Recipe: Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

My earliest memories of blueberries come from two very different sources: the 1971 version of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” and a certain big-box store known for its memberships, bulk buying, and discounts.

In the film, the child character Violet Beauregarde is a gum-chewing know-it-all who defies Wonka and devours an experimental gum that makes her feel like she’s had a blueberry cream pie for dessert at the end of a three-course dinner, causing her to swell up into a giant blueberry. But soon her face turns purple and she swells up like a balloon. “I never get it right with desserts. Always,” is Wonka’s response. In retrospect, the genre of the film seems like a food horror movie. This was my first real memory of blueberries and perhaps a little uneasy about the fruit.

But soon after, I discovered blueberries in another way: through Costco muffins. Generous, super moist, sweet, and loaded with blueberries, they were basically cakes disguised as something suitable for breakfast. My parents bought them, and I ate as many as I could, because they were so good.

Lately, my involvement with blueberries has been happening in a more local, more feel-good place: the farmers’ market. This week I was lucky enough to get my hands on some lovely, sweet, tart California coast blueberries. These little spheres are like little vitamin-packed candies, and they’ve become a staple in my fridge.

I like to pop indigo berries as a snack. I like to drizzle them with honey on my bowls of granola and yogurt in the morning. I like to mash them in a mortar and pestle with a little sugar and spread them like jam on buttered toast. When I want a smoothie, I like to blend them with tahini, dates, bananas and milk. I also like to use indigo berries in baked goods.

Baking with blueberries brings back old memories, but instead of buying muffins, I make my own, like this week’s recipe. Some might say there are so many blueberry muffin recipes out there that we don’t need any more, but I say, “Why not? The classic muffin is timeless and can be made again and again.”

So this week, I took some classic ingredients and tweaked them a bit to make muffins that are a little more tart, a little more lemony, with a crunchy sugar topping and loads of blueberries. There’s no question about what these muffins are like.

The dough is made like any easy quick bread: mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and cream the butter and sugar in another. Beat in the eggs and full-fat sour cream to create a thick, cookie-dough-like batter that results in fluffy, light muffins. The berries don’t fall to the bottom; to really ensure they don’t fall out, I put a dollop of plain batter in the pan first so the blueberries are perfectly scattered throughout. A non-negotiable for me.

Contact Christian Reynoso at food@sfchronicle.com

Soft and fluffy, rich, tangy and just the right amount of sweet, blueberry muffins are perfect for reading your favorite novel with a hot cup of coffee in the morning, or any time of the day. If you’re wondering whether the batter should be thick like cookie dough, you’re right. If you’re wondering whether you can use frozen blueberries instead of fresh ones, you can, of course. Just make sure you rinse them thoroughly under cold water until they are clear, unless you want the whole muffin to turn purple like the Know-it-All character in Chocolate Factory turns into a giant blueberry. If you don’t have demerara sugar to top it off, you can use granulated sugar.

2 1/2 cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt

Grated rind from 2 lemons

1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup full-fat sour cream or yogurt

12 ounces fresh blueberries or thawed and thoroughly washed frozen blueberries

Demerara sugar (for topping the muffins, optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack on the middle level. Prepare a nonstick or aluminum muffin pan by lightly oiling it or lining it with paper liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and lemon zest in a bowl and set aside.

Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat lightly with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add 1 egg, then the other, and mix until combined. Add the sour cream and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl again as needed.

On low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles cookie dough.

Place 1 heaping tablespoon of batter into each cavity of a muffin pan. Then fold the blueberries into the remaining batter. Spread the blueberry muffin batter evenly on top of each muffin. Sprinkle the tops with Demerara sugar and bake for approximately 25 minutes until risen, firm, and lightly golden.