I’ve recently come to the conclusion that fast-food muffins are basically cupcakes. I know it’s not shocking, but when I ordered a muffin from my school’s coffee shop and it came topped with chocolate drizzle and powdered sugar, I couldn’t bring myself to call it a muffin.

Besides being over-sweet, store bought muffins can be lacking in content; there’s often a lot of dough and minimal blueberries. This recipe doesn’t skimp out on the blueberries, and since I resisted the temptation to put chocolate chips in, the sweetness doesn’t drown out the taste either.

The only thing I wish I had done differently in this recipe was add a little bit more moisture. I think a 1/2 cup of yogurt or a bit more milk would have done the trick, but they still taste good as-is. Over the past few years I’ve stuck to the same fool-proof muffin recipe so when I try deviating away from that, mistakes are made.

Ingredients

Makes roughly 20

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• Pinch of orange zest
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups frozen blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together both flours, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, sugar and orange zest until smooth. Mix in eggs, milk and vanilla extract with an electric beater.

Carefully add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined and “doughy”—do not overmix or the muffins won’t rise as well. Fold in the frozen blueberries and spoon mixture into greased muffin tins. Bake for roughly 20 minutes until cooked all the way through; test with a toothpick to make sure the middle is cooked. Allow to cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container for a week.