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Champion Blueberry Muffins

I am an occasional beta-tester of recipes for America's Test Kitchen. Those geniuses over in Massachusetts work up a recipe, and then they e-mail it out to folks like me who've volunteered to make the recipe at home and report back. Some months later, something very similar appears in Cook's Illustrated magazine. It's pretty neat. To my great delight, an ATK recipe for Best Blueberry Muffins appeared in my inbox a few days ago for testing. It being August and all, I have quite a lot of berries loitering about in the refrigerator and I've been making blueberry muffins about once every ten days, searching for The One. The Universe – heck, the internet – is overstuffed with blueberry muffin recipes, many of which, I have found, aren't worth the effort it takes a person to chew and swallow them. Yesterday I shopped for the few ingredients Best Blueberry Muffins called for that weren't already kicking around at home and this morning I tried out the recipe from ATK. I can't say that I have ever had a more delicious blueberry muffin. Though they were more work than your average blueberry muffin, the extra five minutes and three dirty dishes are definitely worth the result. These muffins were tender on the inside and absolutely packed with blueberries, yet they hold their shape and have a pleasant texture on the teeth and tongue. The sprinkle of demera sugar on top makes a great, golden, sweet crunch on the muffin tops, leaving the rest of the muffin more blueberry-and-vanilla-y, rather than just plain sweet like so many inferior breakfast pastries. It would be cosmically unfair (and arguably illegal) for me to share the recipe with you, and for that I apologize. Whether you are into super fantastic blueberry muffin recipes or not, I enthusiastically recommend Cook's Illustrated magazine – I hear that the television show is really good, too. They're geniuses over there in Massachusetts, just geniuses.