These are one of my favorites!

A classic blueberry muffin with a little extra zing!

Straight out of Baking Illustrated (my baking bible), these muffins are light & flavorful.  Unlike those banana blueberry muffins, this recipe calls for plenty of dry ingredients (2 c. of flour) so there is a good, firm cake to balance the gushiness of the plump, fresh berries.  The real zing comes from the sour cream, which helps keep the cake light and moist (but not too moist), while adding a little bit of tanginess to complement the berries.  The result is a fluffy muffin with a subtle, yet complex flavor.  I love them.  And they always seem to win.

My only trouble this time around was some uneven cooking in my 12-muffin, aluminum pan.  I didn’t opt for paper liners this time. So when I inverted my muffin tin some of the muffins popped easily out, nicely brown all around the base, while others needed a little more coaxing and were less golden (although not under-cooked).  I suppose I should have popped the muffin tin back into the oven to give those muffins that didn’t easily slide out a few extra minutes of bake time, but that didn’t occur to me until after I’d spent much effort coaxing them all out.  Even still, the muffin that I tested was one of these less golden, pan lingerers — and it was wonderful.

The next time (or few times) I make these, I might try out some changes to cut calories and/or add some subtle flavors:  using plain yogurt instead of sour cream, trying a whole wheat/white flour blend, and/or adding some orange or lemon zest.  I probably won’t revisit these again for a few weeks, but I’m looking forward to it already.