Do You Really Need To Toss Blueberries In Flour Before Adding Them To Muffin Batter?

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There are a ton of baking tips we've all heard a hundred times. Remember to chill your cookie dough before baking! Use cold butter when making biscuits! Coat fruit in flour before adding to batter! But are these always necessary? While we can't do a deep dive on every baking secret out there, Chowhound spoke to Sally McKenney from Sally's Baking Addiction (and author of the upcoming cookbook "Sally's Baking 101: Foolproof Recipes from Easy to Advanced") to determine if it's a must to dust blueberries before adding to the muffin mix.

"If your batter is particularly thick, then they will most likely stay suspended. However, it can always be helpful to toss them in flour. When berries are coated in flour, the surfaces are more textured, and that helps them grip onto the batter better. The flour also slightly absorbs the berries' moisture, which can help prevent soggy pockets surrounding the fruit," McKenney explained. So, yes, this easy trick helps keep the berries evenly distributed and their juices locked in. Don't worry if you totally forget this step. You haven't ruined the muffins, though there may be spots throughout the muffins that have more moisture from the juice that seeps from the berries. This could result in a soggier muffin bottom.

Berries are heavy and can sink to the bottom of whatever you're baking. Sally McKenney recommends folding them in gently with a spatula right before you fill the tins, though they can still sink down once poured into the muffin tin even if you do a good job of incorporating them. It might be tempting to sprinkle berries on top of the batter once it has been poured into the tin so the berries sink less, but this puts them at risk for burning.

As McKenney explained earlier, thicker batters should keep the berries suspended. However, if your batter is thinner, even dusting berries with flour may still result in issues with berry and juice distribution. In this case, some yogurt or sour cream can be added to thicken the batter. This is even one of Martha Stewart's tricks for baking and helps make cakes and other goods moist. 

Additionally, consider using frozen berries. These release less liquid and keep their shape as they bake — just don't thaw them before adding to the batter! Even better, use frozen wild blueberries; these super tiny ones have less juice but more flavor. If you need more expert baking secrets, a final trick is to spoon a small amount of batter without blueberries into each muffin liner. Then, blueberries can be folded into the rest of the batter, which is then distributed on top of the plain base. The bottom layer stays mostly clear of blueberries and the top should have a nice concentration of them.