Bouchon Bakery Blueberry Muffin

 

Have you heard of Bouchon Bakery? I haven't until I came across their recipe book when I was browsing the baking section on amazon.com. Bouchon Bakery is the brainchild of Thomas Keller who started The French Laundry, a fine dining restaurant in California.

After years of getting their supply of dinner rolls from a family-run bakery, Keller started his own bakery to cope with the increasing demands for breads from the growing number of restaurants he owns. Bouchon Bakery is headed by the ever so charming and French Sebastien Rouxel. Love his accent  especially when he pronouns "colour" in one of the youtube videos.

So happy that successful chefs like them are willing to share their knowledge and experience with us ordinary home bakers (for a fee of course - RM200, Kinokuniya / US$31, Amazon). 

You'll find the recipe for this blueberry muffins floating around but I shall reproduce it here since not only would it be convenient but I could also share my comments on the process. 

INGREDIENTS:

Cake

180g frozen blueberries (use fresh plump blueberries)

1 tbsp AP flour

85g AP flour

110g cake flour

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

100g unsalted butter

95g caster sugar (reduce to 85g)

40g unsulfured blackstrap molasses or dark molasses (reduce to 30g use golden syrup since no molasses)

55g clover honey (reduce to 45g)

1 large egg

1/4 tsp vanilla paste (substitute with vanilla extract in the same amount)

1/4 cup (57g) buttermilk (if don't have substitute - 1 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice)

Note: Blackstrap molasses has a strong, bitter flavor, and it's not very sweet.

Almond Streussel

(make half the recipe as this recipe is twice what is needed for the cake)

120g AP Flour (60g)

120g almond meal / ground almond (60g)

120g caster sugar (reduce to 90g/ 45g as this may be too much)

1/4 tsp salt (1/8 tsp salt)

120g unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces (60g)

METHOD:
Streusel
Combine the all-purpose flour, almond flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and whisk to break up any lumps.

Add butter and toss to coat the pieces. Work the mixture with your fingertips, breaking the butter into pieces  no larger than 1/8 inch and combining it with the flour mixture. Do not overwork the mixture or allow the butter to become soft; if it does, place the bowl in the refrigerator to harden the butter before continuing.

Transfer the streusel to a covered container or resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days, or freeze up to 1 month. Use the streusel while it is cold.

Cake
Toss blueberries and 1 tbsp flour in small bowl and place in freezer.

Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda. For some reason the recipe omit sifting the AP flour but I sifted it as well.

Cream butter in a mixing bowl with paddle attachment on medium-low speed until it's the consistency of mayonnaise.

Add sugar and beat for 1 minutes Add molasses and honey and mix on low speed for 1 minute until incorporated.

Add egg and vanilla paste and mix on low speed for 30 seconds until just combined. Add half the flour mixture and mix on low speed for 15 seconds until just combine. Add half the buttermilk and mix for 15 seconds until combined. Repeat.

Use spatula to incorporate any dry ingredients that have not settle. Refrigerate the batter overnight, or up to 36 hours.

Preheat oven to 220C (skipped this). Remove batter from fridge and leave it out for 5 minutes. Add blueberries into the batter.

Spoon batter into muffin liners until 1 cm from the top. Sprinkle 3 tbsp streusel on top of each muffin.

Reduce oven temperature to 160C (baked at this temperature). Bake in middle rack for 30-40 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.

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The secret to this muffin recipe is that the batter is refrigerated overnight. 

The muffin is soft and it stayed fresh and maintained its flavour for many days.

The sad part is, I totally forgotten to make the streusel!!! This again is due to multitasking! I don't have much time to waste so I have to do a few things at once. It's like I have a list of things in my head and I'm eager to tick them off one by one.

I definitely want to make this muffin again. It's not too sweet maybe because I've reduced the sugar. Perhaps I should add 20g back. Texture is soft and fluffy and the plump and juicy blueberries taste heavenly with the cake.  

Happy baking! xx