Over the Top Blueberry Muffins

Fresh from Oregon, blueberries have a long season and you can still find plenty at the local farmers markets and stores.  Here on the mountain (Mt Hood) I have been picking the blueberries from my bushes for about a week.  With the higher elevation we are about 4 weeks later than the farms in Portland, Oregon.  With Blueberry Muffins on the menu for breakfast today I was out early in the morning to pick 2 cups of fresh blueberries.  The recipe below will make a nice tall muffin if using tall paper muffin cups in your muffin tins or if you want a more shorter muffin with a large top bake directly in the muffin tin.  To me a muffin is best with a little crumb topping but if you prefer you can just leave plain or sprinkle with some coarse sugar.

Over the Top Blueberry Muffins
4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (22 ounces)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar (8 ounces)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
16 ounces plain whole fat yogurt or plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 cups fresh blueberries

Crumb Topping:
In medium size bowl mix 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon flour and 1/4 cup of room temperature butter.  Mix until you get small crumbs, set aside.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees and coat a standard 12-cup muffin pan with non-stick spray or place tall muffin paper cups in muffin pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In second bowl whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, yolks, yogurt and orange zest until smooth.  Make a crater in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it.  Stir with a rubber spatula until just barely combined. Resist the urge to over-mix – there should be a some lumps of flour in the batter.  Fold in the blueberries, mixing just to combine.  Drop about a cup of batter in each of the muffin tin’s wells or paper cup. You may have extra batter to make a few more muffins. The cups should be quite full.  Sprinkle the muffins with crumb topping and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the bottom of a muffin comes out clean.  Remove from oven and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.  Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Recipe ~ Alton Brown’s Over the Top Muffins