Some days you just need a muffin. You know what I mean? It doesn’t have to have been an especially bad day, or an especially good day, or even a day where anything out of the ordinary happens. But sometimes there are occurrences over the course of your day just that decree Muffin Time. Like MC Hammer style Muffin Time.
For example, it could be one of those days when you were walking through a very busy Union Square in a cute little sundress, carrying an unwieldy new printer with both hands because Best Buy had no bags left. (I know, right? Get it together, Best Buy) Wearing a cute little sundress in New York is all well and good until the crowd forces you over a subway grate, under which at that exact moment a train goes by underground and your skirt flies up around your shoulders, your hands are full of printer box, and you do not look like a cute and carefree Marilyn Monroe a la The Seven Year Itch but rather a sweaty and mortified You who just gave the whole street a free show.
Not that I know what that’s like, or anything.
Or hey! Maybe it’s not even that something went embarrassingly, mortifyingly wrong, but that something went right. Like, how on the way home from work the other day you stopped to buy peaches for tomorrow’s breakfast and the guy at the veg cart recognizes you as a loyal customer and throws an extra one in for free. Peaches in late summer are the best thing ever, but a free peach just takes the prize of Grand Supreme. That’s when it’s Celebratory Muffin time.
This blueberry muffin recipe is so versatile and fool proof it’s almost laughable. The “jam” in the center of the muffins means that every bite has a bit of blueberry, but with none of that watery berry taste you sometimes get in plastic wrapped muffins sold in cheap coffeehouses and 7-11’s. The addition of wheat flour and yogurt keep it healthy enough to qualify as breakfast, but satisfying enough to have as a snack. And the sugary lemon zest on top is that good stuff that gets stuck to your lips as you bite into the muffin. That part is almost as good as a free peach. But way better than a free panty show in Union Square.
Blueberry Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
for the zest
- 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
for the “jam”
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 teaspoon sugar
For the muffins
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 1/8 cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups unbleached white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon coarse ground salt
- 2 large eggs, whisked
- 4 tablespoons softened butter
- 1 cup Greek-style whole milk yogurt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil or buttermilk
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine lemon zest and 1/3 cup sugar and set aside.
- In a small pan over medium heat, combine one cup of blueberries and one teaspoon of sugar. Stir often, mashing the berries gently with the back of a wooden spoon, until blueberries have cooked down into a jam like consistency. Reduce to about ¼ cup; this should take about five minutes or so. Remove from saucepan and set aside to cool slightly.
- Ready the muffin tin; this mixture will make about 12 regular sized muffins. If not using paper muffin cups, lightly spray or butter the tin. Preheat the oven to 425*F.
- Whisk together sugar, flours, baking powder and salt in a small to medium bowl and set aside. Combine the eggs, butter, yogurt, vegetable oil and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well. Slowly fold the dry ingredients into the wet, taking care to mix out any lumps, but at the same time do not overmix the batter. Fold in one cup of blueberries and stir to combine. Pour this batter into prepared muffin tins- each cup should be full of batter, coming up just slightly over the edge.
- Place a teaspoon of the blueberry jam on top of each batter mound. Using a toothpick or chopstick, push the jam down into the batter and swirl slightly in a figure eight pattern. When all the cups have been filled with jam, sprinkle each one with the lemon and sugar mixture.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins have turn golden brown.
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