Happy first weekend of fall everyone! I couldn't wait to get up and bake this morning. I got a new cookbook called "100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know," and I wanted to fill the apartment with the homey smell of their warm blueberry muffins. The recipe includes an inspired extra step: topping the muffins with a coffee-cake crumble. You have not, I repeat - have not - had the best blueberry muffin ever, until you have had one topped with a crunchy cinnamon-sugar-butter crumble.
You know when you go to Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts or what-have-you and you get a muffin and it weighs ten tons and is basically a dense, chewy, anvil-like substance full of goodness-knows-what-ingredients and I-don't-want-to-know-which-preservatives? This muffin is LIGHT! It's airy! It has a (ok maybe dangerous) quality of disappearing in your mouth quickly after chewing! It may fill you with child-like wonder to partake in a muffin experience where you're eating a nice breakfast treat instead of a small cake. And it's an experience worth having.
You can buy the book or borrow it from your local library to get the recipe in your hands. It's also available on this google books website (hooray!) for the time being.
Oh, and in an attempt to be both greener AND craftier, I re-purposed this gift box as a muffin carrier. I placed parchment paper at the bottom and then laid the muffins carefully inside. I think it's a nice way to bring muffins to a friend or say hi to your new neighbors without having to pile them on a flimsy plate or foil container. And you can get really creative and decorate the box with a colored satin ribbon, a DIY label (like this one from Martha Stewart), or fun stickers. If you plan to make a lot of muffins...you could invest in a sticker like these ones from zazzle, and put them on all your boxes like a signature design.
