Whole-Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Slug Icon WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS When it comes to baking with whole wheat, the benefits—added fiber, bran, and nutty sweetness—are often trumped by the drawbacks—dense texture and squat appearance. To use one hundred percent whole wheat, we had to revise our standard blueberry muffin recipe. The resulting whole-wheat muffins were light and tender thanks to two leaveners and several high-moisture ingredients (buttermilk, eggs, blueberries, melted butter, and oil). As a final step we added a crumbly streusel topping to round out our now light and delicate muffins with hearty whole-wheat flavor. See the sidebar that follows the recipe.

MAKES 12 MUFFINS

Do not overmix the batter. You can substitute frozen (unthawed) blueberries for fresh in this recipe.

STREUSEL

3

tablespoons granulated sugar

3

tablespoons packed brown sugar

3

tablespoons whole-wheat flour

Pinch salt

2

tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

MUFFINS

3

cups (16½ ounces) whole-wheat flour

2½

teaspoons baking powder

½

teaspoon baking soda

1

teaspoon salt

1

cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

2

large eggs

4

tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

¼

cup vegetable oil

1¼

cups buttermilk

1½

teaspoons vanilla extract

7½

ounces (1½ cups) blueberries

1. FOR THE STREUSEL: Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, and salt in bowl. Add melted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms large chunks with some pea-size pieces throughout; set aside.

2. FOR THE MUFFINS: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin, including top, generously with vegetable oil spray. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk sugar, eggs, melted butter, and oil together in separate bowl until combined, about 30 seconds. Whisk buttermilk and vanilla into sugar mixture until combined.

3. Stir sugar mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Gently stir in blueberries until incorporated. Using a heaping ¼-cup dry measuring cup, divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups (cups will be filled to rim); sprinkle evenly with streusel.

4. Bake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out with few crumbs attached, 18 to 20 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking. Let muffins cool in muffin tin on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from muffin tin and let cool 5 minutes longer. Serve.