The other day, Millie decided she wanted to bake with me. She looked online and found a recipe for blueberry muffins that looked good, and off we went. (I have to chuckle to myself, because if it had been me, I would have researched for days before finding just the right recipe.) So we made the recipe exactly as written, and the muffins were fantastic! But because I am me, I imagined something a bit more dense and buttery for the cake part, and I wanted a crumb topping. The crumb topping was easy, since I already have a nice crumb topping go-to recipe from my German Style Crumb Cake post. As for the texture of the cake, I decided to use a little bit of almond flour to create the dense but moist texture I was after. Success! If you don’t have the almond flour, and/or don’t want a crumb topping, you can make the original recipe just as is, and you will still love it.

Now, this recipe might seem a bit fussy, because it calls for things like Greek-style yogurt, buttermilk, and now almond flour. But it’s worth it.

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

(Adapted from Broma Bakery’s recipe)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons buttermilk
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Greek-style yogurt (plain)
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1 1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Crumb Topping

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (Gold Medal if you have it**)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted, cold butter, cut into cubes
• pinch kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. To make the crumb topping, put sugar, flour, cold cubed butter, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla into the bowl of your stand mixer.
2. Using the paddle attachment, beat on low speed until topping resembles sand or crumbs, with some larger clumps. Clumps should come together when pinched with your fingers. Do not cream!!! If you prefer to do this by hand, use a pastry blender to blend the ingredients. If you see some chunks of butter that have not blended in, use your fingers to blend it in.
3. Put crumb topping into a different bowl and place in fridge. Now wash your stand mixer bowl (sorry!) because you’ll need it.
4. Preheat oven to 425°.
5. Grease 12 muffin tins, including a bit of the top of the pan around the individual tins, and line with cupcake liners and set aside.
6. In your stand mixer bowl, combine the melted butter and granulated sugar, beating until combined. Add the eggs in one at a time. Add the buttermilk, greek yogurt, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
7. Add flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed just until batter begins to come together (not fully incorporated). Toss the blueberries with the additional one Tablespoon of flour. Fold the blueberries into the batter, mixing only until combined – don’t over mix!!! Batter will be thick.
8. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins. I like to use a large cookie scoop for this; my cookie scoop measure just under 1/4 cup. Level the batter in the scoop by pressing along side of the bowl before putting in muffin tins so that there is plenty of room for the crumb topping. If you end up with extra batter, just distribute it equally among the 12 muffins.
9. Sprinkle tops with crumb topping. Really pile it on there. If you have extra you can save it in an airtight container in your fridge for the next time you need crumb topping***.
10. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, then turn oven down to 375°F and bake for an additional 15 minutes, until muffins are golden brown and spring back to the touch. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before eating!

Notes:

*Here is a quick way to get your eggs to room temperature: place eggs in bowl of tepid water and let sit for 5 minutes. You just want to take the chill off of the eggs. Done!

**Your crumb topping will be more tender if you use a low protein flour, such as Gold Medal. But whatever all-purpose you have will be fine.

***You might want to make a larger quantity of crumb topping (that’s what I do), and then store it in your fridge in an airtight container for future use. It will last for about a month.

P.s. Sorry I don’t have more pictures. These are so good that I just wanted to post right away.