foiled!…or browned butter blueberry muffins

i was intent on making one of two things this week– strawberry tarts or strawberry lemonade cupcakes; the key ingredient here being strawberries. sunday evening i set off to the grocery store in search of fresh strawberries and pie weights (mine seem to have walked away), to find that the local grocery store was fresh out of berries! i walked over to the produce guy asking if perhaps they were about to put some out and as he was telling me that the shipment hadnt come in, some guy walks past saying “yeah, i got the last carton!” Before pouncing, i stopped to look and noticed that it was not nearly enough strawberries for my needs and decided that no, today is not the day to get arrested for attacking someone in the grocery store.

after pacing down the aisles looking for inspiration, i decided to go back home and see what i could come up with. i was browsing through some baking blogs and found a nice morning staple with a subtle twist… blueberry muffins made with browned butter, from Joy the Baker. i read the positive reviews and figured “ah what the heck”. back to the store i went to buy milk, as i never have milk on hand unless a recipe calls for it (i have drank exactly one glass of milk since i was about 10, and that was for a lactose intolerance test– which i am not, incase you were curious). because i bought milk, i will most likely be making something else that will use milk this week, or donate it to the work kitchen.

in any case…off we go! my first time putting browned butter into a muffin. i hoped that browned butter in baking is the same as browned butter in cooking. according to the reviews of my coworkers, i apparently didnt botch it up, so thats a plus! i personally don’t care much for butter, but i did think these were tasty, and the people at work seemed to be bigger fans than i. the guy who sits over the wall from me had two before 10am, and he had plenty of other options at his desk, so i will take that as a good sign. the last of them were gone around 11:30; not bad considering i did not alert as many people as i normally do (since there were only eleven– i had my way with one of them– i decided to only send it out to a small group to avoid the disappointment created by an empty container of cookies n cream cupcakes at 10am)

i do wish i had used all of the streusel topping though; after i seemed to have completely covered the tops i decided to stop there and discard the rest. this was a boo-boo, as the streusel came out nice and crunchy and was surprisingly even somewhat bare on a few muffins.

Recipe:

adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook (as suggested by Joy the Baker)

makes 12 glorious muffins

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the Topping

3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Keep an eye on the butter.  Melt and cook down thebutter until little brown bits appear in the pan.  The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that.  Keep a close eye.  Remove from heat.

Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.  Add the brown butter and stir to combine.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl  Add milk and butter mixture all at one and stir gently to combine.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.  Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.