Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

As part of my efforts to maintain healthy eating habits and lose a not-publicly-defined amount of weight this year (see my annual goals, here), I made some bran muffins last week. I used Heidi Swanson‘s bran muffin recipe from Super Natural Every Day, and they were everything a really good bran muffin should be: moist, flavorful, with a lot of texture and a soft crumb. I’d stirred in a chopped apple and a small handful of golden raisins, so they were punctuated with bits of sweet, soft fruit. They got better with age, too. I ate one every morning for a week, warmed and spread with a little unsalted butter.

Eli was not delighted, though. I actually think he feels shafted at times when I make something really whole-grainy and health-nutty, because he knows that I know he probably won’t be a fan. “Hippie food,” he calls it.

Feeling a little guilty after his one bite of bran muffin was a total fail (to his credit, he at least tries everything), I went and snuggled up next to him on the couch and said, “So…what’s your favorite muffin?”

Yeah, that’s right. After four years together, I had no idea what kind of muffin my husband favors. He looked at me like he thought I was as dumb as you all probably think I am.

“I’m serious,” I said. “I don’t know what your favorite kind of muffin is. Pumpkin? Banana nut? Chocolate chip?”

“Hmm…” He thought for a moment. “Blueberry, I guess.”

How fortunate that I still had a few quarts of Michigan blueberries in the freezer. They came all the way across the country to Virginia in a cooler packed in dry ice.

A day or so later, I devised these Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins. I started with Mark Bittman’s “Muffins, Infinite Ways” recipe from How to Cook Everything (Side note: everyone should have this cookbook. If you do not own a copy, make sure you take care of that – soon), combining his suggestions for both blueberry muffins and coffee cake muffins into a pan of berry-filled, cinnamon-infused, streusel-topped bits of breakfast heaven. As usual, I doubled the amount of fruit, because that’s how I am. And I added some vanilla, because all baked goods benefit from some vanilla.

They looked good even before I put them in the oven:

Oh, and just in the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that I baked two batches of these…because I forgot the baking powder in the first batch, and they were like flat, round sponges. So don’t forget the baking powder, ok?

I don’t know about you, but I prefer my muffins jumbo-sized. I reserve the standard muffin pan for cupcakes. To be honest, I feel less greedy with jumbo muffins, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. It’s just that muffins are usually a meal unto themselves, so if I make a standard-size muffin, I end up eating two. But one jumbo muffin is just right for breakfast. Make sense? I think so.

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins
adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

For the muffins:
2 cups flour (I used a mix of all-purpose and white whole wheat – shhh, don’t tell Eli)
1/2 cup evaporated cane juice or sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk (I used 1%, but any milk will do)
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

For the streusel topping:
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 375°. Oil or butter your muffin tin, or line the muffin cups with paper or foil muffin liners if you prefer.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, stir together the butter, egg, vanilla and milk.

Making a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet mixture and stir just to combine.

Gently fold in the blueberries.

Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full.

In another small bowl, use a fork to stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts, and melted butter.

Spoon the streusel evenly onto the batter in the muffin cups, dividing it evenly.

Bake 20-25 minutes for standard-size muffins, 30-35 minutes for jumbo muffins, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan slightly, then gently remove the muffins to a cooling rack (I use an icing spreader to gently coax them from the pan, because you can’t invert them, or you’ll lose most of the streusel).

These are best eaten the day they are baked, because the streusel loses its delicious crunch by the next day.

Makes 12 standard or 6 jumbo muffins.

Want a printed copy of this recipe? Click here.