Luscious Blueberry Muffins

We've been in the process of getting the Relief Society blog up and running and I thought what better way to start than with a fun recipe! For those of you that were at the activity a few weeks back, these muffins were part of the refreshments we had after. Quite a few people asked for the recipe so here it is! This recipe is pretty versatile, I prefer to make it with whole wheat flour instead of white, but you can do all white or half and half and I've found them all to be just as good. Also, you can omit the step of cooking half the blueberries and just put them all in if you're short on time. I've baked these with fresh and frozen and both were great. Enjoy!

Luscious Blueberry Muffins

INGREDIENTS

Lemon-Sugar Topping:
• 1/3 cup sugar
• zest from one lemon
Muffins:
• 2 cups frozen blueberries (or 2 cups fresh)
• 1 1/8 cups (8 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1/4 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. For the topping, stir together sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.
2. For the muffins, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Rinse one cup frozen berries under cold water and spread on a double layer of paper towels to dry well. Bring remaining one cup berries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with a spoon several times and stirring frequently, until the berries have broken down and the mixture is thickened and reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and cool to room temperature, about 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Toss the berries that have dried on the paper towels in with the flour mixture. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl until thick, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture into flour mixture until just moistened. The batter will be lumpy with a few dry spots of flour – don’t overmix. This is the key to moist and tender muffins.
4. Using ice cream scoop or large spoon, fill the muffin cups until they are about 3/4 full. Spoon a teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into the center of each mound of batter. Using a skewer (or a chopstick), gently swirl the berry filling into the batter using a figure eight motion. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over the muffins.
5. Bake until the top of the muffins are golden and just firm, 17-18 minutes. Cool muffins in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

Yield 12-16 Muffins

Recipe and Picture taken from Melskitchencafe.com

Lani Baker