I love Ina Garten and her Barefoot Contessa cookbooks: fresh, well-tested recipes that really work. This one is adapted from Barefoot Contessa Family Style. The original recipe is also available on foodnetwork.com.
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt (or 1 1/4 cup plain yogurt and skip the milk)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt (skip if using salted butter)
- 2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper liners.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Add the vanilla, sour cream or yogurt, and milk (unless using plain yogurt; see recipe note above).
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the batter in batches (approximately 1/3 at a time) and beat until just mixed.
- Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full for small muffins (flat top), or up to the top for large muffins with a domed top. Sprinkle coarse sugar on top if desired.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.
Ina makes 16 large muffins. I make about 20 modest regular-size muffins and 24 mini muffins.
Notes
- If using frozen blueberries, don’t measure them out until you need them – the more they thaw, the more they bleed indigo juices into the batter.
- Lemon zest is also a really nice addition – mix in with the wet ingredients.
- Do use muffin liners – it’s very hard to get these muffins out of the pans intact without them.
Here’s a link back to the post and pictures.
