starbuck's blueberry muffins

At work we have a Starbucks to cater to everyone. I love their pastries. So far my favorites are the Pumpkin Scones and since a few weeks ago, their Blueberry Muffins. Ooh, I'm in HEAVEN when I eat these (which have only happened twice). These muffins are so incredibly light, and are definitely not a heavy muffin. I scoured the internet for a knock off recipe, and I found it!!

Ingredients

1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c soft butter
1 1/2 c pastry flour *** see notes
1/2 c milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 c wild blueberries
1 egg, beaten
1 grated lemon, rind of

Cream butter & sugar together, until light & fluffy. Add the egg, and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with milk. Make sure you begin and end with the flour (not sure why it works best this way, but it does). Toss blueberries with lemon rind and carefully fold into batter. Do NOT overmix! Fill a muffin tin with paper or grease w/ butter. Fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated 375 oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from tins & cool on rack!

isn't this pretty? It really had a beautiful color... but this is what your dough will look like

Amy's Notes: OK... my first thought when I read this recipe was "what in the heck is pastry flour?" I scoured my store for pastry flour, and I finally asked a little old lady if it was the same thing as cake flour. She said yes. WRONG! It's not! However, if you add a little more cake flour, then it's OK. Basically, for each cup of pastry flour, you add 1 cup + 2 tbsp of cake flour. So, by my calculations, I added 1 1/2 c + 3 tbsp of cake flour instead of pastry flour. Next, I didn't have wild blueberries. I have blueberries from the store, so I used those. I also sprinkled some sugar on the top of the muffins before they baked. This recipe yielded about 14 muffins for me.


Results? Oh.My.GOODNESS! These are hands down (and feet if I can count those) the BEST blueberry muffins I have EVER eaten (OK, other than Starbucks). These are the best homemade muffins ever. They are so light, so moist. I baked for about 18 minutes as 15 minutes for me was still a little wet.