Do you remember 1997? Allow yourself a moment to think back. I was a newlywed, no kids, no real responsibilities, well unless you count our dedication to sample every happy hour in town at least three or four times. We professed to be suffering from Margarita-itis. We came home too late, too full and too happy. We watched sitcoms. We watched Seinfeld. Everyone watched Seinfeld. Think Seinfeld… then read on…
Jason’s closest childhood friend and the best man at our wedding comes to visit every year with his wife and their two boys (actually it’s a new tradition, one we hope will live on for years).
So the other day when Taylor picked some lemons off our lemon trees and brought them in for me I decided muffins where in order for our guests. And not just any muffins, but obscenely voluptuous and sexy muffin-top muffins.
Enter Seinfeld… Do you remember that episode? The one with the muffin tops? These are the muffins that Mr. Lippman should have been baking. Big beautiful muffin tops, teeny little stumps.
Warning: This recipe defies everything you thought you knew about filling a muffin tin.
Blueberry Lemon Glazed Muffins
Adapted from Fine Cooking
Yields 12 muffins
For the Muffins:
- Vegetable Oil/Spray for muffin tin
- 1 lb (3.5 cups) all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 5 oz (10 Tbs) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
For the Glaze:
- 12 1/2 oz (3 cups) confectioners sugar
- 6 Tbs lemon juice; more as needed
Make the Muffins:
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly spray/oil the top deck of a standard muffin tins and line with paper or foil cups.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, butter, milk, sour cream, eggs and yolk until well combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold gently with a rubber spatula just until the dry ingredients are mostly moistened; the batter will be lumpy, and there should still be quite a few streaks of dry flour.
Sprinkle the lemon zest and blueberries over the batter and fold them in until just combined. Don’t overmix, the batter will remain lumpy.
Divide batter among the muffin cups. The batter should mound higher that the rim of the cups by about 3/4 inch. Really, you must mound them up in a way that seems so wrong, so anti-muffin establishment. This is how you get the insane muffin tops.
Bake until the muffins are golden brown and spring back slightly when you press the middle, 30 to 35 minutes. Let the tin cool on a rack for 15-20 minutes.
Make the Glaze:
Put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Add the lemon juice and whisk until smooth. The glaze should be thin enough that it drips off the spoon.
Glaze the Muffins:
When the muffins have cooled down but are still slightly warm, use a table knife to cut apart any tops that have melded together. Invert the pan and pop out the muffins. Put the muffins on a rack over a sheet of foil to catch any glaze that drips off. Spoon the glaze over the muffins and let it drip over the sides. It should leave a smooth, somewhat translucent coating. Wait 20 to 30 minutes for the glaze to set; it will not dry completely.
Make ‘em, eat ‘em. You’ll thank me. Oh and… Top of the Muffin to You!
Um, in case you were living in a cave in the ’90s and you don’t know Seinfeld or this episode, well I’m sorry. Oh and you can view it on YouTube.
