Part of the fun in forming friendships is finding the similarities & differences you share with someone else. There’s nothing like an opportunity to tell your stories and parts of who you are to fresh ears. When we were about a year into our friendship and still learning about each other’s lives, I remember walking down the street with Joy, telling her about my husband and his silly antics. Casey has a love for blueberry muffins like no one else and in the late 90s he created a little website for himself where he could track the best blueberry muffins around his office in downtown San Francisco. I happened to find it utterly charming and I could see that Joy respected his dedication. During that walk, Joy shared that she was working on a recipe for blueberry muffins in her cookbook that Casey would no doubt love.
Fast forward a few years later and now said cookbook is in my hands with her personal purple sharpie notes all over it. I felt somewhat paralyzed by it all. Where do I even begin?! Her friendship is so very dear to me and her cookbook has genuinely blown me away. I’m not saying this because we’re great friends; I have honestly never had a cookbook in my possession that has made me want to rush into my kitchen and try EVERY single recipe. So when I say I was paralyzed, I honestly didn’t know where to start. Which recipe first?!
I looked at her notes in the book and then found myself staring down this brown butter blueberry muffin recipe. Of course she had me at brown butter but then the memory of our conversation popped into my head. This is the killer blueberry muffin recipe! DUDE. I saw it on her website but now it’s in print! And it’s resting on my kitchen counter!
She wasn’t kidding; even the muffin batter was insane (it tasted like caramel!). Twelve super moist (she hates that word) muffins LOADED with blueberries and speckled with a buttery crumb topping. Tracy Shutterbean & Casey approved!
Joy! Thank you for sharing your talents with me, my family and the WORLD. You’ve challenged me to see things differently. You have opened my mind up to crazy wacky pattern combos, you’ve turned me into a girl that paints her nails every week, you’ve made a bourbon lover out of me, you’ve shown me that hard work eventually pays off and you’ve also helped me find my inner Oprah voice that shouts “YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT TO DO!” I’m so happy the rest of the world can see how truly talented & hard working you are. I’m so dang proud of you, friend!
One more thing! So of coooooourse I pre-ordered The Joy the Baker Cookbook a LOOONG time ago. It arrived today!
I’d love to give you one of my copies. So if you’d like a chance to win, leave a comment below! You’ll be magically entered. If you already bought the cookbook, hooray! I’m pretty sure one of your friends would love a copy.
I’ll pick a winner at random on Friday, March 2nd.
***GIVEAWAY ENDED. THANK YOU FOR ENTERING!!***
And we’re off!
Get out your ingredients. Get out your Joy the Baker Cookbook!
I used salted butter in this recipe. Joy would totally not approve. 🙂
Butter gets browned.
Egg & egg yolk goes into a bowl with milk & vanilla.
Butter gets melted.
Soon it becomes brown butter! Let it cool.
Get our your dry & ingredients. Mix it up!
Topping time! We’re thinking ahead.
Topping is done! I totally got butter on her cookbook. It has been baptized with God’s Gold!
Cooled brown butter goes into the milk/egg/vanilla mixture.
Dry goes into wet.
Blueberry get folded in.
Batter gets scooped out into a paper lined muffin tin.
Topping on top! Off to bake…
And HELLO!! Look at what we have here!
One by one…
They disappear…
Best blueberry muffin recipe. Ever!
Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins
makes 12 muffins
(recipe from the Joy the Baker Cookbook!)
For the muffins:
- 7 tablespoons butter (I used salted haha!)
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoons salt (don’t use if using salted butter)
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
For the topping:
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Place the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Set aside.
To make the muffins, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on the butter. It will melt, froth and begin to crackle. That’s the water cooking out of the butter. The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly. Remove from heat when butter solids become a medium brown color and butter smells slightly nutty. Immediately pour hot putter into a small bowl or it will continue to cook and possibly burn in the hot saucepan. (I put my pan on a cool marble surface to cool off).
Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined. Add brown butter and whisk to combine.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt (if using) in a medium bowl. Add the milk mixture all at once to the flour mixture and stir gently to combine. Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
To make the topping: combine all the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with clean fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle topping evenly over the muffin batter in cups.
Bake 18-20 minutes until golden and crisp and a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in the pan for 15 minutes before removing. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Muffins will last, at room temperature in an airtight container, for up to 3 days. Joy likes them best the day they’re made.
