We recently had a boy with a birthday here and he didn’t have a special request for his birthday breakfast.  That is, until I mentioned that I could make blueberry muffins.  That sounded good to him.

I’m not a great planner, ingredients-wise, though, and so many of the recipes that I have wouldn’t work considering the bare nature of the cupboard.

Then I remembered this one.

It’s a keeper.

Originally, it is from Joy the Baker.  It is in her cookbook, too, I think.  I got it from Shutterbean, though.

I’m going to reprint the recipe with my modifications here.  The only other note that I want to make, besides extolling the yumminess of this here muffin, is to say that these took longer to bake than the recipe says.  Not critical info, to be sure, but nice to know, none the less.

For the muffins:

• 7 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons salt (don’t use if using salted butter)
• 2 cups frozen 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 butter into a small heat-proof bowl. Let the butter cool for a bit because you’re going to be combining it with the egg/egg yolk and don’t want heat from the butter to cook the egg.