Roxana Jullapat’s Spelt Blueberry Muffins

These whole-grain blueberry muffins, adapted from Roxana Jullapat’s Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution, are hands-down the best we’ve ever tasted. In the headnote in her recipe, Jullapat, baker and co-owner at Friends & Family in Los Angeles, writes that they’ve baked a few dozen of them every morning since the bakery opened (in 2016). Streusel-topped and zinged with lemon zest, they can be ready for breakfast or brunch in about an hour and a quarter start-to-finish, with only about 15 minutes active time.

[Read more about Jullapat’s Spelt Blueberry Muffins.]

Jullapat’s recipe calls for 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries, with that note that you can use fresh ones if you’re careful folding them in. We were careful, used fresh and loved them. We also added a few extra berries in half the batch. Our household was divided: Half of us (including me) liked them even better; half preferred Jullapat’s less-berryful iteration. Either way bakes up perfectly.

Makes 8 muffins.

Ingredients

For the spelt streusel:

3 tablespoons spelt flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons packed dark brown sugar

Pinch of ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

For the muffin batter:

1 1/2 cups (95 g) spelt flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2/3 cup packed (150 g) dark brown sugar

1/3 cup (80 ml) vegetable oil

1 large egg

1/3 cup (80 ml) buttermilk

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup (85 g) blueberries, or more to taste up to 3/4 cup (128 g)

Instructions

1. Place an oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. To make the streusel, combine the spelt flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Toss the cold butter cubes in the dry ingredients. Quickly cut the butter into the dry ingredients by pinching the butter cubes with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with pieces the size of a pea. Refrigerate the streusel until ready to use.

2. For the muffins, sift the spelt flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a medium-large bowl. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, oil, egg, buttermilk and lemon zest. Use your hands to make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour the wet ingredients into the well, and whisk to combine. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the blueberries.

3. Line a muffin tin with 8 paper baking cups, and evenly distribute the batter evenly between them (there will be about 1/4 cup of batter in each, or a little more if you’re using extra blueberries). Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of streusel (dividing any extra between evenly between them).

4. Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the tin and bake 12 minutes more, or until the muffins turn a rich golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Rotating the tin halfway through the baking process ensures that the muffins bake evenly. Let the muffins cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. The muffins will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.