Lemon Muffins with Blueberries
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There has been an ongoing, heated debate in the Circle B Kitchen lo these past few days. And when I say “in the Circle B Kitchen”, I mostly mean in my head. And the heated argument has mostly to do with what to call these very special little muffins.
They were originally billed as blueberry muffins, because, of course they contain blueberries, but the more I make them, the less I want to present them to you as a blueberry muffin and there are a couple of reasons for that.
The first is that if you were to go look in your recipe file right now, I bet you’d find no less than 5 recipes for blueberry muffins (probably more). And if you only have one, then it’s probably because it’s your very favorite and you’re not ready to welcome any newcomers there. I mean, everyone has their go-to blueberry muffin, right? And if not, you could probably right now go online and choose from 400,000 different blueberry muffin recipes. So that would make this one instantly superfluous, no? I think yes, and you would just move on. And that would be a terrible shame.
The second reason is that if you were to make these muffins, you would not instantly go “mmmmmm… blueberries”. No, you would instantly, go “LEMON!! Yay!! This muffin is so deliciously lemony!” And then you would totally enjoy the blueberries because they’re awesomely good in there too.
So for those reasons, I have made the executive decision to change the name of these succulent little pods of lemony goodness to Lemon Muffins with Blueberries. Are you a tad more interested now? I hope so. I guess that would depend on whether you are into lemon muffins, but this is the risk I take. Gladly.
Now that we’ve settled the nomenclature issue, let me attempt to describe these impossibly tender little muffin morsels to you. I’ve already mentioned the first thing you will notice if you eat one while it’s still warm from the oven… tender and sort of pillowy. Then, yes, lemony, but it’s the topping that’s the real showstopper here.
After you have baked these muffins, you are going to brush them with a lemon-syrup glaze
and then you’re going to dunk them into a pile of lemon-sugar
which is going to have the effect of a two-ton mack truck full of lemons crashing head on into your mouth at full speed, which (cue the screeching brakes)… sorry.
These really are some very special little muffins, and I’ve been serving them almost every weekend for the last month or two (almost) and The Husband has not tired of them yet. Nor have I. In fact, we will be having them probably a whole lot more weekends to come, cuz they really are my muffin crush right now and I just don’t feel like I need to apologize for that. For every one I eat, I want 3 more, so I just thought maybe you’d like to try them. Here’s the recipe…
Lemon Muffins with Blueberries
Click here for a printable recipe
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 ¼ cups sour cream or yogurt
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick vegetable cooking spray.
Whisk flour, baking powder, lemon zest and salt in medium bowl until combined.
Whisk egg in second medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add sugar and whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add melted butter in 2 or 3 steps, whisking to combine after each addition. Add sour cream or yogurt in 2 steps, whisking just to combine.
Add blueberries to dry ingredients and gently toss to combine. Add sour cream mixture to the dry ingredients and fold with a rubber spatula until batter comes together and berries are evenly distributed. Do not overmix - O.K. to have small spots of flour or thick batter.
Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop batter into greased muffin tin. Bake until light golden brown and toothpick or skewer inserted into center of muffin comes out clean, 25 or 30 minutes, rotating pan from front to back halfway through baking time.
Remove muffins from the pan and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before applying the glaze.
Lemon Glaze
Bring ¼ cup lemon juice and ¼ cup sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat; simmer until mixture is thick and syrupy and reduced to about 4 T (this should take about 5-6 minutes).
Lemon SugarTopping
While muffins are baking, mix 1 tsp grated lemon zest and ½ cup sugar in small bowl and set aside.
After muffins have cooled 5 minutes, brush tops with glaze, then, working one at a time, dip tops of muffins in lemon-sugar. Set muffins upright on wire rack. Serve warm or room temperature.
