Everything you love about amazing blueberry muffins but as one deliciously soft & moist sweet bread with a delightfully crisp sugar crumb
The Greatest Compliment!
OMGosh y’all! When I posted a “behind the scenes” picture of this recipe that I was in the final stages of testing over on Facebook, you guys went nuts (in the most amazing way!). Like we’re talking I had over a thousand DMs for the recipe, hundreds of comments in the thread asking for the recipe, and folks pretty much saying they were packing up and showing up on my doorstep that night just for some of this.
It was unlike something I’d ever seen from the TKW Family and it was the greatest compliment!
And it was the best feeling EVER!
TKW Family Love
This is, hands down, the BEST blueberry loaf I’ve ever had. I’ve made this a few times, and it’s the only recipe I’ll use now! Everything about this recipe is perfection. THANK YOU!
Honestly, it was such a HUGE compliment that you all wanted it so badly. Let me take a moment to explain how I work.
You see, not only am I a Chef, Pizzaiola, and BBQ Griller, but I’m also an Engineer. This means I approach developing new recipes perhaps differently than most folks. You see I’ll create a recipe, taste it, and then tweak it until I love it. Not some other folks will stop there and post a recipe. That’s their process but it’s not mine. The Engineer in me has to test that ‘finished’ recipe a good 5-sometimes 10 times for Repeatable Quality. This means that if I follow the same recipe as written I should get the same results each time. So if it’s delicious the first time, it should be equally delicious the 10th or 1000th time.
Make sense? So once I explained my process to the newer folks, everyone understood and appreciated how meticulous I was. Well I finished all of the tests (my hubby and neighbors thank you for my pushing this out early which means they received lots of bread!)So with that, let’s get started!
Grab Your Ingredients
This recipe is super easy and uses pretty basic pantry and fridge items. For substitutions and additions, see later on in the post!
- Dairy – milk, whole eggs, additional egg yolk, butter *yes I know you don’t see the additional yolk in the pic below
- Vanilla Bean paste (or you can use vanilla extract)
- Blueberries – fresh is always best but you can use frozen if you thaw them and strain them
See, simple ingredients!
Mix It Up
- To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and sugar. Mix for about 3 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in the whole eggs and egg yolk, mixing for about 4-5 minutes or until it’s light pale in color. Be sure to scrape down the mixer as needed.
- Pour in the milk and vanilla bean paste and mix just until combined.
- In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with 1 Tablespoon of flour.
Chef’s Tip: Coat Fruit With Flour Before Baking
Have you ever made a fruit bread or cake and, when you cut into it, all of the fruit is on the bottom all gushed up? Well, that’s because it probably wasn’t coated in flour.
By coating fresh, frozen (thawed), or dried fruits lightly in flour, it helps the wet batter adhere to the fruit acting as a way to ‘suspend’ the fruits in the batter instead of having them all fall to the bottom of the pan.
TKW Family Love
I made this today and it is absolutely delicious and I really enjoyed not having to clean a muffin tin out. I haven’t been disappointed by any recipes here. Love the thoroughness and all the great tips.
- Pour the coated berries and any residual flour into the batter and gently fold in.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle the coarse sugar over top.
- Place the pan into the oven and bake for 70-80 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Some crumbs are ok but a wet batter is not.
Waiting Is The Hardest Part
I know, I know, it’s so hard but trust me on this. It’s best to let it rest for a bit. If you try and take it out of the pan immediately, it will crumble. Sure it’ll be delicious but still a big ol’ mess.
So let it rest in the pan for a good 30 minutes or so or until the pan is room temp.
Lift the bread out pan by the parchment, remove the parchment and let the bread rest on the cooling rack for at least 15-20 minutes more. Yes, you can cut it now but I still prefer to wait just a bit more.
…and NOW we eat!
So I’m not a huge sweets eater. Surprise, I know! I mean I’ll eat them but if I had to choose sweet over savory/salty, I’d go with the latter. But this bread… OMGosh family, this bread is truly heavenly!
It was so soft, tender, and dare I say…moist! I know, I know, folks hate that word but it practically melted in my mouth.
It wasn’t overly sweet (though you could reduce the sugar to only 3/4 of a cup if you wish) but just sweet enough.
Now I paired mine with tea because I’m a HUGE tea lover. Mr. Fantabulous (if you scroll below), went for his cappuccino. Folks that man is in LOVE with this new coffee maker/espresso machine/a machine that is truly for the coffee lover! Yes, it’s really THAT much, and honestly, it’s worth it. The amount of time it saves me from having to clean those refillable pods, buy K-cups, or even clean out the milk frother thing. True game changer!
But I digress… this bread is meant for weekend breakfasts, and after-dinner snacks because you got new neighbors, your friend got dumped, and you need to celebrate because it’s a Tuesday at 2 pm. This is an anytime, any season bread that is one that I know y’all will love and it’ll be that recipe that gets passed on from generation to generation!
Recipe Substitutions
- Flour – you can make this gluten-free if you use one that is an all-purpose gluten-free version AND that it contains xanthan gum
- Sugar – you could do half granulated and half brown sugar for a richer molasses taste
- Milk – you can most certainly use buttermilk but you will also have to add baking soda (1 teaspoon)
Recipe Additions
I so love these parts! I can’t dance or put together a matching outfit for a runway, but I can most definitely tweak up a recipe!
- Nuts – any type of chopped and toasted nut would work (stick to about a 1/3 cup at most
- Lemon – add the zest of a whole lemon to give this a bright “spring” flavor
- Cinnamon – I LOVE cinnamon paired with blueberry. Add about a 1/2=3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
- Berries – try mixed berries instead of all blueberries! My favorite is half blueberries and half blackberries!
- Jam – add a few Tablespoons of blueberry jam or compote to the batter for an even more blueberry flavor
- Coconut – add about a 1/4-1/3 cup of shredded coconut to the batter
The Best Blueberry Muffin Bread with a Sugar Crumb
Everything you love about amazing blueberry muffins but as one deliciously soft & moist sweet bread with a delightfully crisp sugar crumb
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 70 minutes
- Total Time: 1.5 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: desserts, breakfast, baked goods, treats, sweets
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: desserts, breakfast, baked goods, treats, sweets
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (8 Tablespoons) butter, unsalted and room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temp
- 1 large egg yolk, room temp
- 1 cup warm milk (can be whole-1%)
- 1 1/2 –2 Tablespoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract (I use 2 but I like a strong vanilla flavor with this)
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (with 1 Tablespoon reserved)
- 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2– 3 cups blueberries (if you’re using frozen, thaw and strain) See Note about more flour and jammy bottom*
- 2 Tablespoon coarse sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F, and rack in the middle. Line and lightly spray a 9×5″ Loaf Pan with parchment paper.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and sugar. Mix for 3 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in the eggs and yolk. Mix for 4 minutes until a light pale, yellow. Be sure to stop and scrape down the sides as needed. Add in the milk and vanilla, and mix just until combined.
- Add all of the flour (minus the 1 reserved tablespoon), baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined, stopping to scrape down the sides to incorporate fully.
- To a bowl, add the blueberries and reserved flour. Gently mix to coat the berries with the flour. Remove the paddle or mixer blades and add in the coated blueberries plus any residual flour in the bowl. Gently mix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out to an even layer. Sprinkle on the coarse sugar and bake for 70-80 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean/mostly clean. Crumbs are ok but a wet batter is not.
- Remove from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Allow the muffin bread to cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before removing it from the pan and removing the parchment. You should be able to touch the pan and it is room temp to the touch. Cover and store the muffin bread at room temp for 2 days or up to 1 week, covered, in the fridge.
Notes
You can between 2-3 cups of blueberries. I like about 2 1/2 (and I use 2 Tablespoons of flour) where others liked cups. The only negative part about adding 3 full cups is many may still sink even with adding extra flour. This is normal due to the extra weight.
When you add 3 full cups you’ll get a more jammy bottom and not as many blueberries towards the top. Either way is still delicious!
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