This Double Berry Muffin recipe is perhaps my most frequently used recipe. It’s easy, versatile, and provided you don’t forget anything (it can happen to the best of us) they’ll be picture perfect every time.
Double Berry Muffins feature blueberries and cranberries but you can substitute any fruit you wish! The addition of the yogurt makes it moist and lends a slightly sharper flavour with a generous dusting of sugar and nutmeg it is – simply – my favourite muffin. Served me well in my days as an innkeeper at my lovely little Dragonfly Inn, in rural Nova Scotia. Because MAN, the blueberries! Wowsa!
Baking Science For AMAZING Muffins
There are few ‘original’ muffin recipes. Each one is a shade of another and, as a baked item, they’re far from complicated.
There are rules however…
Mix muffins in a metal bowl. It helps the leavening agent to activate.
Mix dry indigents (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt) first, then add your wet ingredients (butter, milk, eggs). This will ensure all the ingredients mix well with little effort.
Mix less. Muffins are not bread, there’s no need to knead, beat or whip them. They prefer a lighter touch. Mix until just moist. It’s not necessary to bash every last lump out of the batter. In fact, you want the batter lumpy.
The best baking tip I’ve ever received: “a lumpy batter makes a smooth cake”. Muffins are essentially small cakes.
“A tender hand makes a tender muffin.” Gosh, that sounds so Zen.
Double Berry Muffins, spiked with liberal amounts of blueberries and cranberries make for muffins that are tender, moist with a sweet-tart taste. Great for breakfast, brunch, snacks and school lunches.
A staple from my days at the Dragonfly Inn on Nova Scotia’s western shores. This Double Berry Muffin recipe became my go-to standard muffin recipe, packed with berries and finished with sugar and spice.
Ingredients
UnitsScale
2cups flour
1/4cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2cup milk
1/2cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
1/4cup butter, melted
1/3cup blueberries
1/3cup cranberries
to finish – coarse sugar & nutmeg
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400° F (205°C). Prep 12- cup muffin tin, greased or lined with paper muffin cups.
In a large bowl add dry ingredients and whisk to combine, add milk, eggs and butter. Mix lightly (fold 3 or 4 times), with batter still slightly dry, then add fruit and fold lightly. DO NOT OVER MIX (this makes for tough muffins).
Fill muffin tins/cups three quarters full. Finish with a sprinkling of coarse sugar & nutmeg for a crisp, sweet muffin top.
Place rack in one notch higher than center in oven. Bake in a preheated 400°F (205°C) oven for up to 20 minutes.
Notes
Modifications: skip the cranberries and double the blueberries and, voila, wicked Blueberry Muffins!
Fearlessly cooking in her home kitchen just outside Ottawa, Canada; Cori Horton is a food photographer, food marketing consultant, recipe developer and sustainability advocate. A Cordon Bleu trained chef, Cori spent five years as the owner of Nova Scotia's Dragonfly Inn and now shares all things delicious - right here.
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