Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins

Hey folks, I hope you had a great weekend! I was able to unplug from the interwebs and enjoyed a relaxing day at the lake with the husband on Saturday. And on Sunday I ventured to the Great NY State Fair with my sister-in-law, her 12-year old daughter and a friend. We had a great time and may have spent way too many hours there that my feet still hurt.

On the blog front, things have been clearly slow. I have not moved yet thanks to one big unforeseen complication that has delayed the process and we are playing the waiting game. Let me explain. When I bought my domain name (blahnikbaker.com) I did it through Google who registered it with GoDaddy.com. This was eight months ago. So when the move was being talked about a few weeks ago, I told Jessica (the website designer) that I have a registered domain already and it is through Godaddy. Based on that, she scheduled the move to happen over the weekend, needing only two days to have everything taken care of and I would be up and running by Monday with a new design.

But of course that didn't happen, we didn't even get to start the move. Apparently the first step of these things is to transfer your domain name to your new host. Well turns out Google had switched my registration from Godaddy to some other company that is the slowest in the world in giving you the information you need to move your domain name. It's not available on their website and you have to contact their mighty slow customer service and wait for an approval to transfer your domain registration which will take up to 5-7 business days. So here we are still waiting on them.  

Lesson learned: Research domain registrations before taking the plunge. If you have already taken the plunge, reassess the next time you are up for renewal. People seem to love Godaddy, and I would suggest you register your domain yourself with them and not go through Google or anyone else that might complicate your life in the future. If you would like to know where not to register your domain, email me.

End of rant!

With that, there are these brown butter blueberry muffins we must attend to! By now you should know my love for brown butter (you don't?? I thought we were friends. See here and here). As we are saying goodbye to August and the last week of summer, fresh berries at the farmers market will be a thing of the past soon. So here is to enjoying blueberries before they are out of season! These brown butter muffins are a great morning pick-me-upper and an easy to-go breakfast. They are moist and as always the brown butter provides a deep flavor and aroma that only enhances the taste buds. If you are one of those that dislike blueberries, then make these muffins with your favorite berry. Just hurry before the berries go!

Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins
Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
For topping:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with liners.
To brown butter: In a small saucepan set over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk butter constantly and cook down until brown bits appear in the pan. Remove from heat.
In a small bowl, combine milk, egg, yolk and vanilla extract. Add the brown butter and whisk to combine.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add wet ingredients all at once and stir gently to combine. Fold in the blueberries. Be careful not to over-mix.
Divide the batter equally among the prepared muffin cups.
Make topping by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl. Rub together until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let muffins cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing from pan. Serve warm.

Raspberry Lemonade Muffins

One of my favorite things about summer is the vast amount of fresh fruits especially berries in season and my breakfasts definitely reflect this. I usually have a bowl of mixed berries with yogurt but when I want to spice things up a little (aka I have a little bit of time on Sunday and I'm bored) I whip up some muffins for an easy grab-and-go breakfast. And lately I've been all about fresh fruits in my baked goods (blueberry bundt cake and strawberry cupcake). 

These raspberry lemonade muffins are no exception. They have a good dose of fresh raspberry and lemon making them tangy and perfect for summer or spring since that was when I first made them. 

I've been holding out on you on this one. This is the third time I've made them in the past three months. In my defense, the first time wasn't a planned blog post, just a simple muffin for breakfast. But they were so moist and I loved the raspberry lemonade combination very much that I decided to remake them a few weeks later to share with you guys. Never got around to the pictures because half of the jumbo muffins disappeared in a day (Mr J. is slowly learning that he can't just eat everything on the counter). Luckily third time was the charm and they were just as amazing as the first time.



A moist muffin with two of my favorite summer flavors; it's a win-win situation here! You can substitute your favorite berries (strawberries, blueberries or even blackberries) to satisfy your craving. I hope you can find time this summer to whip up these muffins. You won't regret it!!

Raspberry Lemonade Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Adapted slightly from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients

¼ cup butter, room temperature

¼ cup plain Greek yogurt

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon lemon zest (about 2 lemons)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh raspberries

For crumb topping:

¼ cup flour

2 tablespoons butter, cold

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with liners.

In a large bowl, combine butter, yogurt and sugar and beat for one minute until combined. Add in eggs, one at a time and beat to combine. Add milk, zest, lemon juice and vanilla and continue beating for another minute.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the wet ingredients in three separate batches, mixing each time until well combined. Fold in the raspberries by hand using a rubber spatula.

Divide the batter evenly into the prepared muffin tin cups, filling each ¾ of the way. To make crumb topping, mix crumb ingredients in a small bowl and work the butter into the mixture with your hands until it is crumbly. Sprinkle on top of muffins.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in muffin tin completely.

Enjoy!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

It's June already. Can you believe it? Where has 2013 gone?? Are you ready for the summer? I have several trips planned for the upcoming months, including first-time trips to Atlantic City and Boston! I am also in a wedding this August and it's my first time being a bridesmaid! I am pretty excited about it :). Although after 'torturing' my 8 bridesmaids for my recent wedding, I am a little scared lol. Next weekend is the bridal shower and I am doing a dessert table with a surprise theme. Stay tuned for that excitement!!

In line with the warming weather, I made these lemon poppy seed muffins to add some zest to my breakfast. They are quick and easy to whip up with a whole lot of flavor.  Each muffin is fluffy, a little crunchy and plenty lemon-y and will satisfy your lemon craving at any time of the day.

Banana Coconut Macadamia Muffins

I'm not a big fan of breakfast. For a long time, I skipped it and went right to lunch...yeah those were my college days lol! But since I started baking, I am back on the breakfast bandwagon, thanks to the discovery of how easy muffins are to make.

These days I make muffins at least once every other week. They are just so easy to whip up and I always use random ingredients lying around the kitchen.

For these, I used two bananas that were going bad, left over coconut shavings from this project and some macadamia nuts from these cookies. 

Mash the bananas, whisk in egg, oil, vanilla bean and coconut. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees and viola breakfast for an entire week!

They make for a great mid afternoon tea snack too :)