Earl Grey Blueberry Muffins

I love muffins but can’t even remember the last time I made or ate one. They are delicious to be sure, but often filled with unhealthy parts that hamper my healthy-ish lifestyle, and to be honest these are not without sin. But they are so worth it because I’ll give it you straight- these Earl Grey Blueberry Muffins really are all that. Actually, they are Earl Grey Blueberry Cake Muffins, but more on that later.

I’m in a muffin mood. Are you?

earl grey blueberry muffins with cinnamon streusel

The idea, or more so the request, came from a friend, and I get to work doing my research on how to make them the best that they could be. I’m not one that cooks with tea all that much, so I knew that I need to find out how to get the most tea flavor into these beauties- because the tea is the point of it all. There is no milk in this recipe, so the obvious answer of adding tea to the liquid was out. Of course it was, that would have been too easy. After consulting a few sources, I decided to both infuse the butter (you read that correctly) with whole leaf tea AND add ground tea leaves to the batter. Two layers of flavor, and that did the trick to create muffins that not only taste of the decadent earl grey, but it’s a taste that you can also very much smell.

Let’s talk about the tea. I went beyond standard tea bags for this one and actually hit up my local tea store, where I was able to get the most potent earl grey leaf that they had on hand. I used this both the whole and ground tea.

The other charge for these muffins is that they had to be “cake muffins.” What is a cake muffin? Glad you asked and what makes these muffins different from your run of the mill blueberry muffin is that I fashioned them from a coffee cake batter. Cake batter means butter AND sour cream, for moisture and a little heft. Fresh blueberries, not frozen, give each bit that fresh fruit pop that we all look for in a muffin. Finally, the coffee cake idea holds with a cinnamon almond crumble on top.

earl grey blueberry muffin recipe with almonds

We’ve got some brunchin’ holidays coming up- Easter and Mother’s Day (yup, already thinking about that)- are on the horizon and this would be so perfect suited for both occasions. Plus, with summer on the horizon and it’s blueberry bounty coming in strong, there’s your excuse to make these part of your summer staple all month long.

Earl Grey Blueberry Muffins

March 21, 2019

Servings: 18 muffins

Prep: 1 hr

Cook: 25 min

Difficulty: Easy

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Butter is infused with earl grey tea and married with the best of a coffee cake delicious earl grey blueberry cake muffins

By: Chrissy

Ingredients

For the streusel:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sliced almonds
For the muffins:
32 grams (24 tsp) loose leaf earl grey tea
1 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup full-fat sour cream
1 tsp ground earl grey tea
2 cups fresh blueberries, tossed in 2 TB flour

Directions

Step 1 Make the streusel: In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, almonds and salt. Using your fingers, mix in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set the mixture aside.
Step 2 In a small saucepan, add 1 cup butter and the loose leaf tea. Melt gently over low heat and, once melted, let cook slowly for 5 minutes. Do not let it boil. Remove from the heat.
Step 3 Let the mixture sit two minutes. Strain the mixture well, pressing the tea leaves to get as much butter out as possible, and place the liquid, tea-infused butter into bowl of a stand mixer. Let cool until the butter has become solid. You should have about 3/4 c butter after the infusion and melting, not the full cup.
Step 4 Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 muffin tins with paper liners (you need about 18).
Step 5 Once the butter has become solid, add the sugar to the bowl and beat until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, the vanilla and the ground tea. Mix well. Add the salt, baking soda, baking powder and half of the flour. Add the sour cream, and the remaining flour and mix thoroughly but be careful to not over-mix. Gently fold in the blueberries, careful not to crush them.
Step 6 Add 1/4 cup muffin mixture to each muffin cup and sprinkle each with 1 TB of the streusel mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Let cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes and then move muffins to a cooling rack.
Step 7 Serve, with a cup of tea.