Blueberry Muffins Recipe + Answers to Your FAQs - ZoëBakes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to high muffins? ›

The idea here is to start the muffins in a very hot oven for just a short amount of time. This activates the baking powder and allows the muffins to shoot up in height quickly. We then turn the heat down and continue to cook for longer. This is done to avoid over-browning and overbaking.

If you buy a blueberry muffin at a coffee shop, you'll likely be buying a muffin that weighs 5 ounces, contains 450 calories, and is made with refined flour and lots of added sugar (see for yourself).

Blueberry Baking Chemistry

Blueberries turn greenish-blue in a batter that has too much baking soda (or grey in a smoothie with a lot of dairy), which creates an alkaline environment. That's why mixing a little lemon juice into your batter or smoothie will give you a more vibrant color.

There are a few reasons: Chunky ingredients are denser and usually heavier than the batter—so down they go. The heavier the ingredient, the more it will sink, until you have a nice bottom crust of blueberries instead of evenly distributed, gooey berry goodness.

If there isn't enough egg, your batter or dough may not be able to hold its structure or could end up overly dry or dense. On the other hand, if there is too much egg, your baked goods could lose their shape due to excess liquid, or have a rubbery (or even overly cakey) texture depending on the recipe.

Start the oven on high

Bake your muffins at 400°F for the first 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to the more standard 350°F for the remainder of the bake time. This method sparks the leavening agents (especially baking powder) in the batter to react quicker, creating that gorgeously risen top.

Now muffins aren't all bad. These things are only unhealthy if eaten on a regular basis. If every so often you want a muffin for breakfast or a snack, that's no big deal. When you grab a bakery muffin for breakfast daily, that's when you increase your risk for unwanted weight gain and other health issues.

English muffins tend to be a little healthier than bread since English muffins have less carbohydrates, fats, and sugar than bread. While bread does contain slightly more fat when compared to English muffins, both options have 1 gram or less of total fat.

Whole-Wheat Blueberry Muffins With a Protein-Rich Side. Baked goods like muffins don't have to be off the table if you have diabetes, especially if you whip up a batch of whole-wheat blueberry muffins like these from Vincci Tsui, RDN, who's based in Calgary, Alberta.

But anyone who's ever put frozen blueberries into the mix knows—whether pancake, muffin, or cake batter—even if you go straight from the freezer and they don't thaw, the juice that's collected on the outside of them will immediately turn your batter purplish-blue.

Should I coat blueberries in flour for muffins? ›

Coating the berries with a spoonful of the recipe's dry ingredients prevents sinking. Instead, it helps the berries adhere to the batter, keeping them well distributed throughout the muffin. And if you're using frozen blueberries, the flour will also help minimize how much the berries bleed into the batter.

Take a spoonful of the flour from your recipe and toss the berries quickly and gently, then fold into the batter. That will keep them from bleeding into and falling to the bottom of the muffin/cake/bread. Frozen blueberries, if frozen correctly, actually work better in baked goods than fresh.

If you don't drain them, you'll end up with blue-colored muffins! Also, draining helps keep excess liquid out of the batter.

For an extra boost in rise, you can start baking the muffins at a slightly higher temperature (e.g., 425°F / 220°C) for the first 5 minutes, then reduce it to the recipe-specified temperature. This initial high heat can create a burst of steam and rapid expansion.

According to O. Corriher, the way to get a perfectly puffed up dome on your muffins is to increase your oven heat. She says that 400° should do it, no matter what the recipe says. The higher baking temperature means that the the outside edges of the muffin will set while the middle is still liquidy.

Baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, is a commonly known food additive and baking ingredient. While there are many uses of baking soda, it is commonly found in recipes as a leavening agent to help baked goods rise.

If you're hoping to create extra moist muffins or aren't going to eat them for a while, consider using paper liners instead. Paper liners will help keep the moisture inside of the baked goods, allowing the muffins to remain fresher for longer.