I woke up to an utterly dreamy California morning on Tuesday. The soft morning sun was just streaming through my bedroom window, the birds were singing good morning, and I knew that I had a whole basket of clean laundry for the week ahead. Pretty sweet morning, right?
Sure… the only problem was that my brain was entirely unwilling to join the sunny spirit. Nope. I felt like on big stale loaf of bread. After an extended love affair with my snooze button, I determined, behind closed eyelids, that the only thing that would change my circumstance was streusel topping. On the shuffle from my warm bed to the kitchen counter I decided that blueberry muffins with streusel topping would flip the light switch in my brain.
There was only one problem with my blueberry muffin plan. I had not a blueberry in sight. No fresh. No frozen… just a whole lotta outta luck. After rifling through my freezer and fridge I emerged with the tail end of a bag of frozen raspberries, and half a jar of strawberry jam. I figured that, brought together under the welcoming umbrella of streusel topping, these two would simply have to work. Not but thirty minutes later, puffy streusel topped muffins found their way out of the oven and into my face. While they didn’t pay that pesky credit card bill, or make that much needed dentist appointment, they at least kept me from crawling back in bed for a handful of hours. Sometimes, that kind of help is just enough.
It’s not every morning that you jump out of bed ready for the world, fully equipped to make blueberry muffins. When those morning escape you, I promise that with a little jam, the remains of your frozen fruit collection, and loads of streusel topping, you just might be able to set things right.
I’d like to think of these muffins as Anything Muffins. Really, whatever kind of berry and whatever kind of jam will do you just fine in this recipe. If it sounds good to you, it’ll most likely taste good coming from your oven. Don’t deny yourself a warm fruity muffin just because the blueberry escapes you.
Raspberry and Jam Muffins aka Just about anything muffins.
adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2- 1 cup frozen or fresh raspberries (or whatever berry you might have in your freezer or fridge, use as much of the bag or as little as you have left)
3 Tablespoons strawberry jam (or whatever fruit jam you have on hand)
For the topping:
3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
Put a rack in the upper third of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Generously butter muffin cups or line with cupcake papers.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat; remove from heat. Whisk in milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until well combined.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk mixture and stir until just combined. Gently but thoroughly fold in the berries and the jam.
Divide batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.
For the topping:
Combine all the topping ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.
Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 18-22 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes, then run a knife around edges of muffin tops and carefully remove from cups. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Lynn
These muffins look absolutely wonderful. So I decided to make them and however they didn’t turn out like the ones pictured. I did everything the recipe required and they were a complete mess and a waste of my raspberries and jam. Hopefully you all will have better luck then I did. :(
carol
I don’t often comment on blogs but over the years I have looked for a copycat recipe for Mrs. Fields raspberry muffins. I doubled the amount of fresh raspberries in this recipe and these were the closest I have been able to make to taste like Mrs. Fields’. Thank you for this recipe!
Emma Rose Urban
I just made these for some friends who are grieving… They are delicious and I know they’ll help cheer them up a little. Thanks so much for sharing.