My favorite thing about the Crazy Cooking Challenge is the hunt! Every month we are given a food which we are to find a recipe for, on a blog somewhere on the world wide web, make the food, and then blog about it! It is such fun!! This month the food we were to find a recipe for is one of my favorites, Blueberry Muffins! I found the perfect Blueberry Muffin recipe on a blog called Tracey’s Culinary Adventures Blog. Tracey had several Blueberry Muffin recipes posted on her blog,and I had a difficult time deciding which one to go with, but the recipe I picked stood out to me because I love the sweet and tart topping that goes on top of the muffins. Stop by Tracey’s blog and check out her posts. She has a Lasagna Roll recipe that is definitely calling my name, along with a Milk and Cookie Smoothie that looks incredible, as I am a lover of all things smoothie, and a recipe for Boston Cream Whoopie Pies that has gone to the top of my “must bake next” list. So, may I present, the best Blueberry Muffins I have ever had!
Blueberry Muffins w/ Lemon Sugar Topping
Lemon-Sugar Topping 1/3 cup sugar (2 1/3 oz) 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
Muffins
2 cups (about 10 oz) frozen blueberries 1 1/8 cups sugar (8 oz) plus 1 teaspoon 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 oz) all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt 2 large eggs, at room temperature 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Make your topping by mixing the sugar
and the lemon zest together by rubbing them
together with your fingertips until fragrant.
Set aside for a few minutes.
Place your oven rack in the top third of the oven.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Place 1 cup of blueberries and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a saucepan.
Bring to a simmer over medium heat, mashing the berries,
and stirring. Let the berries continue to cook until the berries begin
to take on a jam like consistency. The volume should be reduced
to about 1/4 cup. Transfer to a bowl, and let cool at room temp.
Whisk your flour, baking powder, and salt together.
In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar,
and the eggs together. Whisk in the butter and oil until combined.
Add the buttermilk and vanilla.
Add the remaining blueberries to the flour mixture.
Toss the blueberries in the flour.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients~just
until moistened. The batter should be lumpy. Be careful
to not over mix.
Add batter to each muffin tin. The tins should be sprayed
with pan spray before adding the batter.
Then place a teaspoon of the jam that you made earlier
on top of each muffin batter.
Use a skewer to swirl the jam into the batter.
Sprinkle each muffin with the sugar lemon mixture.
Bake the muffins until the tops are golden and they
spring back when gently pressed, about 17-19 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes before you remove the muffins from the pan.