I love blueberry muffins, especially buttery flavored ones warmed up and served with a cup of coffee. Ina Gartens recipes are always a winner. These blueberry muffins are perfectly moist and flavorful with buttermilk, melted butter and plenty of lemon zest to fancy your taste buds. I have been a fan of Ina Garten’s show “The Barefoot Contessa,” ever since I was a young mother living on Sweetzer Avenue on the hip side of West Hollywood. I would eagerly await watching my favorite line of cooking shows on the Food Network after of course, my then three year old watched his line up “Little Einsteins,” “Boohbah,” “Go Diego Go,” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”1 Those were the days. The Barefoot Contessa was my most loved show.
When I first made this recipe, initially I thought “Whoa Ina!” That’s way too much baking powder for a dozen muffins. But, of course the muffins came out wonderfully. They were jumbo sized, lemony and so delicious. This recipe won’t disappoint. I’ve never met a muffin that I did not want to devour, banana nut, chocolate chip I would happily split half of the muffin with a friend, however these blueberry muffins make me not want to share at all. But, of course I do every time. Here’s Ina Garten’s Blueberry Muffin recipe that I’ve made a couple of tweaks to.
Ingredients
- 3 1⁄2 cups of All Purpose Flour plus 1 tsp of flour
- 4 1⁄2 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 1 tsp of kosher salt
- 1 1⁄2 cups of sugar
- 2 cups of buttermilk
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 1⁄2 tsp of lemon zest
- 1⁄4 cup or one stick of unsalted butter melted and cooled
Cooking Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line a muffin pan with paper liners
In a large bowl sift the dry ingredients, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Next, in a large measuring cup add beaten eggs, buttermilk, sugar, lemon zest and melted butter.
Make a hole in the middle of the bowl that the dry ingredients are in. Next, pour the wet ingredients into the hole, gently mixing together. Do not overmix. Muffins are considered quick breads meaning, they come together fairly easily and don’t require a lot of mixing. If you overmix the batter then the muffins will be tough and ingredients won’t be incorporated properly.
As soon as you see the batter coming together, stop mixing. Before folding the blueberries into the batter, lightly toss them with the teaspoon of flour. This will help the blueberries stay equally distributed in the batter.
Now, fold in the blueberries. Scoop the muffin batter into the prepared muffin liners. I used a large ice cream scooper and it worked out perfectly. Top each muffin with several blueberries and a light sprinkling of sugar.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are puffed up and golden brown. Insert a toothpick in the middle of one of the muffins to check for doneness. If some batter is on the toothpick continue baking for another 5 minutes or so until the muffins are done.
Let muffins cool. Serve warm with a pad of butter and a steaming cup of coffee. You can store muffins in an airtight container. They make for an excellent brunch item, a quick grab and go breakfast after noon or late night snack. Enjoy and thank you for stopping by Carita’s Citchen.
Cheers,
Carita