Blueberry Muffins (Bouchon)

I’m about halfway through all the muffin recipes in Bouchon Bakery, and finally got around to making one of my favourite varieties, blueberry.

The recipe is straightforward, and incorporates molasses, honey and granulated sugar as sweeteners. Watch out for the divided quantities of all-purpose flour in the recipe! The first amount is for tossing into the frozen blueberries, the second is for the batter. I didn’t discover my mistake of omitting the second amount, until my wife reported a strange, bubbling mess baking in the jumbo tins. Needless to say, these went straight to the compost bin.

The overnight refrigerated rest turned this smooth batter into a thick, stiff mixture. Despite the floured, frozen blueberries coming straight out of the freezer, it was difficult to incorporate the fruit without crushing them and staining the batter. In the future, I would let the batter warm for an hour or so.

I needed a full hour of baking time, 15 minutes more than the listed upper range. These muffins were very tender, and very full of blueberries. Next time, I’ll try topping them with almond streusel (I used leftover oat streusel from the carrot muffins).