June = blackberries in Florida

The wild blackberry bushes that grow around our property are scraggly, thorny little unfriendly things for most of the year, but in May we always get excited to see them begin to decorate themselves with little green, tight clusters of would-be berries.

Come June, most afternoons are scattered with thunderstorms. In the undulating frenzy of heat, light and water, the berries turn from sour red to deep, sweet purple.

On these hot afternoons, it is likely enough to find three red faced, sweaty little children in the kitchen presenting their hard-won bounty of blackberries.

It is a deposit which must be returned with interest.

Of course, the berries are perfect as they are: fresh and raw, and those who gather enjoy the perks. But isn’t everything made better with butter?

(It’s a rhetorical question.)

muffins make people happy

What I love about these muffins is the balance and the texture. I can’t get too excited about an overly sweet anything, but an unsweetened muffin belongs … I don’t know,  in purgatory?

These blackberry lemon muffins are balanced and dynamic. Sourdough discard and sour cream bring depth of flavor and keep them wonderfully tender, while acting as the perfect counter-part to the sweet, crunchy, sugary streusel. Then there’s the burst of berry and citrus. Each bite is tangy and bright, sour and sweet, warm and soft, velvety and buttery!

FMWW

If you’re familiar with cooking with your own freshly milled whole wheat, you know it behaves a little differently. It has more complex flavors, is always thirsty and each variety of wheat gives a different “crumb” or texture.

In this recipe (and most other “quick breads”) I use a 1:1 combination of soft white wheat (which is a low gluten, light flour but can be dry) and Khorasan (which is nutty in flavor and moist to the point of lacking structure). Combining them brings out the best of both breeds, resulting in a nutty, loamy goodness.

To be honest, I haven’t tried these muffins with conventional flour. When I do I’ll update this post with my findings. But I can hypothesize that using a cake flour or an all-purpose would be ideal and I would use slightly more than is called for in the FMWW version (because FMWW requires more moisture than conventional flour). I would go with 160g or about 1 1/2 cups of an all-purpose flour.

work backwards

The best place to start is at the end. The last thing you’ll want to do is bake, so first, preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit.

as promised, the streusel

Next make your streusel. Why? Because you need cold butter and lemon zest. And soon you’ll need lemon juice, and if you have a choice, juicing a zested lemon is more fun that zesting a juiced lemon. Trust me.

I use my zester to zest the lemon, obviously, AND to grate the cold butter AND later to strain out the lemon seeds, super handy!

Just mix up the streusel and set it in the fridge for now.

Note: Turbinado sugar makes all the difference!

mill + stir

Now is a good time to get your flour milled and the dry ingredients added to it. Be sure to give it a quick stir so everything is evenly distributed.

cream for texture

The order of these steps is crucial for the resulting texture of your muffins.

You’ll want to “cream” your softened butter and sugar together… which basically means it’s whipped beyond recognition into a light and airy, granulated cloud of fat.

Add in your eggs and the other wet ingredients.

Be sure these are all entirely and evenly mixed together before proceeding, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. It’s important to do this now because at this point you can mix and stir all you want, but once the dry ingredients are added, you must work tenderly and minimally. (Why? Because working flour with moisture develops gluten, and gluten makes things dense and chewy. Awesome for pizza. Sad for muffins.)

When you feel that the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and zest, sourdough and sour cream have become a fragrant and airy batter, it is time to add in the flour mixture a little at the time – GENTLY AND SLOWLY – as if it might explode. As soon as it has come together, stop. Fold in your berries with motherly tenderness.

Spoon the batter into a lined muffin pan and top with the streusel mixture. Just use your hands for that, there’s no need to overcomplicate things.

Bake at 350° for twenty minutes and test doneness by inserting a fork *not through the topping or else you’ll get a false reading*. They should be perfect somewhere between 20 to 25 minutes, depending on your oven.

Pour yourself a tall glass of cold milk and struggle to eat your muffin while it’s piping hot and falling apart in your hands. Share with others.

-Courtney

Blueberry Muffins Made With Freshly Milled Flour

These soft, tender, dainty blueberry muffins are made from freshly milled whole wheat flour and finished with a lemon zest streusel. Sourdough discard and sour cream bring depth of flavor and keep them wonderfully tender, while acting as the perfect counter-part to the sweet, crunchy, sugary streusel. Then there’s the burst of berry and citrus. Each bite is tangy and bright, sour and sweet, warm and soft, velvety and buttery!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Servings: 5

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

In your stand mixer, cream together:

• 8 tbsp softened butter (4 ounces or one stick)
• 3/4 cup sugar ("sugar in the raw" is my favorite)

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients:

• 160 grams (or 1 1/3 cup) freshly milled flour: half soft white, half khorasan or kamut if available (see post if using conventional flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Remaining Ingredients for batter:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4-1/3 cup sourdough discard optional
• juice from 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 1/2 blueberries, fresh or frozen more or less

Streusel Topping Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
• 2 tbsp flour (any kind)
• 2 tbsp cold butter, shredded
• zest of one lemon

Method

 

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F so it’s ready when you are.
2. Measure 160 grams of wheat berries and mill, or measure out about 1 1/3 cup of milled grain if you do not have a scale. Alternately, measure160 grams of conventional flour (about 1 1/2 cup) into a large bowl.
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a large bowl with traditional beaters, cream the softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Meanwhile, make the streusel topping so that the lemon can be zested before it will need to be cut and squeezed later.
5. Simply combine 2 tbsp of cold, shredded butter, the zest of 1 lemon, 2 tbsp of flour (any kind) and 4 tbsp of turbinado sugar in a small bowl, stirring and pressing with a fork until it looks a bit like sand and pebbles, then set back in the fridge until needed.
6. Once the butter and sugar have whipped together in the standing mixer, add two eggs and mix them in well. Follow up with 1/2 cup of sour cream, the juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sour dough discard, if using. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
7. Reduce the speed to low – or simply mix by hand a this point – and add in the flour mixture a little at the time, stirring only as much as is necessary.
8. Gently fold in 1 to 2 cups of berries with a spatula while scraping down the sides of the bowl.
9. Drop equal sized portions of batter into a lined muffin pan. The batter will be thick. This is typically enough to make one dozen standard sized muffins.
10. Do your best to equally distribute your streusel topping onto each of the muffins. Save yourself the frustration and just use your fingers.
11. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes. It might be a good idea to check at 20 minutes, inserting a fork to see if it comes out clean. (Be sure to insert your fork on the side though, not through the streusel topping, as it will stick to the fork and give you an “inaccurate reading”).
12. Pour a glass of milk and enjoy!