BROWN BUTTER BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

PINPIN

It’s 8:25am now and Gigi is up, she’s already had breakfast and is watching a little PBS while I finish catch up on a bit of work for today. I’ve been up since 4:45am… blame it on pregnancy or my desperate need to sit down for a few quiet minutes on my own and reflect on the past year and make some plans and goals for the year to come. I’ve got a lot of great projects in the works and things I’m excited to share with you, a few new features mixed in with little looks at our simple days.

When I look back on last year my goals were pretty big: Travel with my family to Europe! Complete my BA and graduate from college! Launch a new website! I can’t believe I accomplished all of that with a one year old! My goals for this year are pretty minimal and simple… Exercise and eat well throughout this pregnancy and after the baby is born. Cook a lot and create new recipes as often as possible. Minimize “wasted” time. Make Gigi laugh a lot. Write more letters. Take a road trip and go camping. Get chickens and plant a wonderful vegetable garden. Sew more. Be the best wife, mama, sister, daughter, and friend that I can be. That’s really it! I see this year as an opportunity to live frugally, enjoy my babies, continue to create a home space that we love, and a time to nurture the relationships that are important to me.

Now moving on to really important things, like brown butter… I’ve been adding brown butter to everything that calls for butter! I drizzle it on soups, toss pasta in it, and add it to baked treats. It’s so rich and delicious and it’s so simple to make. I’m amazed at how much it elevates anything it’s added to. I love blueberry muffins. Adding brown butter to my simple blueberry muffin recipe was an obvious use for my favorite ingredient. These muffins are slightly sweet, just rich enough, flaky and light… just the way I prefer my pastries to be.

BROWN BUTTER BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Ingredients.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, browned* and cooled to room temperature
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
zest from 1/2 lemon
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar (half granulated, half brown)

Directions.
Preheat oven to 375° and lightly grease a muffin pan.

In a stand mixer, combine the sugar and butter. Whip until creamed. Add in the eggs, milk and vanilla.

in a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Don’t over-mix.

Gently fold in the blueberries. If you only have frozen blueberries, defrost and drain them, discarding the water/blueberry juice.

Divide the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. Insert a skewer into the center of a muffin, if it comes out clean they’re done. Enjoy.

PRINTABLE RECIPE.
BROWN BUTTER BLUEBERRY MUFFINS