Browned Butter Blueberry Maple Muffins
Think Blueberry Pancakes. In a nice little handheld size. And no slaving over a hot griddle making pancake after pancake. These are almost instant gratification!
Some of you may remember the Daring Bakers Cake, Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, from Shuna Fish Lydon. One of the best cakes ever, and the one I’m requesting for my birthday in September. It’s amazing how browning the butter makes the whole thing better. And it’s a simple step, too! Just make sure you run the browned butter through a strainer (a metal mesh one, so it doesn’t melt!) and let it cool slightly before you add it to your recipe.
So, I was thinking about muffins, as I often do. Yes, really! I love them like family. They make a nice breakfast or a delicious snack. It’s cake that’s contained in it’s own little hand held package. Want fruit? Go for it! Nuts? Chocolate? Whatever you feel like!
While I was thinking about muffins, I inadvertently drifted over to breakfast--->pancakes--->blueberry pancakes--->maple syrup--->muffins! The light went on over my head and hit me like a dozen muffins. Or in this case, ten.
Blueberry muffins. Nearly everyone loves them. But putting a spin on them is the fun part! To mimic blueberry pancakes, I could add maple syrup. And browned butter to get the flavor you get from frying your pancakes up in melted butter.
Oh, yes. Now we’re talking! These are right up there in my top 5 favorite muffins now. I’ll definitely make them more, and in fact, they’re now my official blueberry muffin recipe!
I used frozen Wild Maine Blueberries in these. You know, the little tiny ones? But you can use any kind you like. And even though I think purple muffins are extremely cool, I did rinse them before using. I wanted to see if the browned butter gave the batter some color, and it did. After baking, they were a nice caramel color.
Maple Syrup. Please, if you love me, use real maple syrup in these. Not the doctored up corn 
syrup with artificial maple flavoring and coloring. In this case, I used a maple agave blend from Trader Joe’s. It’s real maple syrup blended with agave. It’s one of my new best friends! If you can’t get your hands on that, maple syrup is perfect.
This recipe is featured on Maple Syrup World--a site that has everything maple you could ever want!
I adapted this recipe from one found in 100 Muffins and Scones, by Felicity Barnum-Bobb. This book is packed with mouthwatering recipes to feed my muffin addiction!
Browned Butter Blueberry Maple Muffins
adapted from 100 Magnificent Muffins & Scones, by Felicity Barnum-Bobb
To print this recipe, click here.
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup blueberries (if frozen, rinsed and set aside to dry a bit)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup maple syrup, for brushing over tops
Heat oven to 375, and lightly grease your muffin pan.
Melt the butter in a small pan, letting it go until it starts to brown and smell nutty. Don't let it burn, but stop
when it gets deep brown. There will be dark sediment in the pan, so pour the butter through a wire mesh strainer
and set it aside to cool a bit. Don't worry if a bit of the sediment makes it through the strainer.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and sugar.
In a smaller bowl, toss the berries with 1/4 cup of the flour mixture.
In a large measuring cup or smaller bowl, whisk the melted butter, maple syrup eggs and salt.
Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff, mix just until blended--then fold in berries.
Fill the muffin cups evenly (I got 10 muffins) and bake for 18-20 minutes.
Do the toothpick test--it should come out clean.
Let the muffins cool a few minutes in the pan, then run a knife around the edges, and turn them out on to a
cooling rack.
Place the cooling rack over a parchment lined pan, and brush the tops with the maple syrup.
A question to you, my readers--what are your favorite kinds of muffins?
Elle | Print Article | Share Article | Email Article | 59 Comments tagged blueberry muffins, breakfast, brunch, cooking, fruit, muffins, new england, oven baked, recipe, snack, snacks, white whole wheat flour
Reader Comments (59)
I am loving this one! And it's healthy to boot!
Glad you put your name on your photos too.
The muffins look marvelous! Bookmarking this one for sure!
I love the idea of brown butter - what's good for savory has to work for sweets as well.
Good to see you touting real maple syrup!
Wonderful!!
RecipeBoy says "RecipeGirl should make these sometime!! And it looks GOOD! (But I think raspberries would be better in these." (Kids are brutally honest, aren't they??) :)
Pretty much YUM sums it up!!!
Your food looks absolutely delicious as always! Browned butter and maple, and blueberries sound just like pancakes with bb. Yum! Will definitely make these when I find nice blueberries. :)
"A question to you, my readers--what are your favorite kinds of muffins?"
The kind you EAT!! (yeah, I'm not picky when it comes to muffins)
These rose really beautifully! I love having these for breakfast! It is almost like a legitimate indulgence!
Pumpkin with cream cheese frosting! YUM-E!
