Skip to main content
Dessert

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry muffins are a quick baked treat made with blueberries, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, butter, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Blueberry Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and grease a muffin tin.

  2. In a bowl, combine 1 cup of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  3. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, and egg.

  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

  5. Gently fold in the blueberries that have been dredged with 2 tablespoons of flour.

Bake

  1. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full.

  2. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the muffin crumb as the batter bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness and structure to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the muffins rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes flavor.
Milk
Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the muffins brown lightly at the surface.

The step that matters

Folding in the blueberries. Overmixing once the wet and dry ingredients meet develops gluten, making the muffins tough. Mixing only until just combined keeps the crumb tender. Dredging the blueberries in flour helps them stay suspended rather than sinking to the bottom.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes