Blueberry Muffins

Finally, my first successful muffin, with the right dome! Actually I've done the more English muffin recipe before which is more bread like but it was never as nice as the American cake-like version. I got this recipe trawling through one of my favourite local food blogs, Noob Cook, and she in turn got it from Jordan Marsh.

Just for info, according to my Internet research, there are basically 2 ways of making muffins - the traditional muffin method, or the creaming method. The former is more British and yields a more bread-like texture. The latter is more American and yields a more cake-like texture.

Anyhow here's the Jordan Marsh recipe from Noob Cook, reproduced with my alterations (in red) based on some secret muffin tips I found off the Internet.
Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins
Credits: Recipe from ‘True Blueberry’ by Linda Dannenberg
This muffin recipe is that of the famous Jordan Marsh’s Framingham Store (which closed down in 1983).
Ingredients
(Makes 12 standard-size muffins) My recipe makes only 10 if you use the tall paper cups I did
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
110g lightly salted butter (or 1 stick), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F). I preheated at 220 C as you;ll later see why 2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a medium bowl & set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar and cream at low speed until the mixture is smoothly blended. At low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, and blend.
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk a little at a time, alternating one with the other, and beat until blended, then remove the bowl from the mixer.
5. Add 1/2 cup of blueberries and gently fold them in with a wooden spoon or spatula. Add the rest of the berries and gently fold them in. I used half a jar or Dalfour blueberry jam as I didn't have any fresh blueberries. I like Dalfour because there is no added sugar and the fruit are almost whole.
6. Place paper muffin cups into the muffin tin, and fill each cup with slightly more than 3/4 of batter. (Note: if not using paper cups, grease the muffin tin).
7. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the muffin tops, then bake in the center of the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and puffy. I didn't sprinkle the sugar as I tasted the batter and it was sweet enough, probably because I used jam. If I did use the real fruit however, I probably would need this sugar. In addition, I found to my dismay that omitting the sprinkling of sugar meant no crispy top! I baked at 220 C for 6 minutes, before turning down to 180 C for 19 minutes. This is based on my oven and the number of muffins I had so may vary for a different or different muffin paper cups. I tested with a skewer to be sure.
8. Remove to a wire rack and cool in the tins for 1 hour before serving.