My friend Stephanie is what I’d call an enthusiastic intermittent baker–that is to say inspired intermittently to fire up her oven…usually immediately after she’s watched a cooking and/or food competition show…or seen one of my IG food pics…or merely hungry for a particular baked good. Regardless of the impetus, Stephanie likes to just dive in, frequently without much of a game plan. She’ll text me for tips or instructions, though I think mostly for encouragement because, more often than not, she’s either already elbows deep into a baking project before she’s realized that perhaps she should’ve reached out to me sooner…or she’s forgotten my advice from an earlier conversation on the subject.
A couple weekends ago, after I’d posted a pic of homemade bagels on Instagram, Stephanie texted that she was now craving bagels and wanted to try baking a batch. I explained they were best made over a 12 hour period. Start the dough one day, prove it, let the formed bagels rest overnight in the fridge, then boil and bake them off the following morning. Simple. Well, maybe not. I hadn’t provided Steph with a specific recipe, assuming she’d probably Google one–my bad. When she texted me again, Steph had somehow skipped over forming the bagels after the first prove and merely chucked the whole risen mass in the fridge. “So, now what should I do?” she asked slightly alarmed. I reassured her that the dough was fine, her bagels salvageable. She just needed to form them, let them rest for a little bit to relax the glutens, then boil and bake. Steph didn’t send me a pic of the final product but assured me they were still delicious, even if they were a little flatter than desired. Lesson learned…I guess?
Today, Steph texted that she made muffins, admitting to having basically winged it or in her words “ignored my better judgement” and now “have mounds of muffin” that “taste and look like those vegan or healthy snack things people bake and I roll my eyes.” Oh dear. I suppose this is her way of telling me I need to post a good base recipe she could follow and not mess up. To her credit, when she does put her mind to it and focuses on following directions Steph is an okay baker. The problem is she’s impatient…really impatient…especially when she’s ravenous and wants to satisfy her craving NOW! This, unfortunately, is a recipe for (baking) disaster. I know because at times I’m guilty of this too. Although normally when I screw up, I can figure out a way to either mitigate the situation or repurpose my fail into something tasty.
For hungry, impatient bakers like Steph, the best safety net is an arsenal of easy to follow, go-to base recipes she can modify with ingredients she has on hand–like the muffin recipe I adapted from the now defunct, famous Boston department store Jordan Marsh. The recipe for the original beloved blueberry muffin is a bit on the sweet side, more anytime snacky dessert treat than a breakfast item–not necessarily a bad thing.
My personal preference is for a slightly less sweet muffin. However, I loved the fluffy, tender, moist, almost cake-like texture of the muffin itself and I didn’t want to lose it by reducing the sugar too much. Consequently, I decided to only reduce the sugar by 1/4 c., which was enough to subdue the sweetness a bit. I also added about a tablespoon of oil (I used a light olive oil) to promote moisture retention. Since I wanted to use up the cultured buttermilk languishing in my fridge, I subbed it out for whole milk in the recipe, which then necessitated a tiny amount (1/8 t.) of baking soda to offset the buttermilk’s acidity. The buttermilk imparted such a lovely subtle tang to the muffin I’d definitely make it a permanent swap–even if I had to resort to “making” buttermilk by adding some lemon juice or white vinegar to whole milk…or thinning out plain full fat yogurt.
I didn’t have blueberries (not on sale), but I did have raspberries and blackberries so I tossed them in a tablespoon of cornstarch to keep them suspended in the batter. This is trick for any mix-ins. Coat the pieces in either flour or cornstarch. The Jordan Marsh recipe instructs you to take 1/2 c. of blueberries and mash them up, which flavors the batter with streaks of blueberry juice and pulp. You can do this with other fruit. You can also add any spices or flavorings to compliment said fruit. For the raspberries and blackberries, I added 1/2 t. almond extract and 2 t. orange zest in addition to vanilla extract. The final flourish is to sprinkle some turbinado or coarse sugar on top just before baking.
If you want more texture, try sprinkling on some streusel, granola, or plain oats. Another “power combo” could be chopped pineapple, rum-flavored batter topped with flaked coconut. Start with the base recipe…then let your creativity flow.
Buttermilk Berry Muffins (a la Jordan Marsh)
Yield: 12 muffins
- 4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 c. sugar
- 1/2 t. sea salt
- 1 T. neutral oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 t. vanilla extact
- 1/2 t. almond extract
- 2 t. citrus zest, optional
- 2 c. all-purpose flour
- 2 t. baking powder
- 1/8 t. baking soda
- 1/2 c. buttermilk
- 2 c. fresh or (partially) frozen mixed berries
- 1 T. cornstarch (or flour)
- coarse or turbinado sugar
- Preheat oven to 375F degrees and line muffin pan with 12 paper cups.
- Mash 1/2 c. berries and reserve.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder and soda; set aside.
- Cream butter, sugar, salt, and oil until very light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in flavoring.
- Mix in reserved flour alternately with buttermilk (ending with flour) until just barely incorporated. Stir in mashed berries.
- Toss the remaining berries in cornstarch to coat, then gently fold into batter.
- Sprinkle tops with coarse sugar.
- Bake muffins for about 30 mins. or until tested done with a skewer.
- Cool muffin pan on a rack for 10 mins. before removing muffins.