quick breads: crumbly blueberry muffins

on the day we learned the method for making muffins, Chef Kim sat down indian style on top of the long desk at the front of the room, her shiny orange, white and black halloween socks just visible. “i hate white socks,” she said. “i figure my socks are the only place i can go a little crazy with my chef uniform.”

she then explained the difference between quick breads and yeast breads. with quick breads–like muffins, loaf bread and biscuits–the gluten is only slightly developed (hence the importance of not overmixing). “you typically want a tender product as opposed to the chewy texture you get with a yeast bread like a baguette,” she said. yeast breads are known for their large, uneven holes and the cobweb-like appearance of the stretchy, glutenous dough (think ciabatta). muffins, on the other hand, should not look like that on the inside, despite the behemoth, domed and holey sweet cakes you might see labeled as “muffins” in most coffee shops today. proper muffins, according to Chef Kim, are actually fairly small and only slightly rounded on top with uniform, loose and moist crumbs.

this recipe, as most will be from baking and pastry class, was adopted from wayne gisslin’s professional baking.

crumbly blueberry muffins

yield: about 30 4 oz. muffins

2 lb. 8 oz. pastry flour
1 lb. 4 oz. sugar
2.5 oz. baking powder
0.5 oz. salt
12 oz. eggs, beaten
1 lb. 12 oz. milk
1 oz. vanilla extract
1 lb. butter, melted
1 lb. blueberries, well drained (if frozen)

preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. in a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. in a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla and melted butter. note: unlike biscuits, which call for cold fat and liquid, the temperature of the ingredients for muffin mixing method is unimportant because muffins typically call for liquid fat, like melted butter or oil.

add the liquids to the dry ingredients, and mix just until combined. you will find that you have a pretty lumpy batter.

don’t worry; that means you are on the right track. you have not overmixed. next, carefully fold in the blueberries. note: if you dust the blueberries with a little starch (as in, flour or corn starch) before adding them to the batter, there is less of a chance they will bleed into your muffins and tint them blue. using a 2-oz. ice cream scoop, drop two scoops into each of the lined medium-size muffin tins. bake them for 15-20 minutes, until the tops are slightly golden and cracked looking.

i recommend serving them warm with more butter, of course.