My first shot at blogging a recipe and it's not a totally quick one.  It's not a huge time sucker, but it's something you want to plan on spending some time with.  Totally worth it, I swear!

Blueberries.  They are everywhere, which means the planets have lined up and it's that magical time of year.  BlueberryTtime.  Oh sure, it's also Tomato Time, Cucumber Time, and Everything Else Time, nonetheless we're going to do blueberries.  Blueberry Muffins from scratch.

A long time ago, like in the 90's, I went on a mission to find a recipe and make jumbo orange muffins as good as the ones baked and sold in my company's cafeteria.  Sadly, they were made from a frozen batter and I never was able to replicate them.  Happily, I made a lot of fabulous muffins on my quest.  They were jumbo muffins, I was also in the midst of gaining 30 pounds. 

Back to making blueberry muffins today.  Wiser, and 30 pounds lighter, (my God it was hard to lose that weight), I make muffins less frequently and use regular size pans. 

This recipe is based on Blueberry Buckle Muffins from the book, "Granny's Muffin House".  It's all muffins, all the time.  Let's commence with the muffinness.



Wait.  First a couple of organized cooking tips: 

• See the little stainless bowl?  That's my garbage bowl, you should never not use one.  Notice it's not gigantic, and it works just dandy.
• My cookbook ispropped up in a plastic book stand, it's awesome.  I don't care so much about the book being protected from splatters (adds character) but it's nice to save a little room because it's standing up.
• Always, always, always wear an apron when you're cooking.  You own beautiful clothes, wear them and protect them!
• Those are fresh raspberries in that green bowl, also known as my breakfast.  I can multi-task.

Blueberry Muffins

400 degree oven

Dry Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 Tbls baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C sugar

Wet Ingredients
1 egg, beaten
1/2 C milk (skim is totally good)
1/2 C sour cream
5 Tbls butter melted in the microwave, about 45 seconds
2 tsps lemon juice
2 tsps grated lemon rind

1 1/2 C fresh blueberries (or frozen)

Topping

1/3 C sugar
1/3 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbls butter

For the sake of saving a few minutes I do the wet ingredients first.  Melt the butter in a two cup measure.  Thoroughly beat the egg using a stand up mixer if you have one.  Hand mixer is fine too, I have to use my stand up mixer for this step to justify owning one.  While you let the butter cool for a couple of minutes add the sour cream to the egg bowl.  Using a fine grater zest your lemon, then squeeze the juice.  Add to the bowl.  Add the melted butter, then using the same measuring cup add the milk.  Beat this mixture together until smooth.



I love this grater, and the lemon juicer is pretty awesome too.  They definitely rate space in my kitchen.

Next, dump all your dry ingredients in a bowl.  Mix them together with a whisk.  This achieves the same thing as sifting, is much quicker and a whisk is way more convenient and easy to store than a sifter.



That's a silicone covered whisk, I use it so I won't leave gray marks on my beeyootiful bowls.

Dump the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mix gently just until they are incorporated.  Fold in your blueberries.  Portion batter into a muffin tin lined with cupcake liners.  Or spray the pan and skip the liners.  Whatever.

You can go ahead and bake them now, they will be fantastic.  Or you can gild this lily with the topping.

Dump all the topping ingredients into a small mixing bowl.  Squish together with your fingers.  Top each muffin liberally, and you can because this makes a LOT of topping.



Looks scary messy, doesn't it?  Don't worry.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, check for doneness with a toothpick.  I needed to give them five more minutes.  If you've used frozen blueberries you may need to add more time.

Voila!



Let the muffins cool, in the pan on a wire rack, for about 5 minutes.  Remove from the pan and cool until room temperature on the rack.  Or eat them.  If you want to save them for future treats, put them on a cookie sheet and freeze.  Once frozen put them in a BIG plastic bag with a zipper top and throw in the freezer.  They don't take very long to thaw out on the counter, or you can zap them in the microwave. 

These are crappy photos of really good food.  If you'd like to see amazing photos of really good food, go here: http://userealbutter.com/

Number of muffins I ate warm out of the oven:  One.  The ghost of that thirty pounds has that kind of effect.

Enjoy!

Deb