Paul Hollywood's Blueberry Muffin Video Is Frankly Bizarre
Paul Hollywood is everyone's favorite bread and pastry stickler from "The Great British Baking Show." His handshakes are legendary and he's known around the world for his book "100 Great Breads." Although he may at times come off intimidating as a judge, he's really goofy at heart, and his personality shines through most when he's in his element baking.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel for his series, "Paul's Easy Bakes," Hollywood shows viewers his recipe and process for making what he claims are the "most delicious" blueberry muffins. There's no doubt that these muffins are probably incredible if Hollywood is the baker behind them, but the way he actually goes about baking them is truly bizarre. The video starts off innocuously, with Hollywood introducing the first set of ingredients that are needed for his muffin base — this includes flour, baking powder, salt, caster sugar, and diced unsalted butter. He combines all of these after preheating his oven, and this is where it gets funky. Instead of mixing these components with a stand mixer, he dives right in with his hands, smushing the butter into the dry ingredients.
Things just keep getting weirder
While this is simply an odd way to mix things together, it's also unexpected in the realm of muffin making. In a more traditional blueberry muffin recipe, you might expect to mix all of the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then combine the two to form the batter. Paul Hollywood takes a different approach that someone in the comments calls the "reverse creaming method." They explain that Paul adds the butter directly to the dry components in order to make the muffins more tender. So, it seems like there's an explanation for this weirdness, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre to witness on camera.
After thoroughly combining the butter and the dry ingredients, Hollywood adds three eggs, vanilla extract, and milk — and yes, he keeps mixing this with his hands, as well. Where you might next expect him to add the blueberries directly to the batter, Hollywood again balks convention and pushes them into the batter after he's deposited it into the muffin tin. After he puts the finished muffins into the oven, you might think you're safe from any more culinary surprises. But Hollywood takes the muffins out of the oven and eats one with a spoon, of all things. Despite all of its quirks, Hollywood's recipe looks utterly delicious and could be your next kitchen adventure.