Blueberry Muffins

I’m writing to you from my dorm room on the campus of Colorado State University. And in about thirty minutes, I will join my kids downstairs in the dining hall for lunch. For years, I’ve dreamed of returning to on-campus, dining hall living, and now I’m living the dream for a few weeks. But as I watch my kids eat a consistent diet of all-you-can-eat cheeseburgers, fries, pizza and quesadillas, I’m wondering if the dream is a bit of a nightmare?! But the endless churros convince me it’s pretty amazing. 😉

I love having a job that makes us go on summer adventures, but this summer I was sad to leave because of my garden. If you know me, you may know that I would love to live on a farm. But I live just a few miles outside of DC, so the best we could stretch it was to rent goats to help with our poison ivy. It was amazing. They didn’t help all that much with the poison ivy, but they sure were fun to have.

I’m trying to make the most of our space, planting edibles and fighting the wildlife to actually be able to eat some of them. After a disappointing first try with blueberries at our old house, I did my research to give it a second try. I planted three varieties for pollination among our hydrangeas since they all love acidic soil. I sadly pinched off the flowers the past two years to help the roots go deep. And then this year…

Blueberries!! I dreamed of making a blueberry pie. Unfortunately my harvest wasn’t that abundant, nor was my time with packing up for the summer. So blueberry muffins were the obvious second choice. I usually use this recipe for blueberry muffins, but I also had harvested a lemon from my Meyer lemon tree. So I needed a recipe to use both. Smitten Kitchen always comes to the rescue. These muffins were fresh and delicious. My photos are a bit blurry because I made these muffins the day we were leaving… I may have been operating a bit like a chicken running around with its head cut off. I’m a gifted procrastinator.

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Blueberry Muffins

Course Breakfast

Yield 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp (70 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar
• Finely grated zest from 1/2 a lemon (I used the whole lemon)
• 3/4 cup plain unsweetened yogurt or sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 tsp (7 grams) baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp fine sea or table salt
• 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups (215 to 255 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to defrost)
• 3 tablespoons turbinado sugar (organic sugar/evaporated cane juice works too)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10-12 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. OR even better, use silicone baking cups. (The original recipe says it will make 9 muffins, but it made 12 muffins for me. I was generous with the blueberries...)

2. Pour melted butter in the bottom of a large bowl and whisk in sugar, zest, yogurt and egg until smooth. Whisk in baking powder, baking soda and salt until fully combined, then lightly fold in flour and berries. Batter will be very thick, like a cookie dough. Divide between prepared muffin cups and sprinkle each with about 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar (there's not an excessive amount of sugar in the batter, so don't freak out. It will provide a delicious crunchy top).

3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a cooling rack (as if... we definitely eat them warm).

Notes

Source: Smitten Kitchen