Blueberry “Donut” Muffins
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Here you’ll find easy-peasy sweet and savory treats (thanks to my new cookbook Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes) These are recipes with pantry-friendly ingredients and short instructions, that can be assembled in 20 minutes or less, with nothing more than a bowl, a whisk and a spatula.
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Now let’s get snackable.
Happy June, peeps. Hope you are lucky enough to live in a spot that has not been super rainy or cold these past few weeks. I am not so lucky. But whatevs: I’m still feeling springy (at least most of the time). I have 100% underestimated how stressful moving out of homes, moving into apartments and graduating children can be. As I alluded to last month, when all of these momentous happenings were occurring in real time, I was fine. But once the heavy lifting ended (both figuratively and literally) I felt slightly out of sorts. So bottom line, I wouldn’t say I’ve been feeling *springy* consistently since last we lettered, but I am now.
Oh, and I did win a little ole award, a *Power* award, as it were, from Cherry Bombe since last we spoke. Cherry Bombe celebrated their 100 awardees at a really fun event (dinner, drinks, Ina Garten’s coconut cupcakes (and Ina was IN the house, I might add - the whole 9-yards). I spent most of the evening with my pal Clare, and Cherry Bombe sat us together (yay). Sometimes events such as these can be a little overwhelming for the extroverted introverts in the room (that would be me) and I was grateful to have a pal to chill with for most of the night.
Alrighty, enough about awards and social anxiety, I want to tell you about this month’s recipe! It is a recipe for a classic (and wildly delicious - and easy) blueberry muffin that gets the donut treatment. How, you might ask, does a muffin get turned into a donut? Well, once baked, you brush said muffin in melted butter and roll it in granulated sugar and voila: it’s blueberry donut time. This is a technique that I have used countless times. I turned nutmeg-flavored mini muffins (think *munchkins*) into donuts here. And I made mini chocolate ones here. I made pumpkin donut holes with cinnamon sugar here, and maple pecan donut holes here. The holes thing is definitely a pattern, but I’ve broken it with these blueberry cuties, as these donuts are made from standard sized muffins.
The recipe for the blueberry muffin originally appeared in my third book, Snackable Bakes, but this donut treatment is brand new. Again, they couldn’t be easier to prepare as the muffins are one-bowl and call for oil and you whip them up in, I don’t know, five minutes, tops? I like to brush the muffins with the melted butter when they are still warm - for the best buttery-absorption - but you could also probably wait til they were room temp. I recommend sprinkling the granulated sugar over them, rather than rolling them in it, for more even distribution . . . you can actually watch me make them here.
So, the recipe is below, but before you peruse it, I did want to shout out a couple of the latest episodes that have recently dropped for my Cherry Bombe baking podcast, She’s My Cherry Pie. I recorded (for a second time) with the amazing Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery + Cafe, who I just couldn't adore more. We talked all about Joanne’s baking journey, with a special focus on her childhood, one spent not eating sweets but loving them so much from afar! You can listen to our chat here. I also chatted with my first baking boss, Renato Poliafito recently. Nato hired me about 18 years ago when I knew absolutely nothing about baking - save for the fact that I loved eating baked goods and had a voracious sweet tooth. Loved chatting about his new book with him, Dolci (now it’s a year old - but still new-ish) and his Spumoni Loaf from the book, amongst other baking-related things. You can listen to my chat with Nato here. Finally, I chatted with Susie Sarich, of Susie Cakes, a bakery empire in California, and elsewhere, all about her bakeries, her baking and bakery inspiration (aka her grandmothers - who lived across the street from each other when she was growing up) and her bakery’s best-selling celebration cake (essentially a funfetti cake with blue buttercream frosting). You can listen here. Also, fun fact: Cherry Bombe (who produces my baking podcast) moved their weekly email baking newsletter over to Substack! The letter is always full of info about the pod, and I highly recommend subscribing. You can do so here.
And now it’s . . . Blueberry “Donut” Muffin time! Everyone appreciates (or at least everyone with whom I hang) a classic fluffy and tender blueberry muffin and if it’s brushed with melted butter and coated in granulated sugar (aka given the “donut” treatment”), well then, all the better. You can totes use frozen berries here, but they may bleed a little and turn your muffins green(ish). To avoid this, rinse the berries till the water runs clean and then dry them before using. Yes, this is a tiny bit fussy, but only a teeny tiny bit . . .
Makes 15 muffins
Active time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 25 to 30 minutes
For the muffins:
1/3 cup (67 grams) vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups (267 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
½ cup (113 grams) buttermilk
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups (260 g) all-purpose flour
2 cups (280 g) blueberries, fresh or frozen
For the “donut” treatment:
½ cup (113 grams unsalted butter, melted
1 ½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
Instructions
Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners
To make the muffins, whisk the oil, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl for 30 seconds. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, and then the buttermilk. Sprinkle the baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl, one at a time, whisking vigorously after each. Gently fold in the flour just until a few streaks of flour remain. Fold in the blueberries. Don’t overmix.
Fill each muffin cup about ¾ full, using a spoon or a ¼-cup ice cream scoop. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. At the halfway point, lower the oven temperature to 350°F and rotate the tin. The muffins are done when a wooden skewer inserted in the center of one comes out with only a moist crumb or two and the crumb is just starting to brown. Repeat with the remaining batter and streusel, rinsing the pan in cold water to cool it, drying, and re-lining it between rounds.
Once cool enough to handle, remove the muffins from the tin and give them the donut treatment.
Place the melted butter in a small bowl and pour the sugar into a small, shallow-ish bowl. Brush each muffin with the butter and dunk in the sugar. Place on a cooling rack to set briefly. Serve warm or at room temperature. Keep the muffins in an airtight container on the counter for up to three days.
Alrighty, I hope you whip up a batch of these before we chat next in July - and you can 100% sub a different berry for these - like strawberries or blackberries or raspberries . . . depending on what is available to you seasonally-speaking. Or use frozen, and go to town with whatever floats your boat. See you next month!
P.S. Speaking of easy-peasy bakes…
❤️ Meet my new cookbook Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes
It’s filled with easy-peasy crackers, quick breads, hand-pies, brunch, lunch and dinner items and my viral magic melted pie dough.
Order on: Amazon | Oblong Books | Kitchen Arts & Letters | Bookshop
And if you have already ordered a copy, thank you!!! I would be so terrifically grateful if you would leave a review on Amazon, here. Even if you did not buy the book on Amazon, you can still leave a review and it really helps the book get into lots of people’s hands.