Recipe Review/Remodel: Mix-In Muffins

I found this recipe years ago on the food network website.  I tried to look it up recently, and couldn't find it.  I'm pretty sure it was credited to "Food Network Kitchens" as the author, so I don't feel as bad about posting it here.  I have made these many times and the only thing I changed was to add an extra 1/4 cup sugar.  They needed to be a little sweeter, especially when you're making them with just blueberries.  Oh, actually I also doubled the amount of "mixins."  I like my baked goods to be chock full of blueberries, chocolate chips, etc.  These muffins bake up light and fluffy and for a long time they were the only way my sweet Gigi would eat a blueberry (now she will also drink smoothies).

Mix-In Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups “mixins” (in this case, 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup strawberries)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Wash and dry blueberries and strawberries.  If I am making just blueberry muffins I typically use a whole container of this size (a pint?).

I wash my blueberries with soap and water using one of these mesh sieves.  I have noticed it takes that powdery look off of the blueberries and makes them pretty and shiny.



















 See how pretty they are now?




Measure out one cup.  



Chop strawberries into approximately blueberry-sized pieces.





Measure out one cup.

I made the muffins on Sunday morning so they would be hot and fresh out of the oven.  So I washed and stored my fruit the night before.  That is why the rest of the pictures will be dark and not very good--because I was making them at 6:30am!



Look who came to help in the kitchen!



 In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk together. 

 

 

 




In a medium bowl melt butter and whisk together with sour cream first.  




Then add egg (after the sour cream has cooled the butter down so you don't cook your egg) and vanilla. 

 

Stir butter mixture into flour mixture until just combined.  Don't stir too much or too vigorously, or your muffins won't be light and fluffy.




This batter is thick and will not run easily like other muffin batters.  

 

Then add “mixins,” see note* below.  




Divide the batter among muffin cups, filling each about 1/2 full.  

 

 

A heaping scoop from a soup spoon is the perfect size.





Bake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, 18-20 minutes for regular size muffins, 15 minutes for mini-muffins.

*Flavor the basic muffin batter below by adding, for example: 2 cup fresh blueberries; 1 chopped banana and 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips; or 1 cup toasted almonds, 1 cup dried cranberries, and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract; or 1 cup chopped drained canned pineapple and 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut.

1 batch = about 24 muffins; 36 mini-muffins

Yummy!