Adding browned butter was genius but I like the browned bits from the browned butter. I think it adds character. My excuse for being lazy? Maybe! :)
~ingrid
Those look so good! Little blueberries and maple syrup are close to my heart.
They look just great ...yummy!
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im guessin you melt sugar and butter together??
I've been living in France (i.e. the land of no muffins) for the last five months and I've been absolutely craving homemade blueberry muffins. These are the first thing I will bake when I get home to the States in two weeks!! Thanks!!
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I like living in the south now because of all the food... but I miss those Maine Blueberries. These looks great! I like how your brain drifted from one bfast to the next... very inspiring :)
Favorite Muffin? Call me old fashioned, but I just really dig a nice corn muffin.
Oh what a great idea! I love the flavor of the browned butter & that cake for Daring Bakers was one of my favorites too
Now that's a muffin! I love the crumb and all the bursts of blueberry inside.
Thank you so much, guys!
Anonymous! I'm so sorry, and thanks for catching that! The sugar gets mixed in with the dry ingredients. All fixed now.
Ever so YUM Elle. No blueberries, no pure maple syrup here. Maybe I'll just hitch a tent on your blog & live here! That browned butter of the Shuna Lydon challenge has never left me...one my fave frostings!
I haven't made muffins in ages. But think I would make these with blackberries. Love the idea of the brown butter. Is there anything a little brown butter won't improve?
I tried very hard to resist even *reading* this recipe, but now that it's too late, I'm going to have to make it! I've got some Vermont Grade B just crying out for this!
when you first said they were like little hand-held pancakes, i thought to myself, "not if there isn't maple syrup involved!!" so glad to see that there is indeed maple syrup involved, and in wonderful amounts. awesome muffins, elle!
These look delicious and I love TJ's maple agave syrup. Was very sad my local store was out of stock today.
Holy crap those are stunning! I'm totally stealing this recipe. My favorite muffin? Hm, it's a toss up between chocolate chip and coffee cake. I loooove coffee cake muffins.
These look so good. Brown butter is definitely the key.
Oh, how creative and wonderful sounding. Browned butter and maple syrup--you're killing me! These are definitely going on the list of Things to Make. :D
Oh... my God. I'm drooling over here.
And in response to your question, my favorite kind of muffin is blueberry.
Why are all the stores closed on the day I want to run out and make these???
These look fantastic and I just picked up some of that Maple Syrup Agave Blend. Glad to see it works well!
this taste soooo summery:)
What a cool idea to add maple syrup to blueberry muffins - I love it! They look very addicting!
Wow, those look amazing....pefect for sunday brunch this weekend!
heyy mom what's up? =)
Hi Ellie
Did you use dark brown sugar or light brown sugar. Also the only kind of white whole wheat flour I know is from King Arthur Flour company in it only comes in a 5LB bag, I don't want to buy that big size bag for something I'm rarely going to use. Do you know if I can purchase a smaller bag from somewhere or can I subsitute another flour.
Hi Jackie! I use organic brown sugar, and they don't specify light or dark, but it's fairly light. Either one you have on hand should be fine. I don't know of any smaller bags of the white whole wheat flour, but you can use all white flour. You can get whole wheat pastry flour in smaller bags--Bob's Red Mill is a good one. But again, it's not necessary.
Thank you, everyone! I appreciate the comments so very much! :) You all make my day.
Blueberry muffins are my fave--and brown butter bb muffins...yum. BTW, you might want to check out Jeffrey Steingarten's article about brown butter in this month's Vogue.
Blueberry muffins are my favorite. These look so good. Brown butter...mmmmm:)
Looking forward to trying these! Looks like a great morning muffin feast! -Chris Ann
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People actually use fake maple syrup?? That stuff scares me to much.
I would never have brown butter in muffins but hey I love brown butter in everything so why not.
Nicely done!
Add browned butter to anything - and I'm in!!
Thanks so much for all the comments, guys! :)
Oh man, I have a muffin weakness and a pancake weakness, so that makes these morsels deadly! I have some frozen blackberries and strawberries I've been wanting to do something with...
Blueberry and maple are a great combo and they go really well together in muffins!
These muffins are OUTSTANDING - Elle, that photo of them muffins is really fantastic!! We both love blueberries, a lot, will be giving this a whirl!
These look gorgeous! More like dessert for breakfast. :D How I wish blueberries were available here.
I'm eating a blueberry muffin right now. Thanks for putting it to shame.
It's been too long since I've visited your blog so I 've been reading the back posts. Now, all I have to say is OH
MY
GOD!
I can taste these, at 9:43pm at night, just reading the post and seeing the photos. This is a MUST DO for Father's Day weekend. Of course, I must do a practice run before then also... say tomorrow?! Thank you!