Installment four in our celebratory nostalgic saga featuring Costco muffin lookalikes!! We give you, GIANT, fluffy, gorgeously simple and perfect gluten free blueberry muffins. Once again, we’ve used the trick for producing giant muffins (truly giant, not the “giant” muffin pans you can find on Amazon, those aren’t actually that giant), which is a set of six 4-inch round cake pans (affiliate link) – with fairly tall sides – that are the perfect vehicle for these floofy massive creations. Highly recommend snagging yourself a set of those pans and using them to make these and ALL of the other Costco copycat muffins we have here on the blog – and then make everything else in miniature! Funny how versatile they can be – giant muffins or tiny cakes, it’s all relative! If you’re very into these childhood treats like we are, then absolutely make time (you don’t need much!) after work or this weekend to make the others: these giant banana nut muffins, or these giant almond poppyseed muffins, or these giant double chocolate muffins. All of them are spectacularly easy and make perfect gifts, or perfect snacks, or perfect breakfasts, you get the drill.
The next question is, what do we do after these fourth and final Costco copycat muffins? I did swing by Costco last week and for once gave myself a minute or so to peruse the baked goods section (usually this is a rather melancholy affair seeing as I can’t eat a single darn thing in that entire section) and noticed a NEW muffin! Well, perhaps it’s new, perhaps I just haven’t seen or had Costco muffins in 17 years and the global chain has made a few changes since I was in 6th grade, it’s entirely possible. But really! It was a vanilla chocolate chunk muffin and now I’m intrigued. The only issue being that I haven’t actually tasted that one, and the whole reason these series of four worked is because I remember, vividly and very fondly, eating TONS of them as a kid before my Celiac diagnosis. Who knows, I may just give it a try for the fun of it and it may taste nothing like the real thing!
Now, this recipe calls for two key ingredients: browned butter, which we explain how to make, and fresh blueberries. You can certainly use frozen blueberries if you don’t have access to fresh, I just prefer the fresh, but it’ll still be awesome with frozen! The browned butter I HIGHLY recommend not forgoing. Browned butter brings a depth of caramelly, toasty flavor that would leave these muffins a bit…flat/lacking if omitted. And the good thing is, if you have butter and a stove, you can make browned butter! It’s really quite easy, just takes a few minutes, and it’s not as scary as it sounds. If you’re feeling ambitious, I recommend browning more than you need for this recipe (if you’re browning more than a cup, use a medium/large saucepan because it bubbles up!) and then keep it in a container in your fridge or freezer to use in other recipes! Other uses for browned butter here: these browned butter blueberry cupcakes with blueberry buttercream, these browned butter pecan shortbread cookies, our recent poached pineapple upside down cake, our browned butter millionaire shortbread, these browned butter pumpkin madeleines, and our BEST chewy chocolate chip cookies!
If you’re curious how we got these photos, check out our video here!:
Giant Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins
Equipment
- Six 4-inch round cake pans (or 1 regular muffin pan for 12 regular muffins)
- Electric mixer
- Cookie sheet
Ingredients
- 1 Cup salted butter, browned room temp – instructions below to brown butter
- 1 1/2 Cups white sugar
- 1/4 Cup canola oil
- 1/2 Cup sour cream
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Cup milk
- 2 1/4 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix with xanthan gum added (if it doesn't have xanthan gum, add 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum)
- 3/4 Cup corn starch (corn flour in the UK)
- 2 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 Cups fresh washed blueberries
Instructions
- First, make your browned butter! (it will need to re-set to room temp so you can make this a day ahead if you'd like, or just pop it in the fridge). In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the 1 cup of salted butter and stir constantly until melted and simmering. Continue to simmer, on medium heat, for at least a few minutes, until the popping and hissing sounds have completely subsided (this is the water in the butter burning off – you’ll know once it’s silent). Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the butter reaches a deep amber color and smells nutty or caramelly. The butter may foam, so keep stirring/lifting up spoonfuls of the butter to see the color. The browned milk solids will foam up in the center of the pan – once it does that- immediately take off the burner and let sit for a few minutes, then pour (scrape ALL of the brown bits – that's the flavor!) into a heat-proof small bowl and let cool on the counter until room temp (you can speed this up by putting it in the fridge, but it should still be liquid – don't let it harden)
- Once the butter is almost to room temp, whisk 3/4 cup of the browned butter (you will have about 3/4 cup after browning it, so this should work) with the sugar and vanilla. Add in the eggs, oil, sour cream, and milk until smooth. Finally, add in your gluten free 1-1 flour, corn starch (or cornflour), baking powder, and salt and stir in using a spoon, spatula, or whisk until completely smooth. Then fold in 2 1/4 cups (save the last 1/4 cup for the tops!) of your fresh blueberries.
- Then grease the six 4-inch round cake pans with cooking spray or butter and place them on a cookie sheet (this will help keep them steady in the oven since they're smaller than a normal cake pan). Scoop the blueberry muffin batter evenly into the six cake pans and then top each muffin with a few of the leftover fresh blueberries. Let the batter rest, in the muffin pans, for 30 minutes before baking. [If you're making regular-sized muffins, line a muffin tin with paper liners and scoop in the muffin batter, filling each muffin cup to the brim]
- Once rested, preheat the oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Then bake for 5 minutes at 425 and then immediately lower to 350° Fahrenheit (do NOT open the oven door!!) and continue to bake for 30-35 minutes (15-18 minutes if making regular-sized muffins) try to look through the oven door before opening it and if you do have to open the oven do so very quickly to tap the top of the muffin. If the muffin doesn't spring back, then it needs a few more minutes. For a final check, insert a skewer into the center of a muffin and if it comes out nearly-clean they're done! Then remove from oven when they're finally done, and let cool for at least 10 minutes before turning out and eating!
Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your muffins!
Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber
25 Comments
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Natalie
Hi! I am from Puerto Rico, a small and beautiful island in the Caribbean. I just made this recipe, I didn’t had the big tins not enough blueberries, so I made a batch of blueberry small muffins and using half of the batter I mixed in cranberries and chopped chocolate. I have to say they both came out extremely delicious!!!! Thanks for the recipe! Will definitely try other recipes.
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Zara Abraham
These muffins are extremely delicious and one large muffin was like 3 mornings worth of joy.
Colleen
The brown butter in these is amazing!
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Tristan Petak
I had these warm out of the oven and they were so so good