  Skip the streusel and finish with a heavy sprinkle of coarse sparkling sugar for a crackly, simpler top.

Equipment

• 12-cup standard muffin pan
• Paper muffin liners
• Large mixing bowl
• Medium mixing bowl
• Small bowl for streusel
• Whisk
• Rubber spatula
• Microplane or zester
• Wire cooling rack

Storage