You know a muffin is good when you can’t stop eating the batter.

Cookie dough is obviously delicious in raw form, but muffin batters and cake batters usually taste a little off. Their goopy texture combined with the sharp, chemical taste of raw baking powder always makes me think twice about licking the mixing spoon. (I mean, I do it anyway, but I usually regret it.)

Not this time. This batter was thick, sweet, and tasted like vanilla, and I could not stop myself from sampling far more of the batter than anyone would ever need to.

A delicious batter isn’t always an indication that the finished product will be just as good, but in this case it was. These muffins are soft and moist, and the blueberries add a nice, fruity note that keeps the muffins from being too sweet or plain. I topped these with a streusel topping to add a little extra crunch and spice, which made these all the better.

The recipe I used was a famous department store blueberry muffin recipe that seems to have made its way around the internets. My changes were to reduce the sugar by a little more than 1/2 cup and to use a streusel topping. I also left all my blueberries whole (and coated them in flour to prevent sinking), while the recipe states to crush some of the blueberries with a fork and mix them into the batter. Just personal preference on that front.

I think this could have made 13 or 14 muffins, if not for two things: (1) My batter-eating problem, and (2) The fact that I have one muffin tin and twelve silicone baking cups and I really didn’t want to play the waiting game for the first round to be out of the oven just to repeat the process for one extra muffin. Sorry, muffin.

The recipe says to store these uncovered or the muffins will be too moist the second day. I stored these covered and thought the moisture level was fine even several days later, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Make these your own. Add lemon zest to the better if you want a citrus note, or add cinnamon for something warmer. Or skip the streusel and top these with sugar as the original recipe suggests. Or forego the baking entirely and just eat the batter. There are no rules here.

Blueberry Muffins

Slightly adapted from Jordan Marsh’s blueberry muffins

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup plus two tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour + 1 tbsp flour, separated
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in each egg one at a time, then add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the 2 cups flour, salt and baking powder. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and stir to combine, then add half of the milk and stir again until just combined. Add the remaining half of the flour and the remaining half of the milk and stir together until combined. The batter will be thick.

Toss the blueberries in the tablespoon of flour until well coated. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill each one with batter. If you have extra batter like I did, you can either eat it, top off each muffin to create jumbo muffins, or use them to make an additional 1-2 muffins.

Make the streusel topping (recipe below) and sprinkle it over the muffins. Bake the muffins at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean (mine took closer to 35-40 minutes). Let them cool in the muffin tin for five minutes before taking them out of the tin. Once out, let them cool for an additional 10 minutes before eating.

Streusel Topping

Adapted from this crumble recipe

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp (packed) brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes

Combine the flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt into a medium bowl. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it is fully integrated. Sprinkle on top of the muffins before putting them in the oven.