Infallible Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Alright, people. I've been on hiatus, yet again, and during that time it seems I lost my ability to bake. And not just to bake well, but to bake the easiest thing of all, what some may call my specialty - the muffin. Luckily enough for me I managed to pick what would appear to be a recipe so good it's impossible to mess up. Because I tried, not once, but twice. You see, when a recipe tells you to cream the butter and sugar, don't forget the sugar until the last minute, when upon licking the beater it occurs to you that something is off. And certainly don't add the lemon juice in early instead of said sugar, making it nearly impossible to cream the butter. But if you do both of those things, most definitely do them with this recipe. Because despite all that drama I still managed to put forth muffins so lemony and crumbly that I couldn't eat less than two in one sitting. Six times in a row.

Alice’s Blueberry Muffins

From Sweet Savory Life

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter, softened

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup of sugar

zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 eggs

2 tsp. of vanilla extract

1/2 cup of sour cream

2 cups of AP Flour

2 tsp. of baking powder

1/2 tsp. of salt

1.5 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries

*optional 1/4 cup turbinado sugar/sugar crystals

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter, oil, lemon zest, and sugar for 3 minutes until light in color and creamy. Add eggs, sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla beating for an additional 2 minutes. Add salt, baking powder, and all-purpose flour gently mixing everything for an additional minute until everything is fully incorporated, approx. 2 minutes. Batter will be nice and thick. Gently fold in blueberries and pour batter into muffin tin lined with paper cups 3/4 cup full. Top each muffin with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar or sugar crystals.Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

Strawberry Overload

On a recent trip back from The Oregon Gardens, which are amazing and totally worth the short trip and $10, my mom and I stopped at one of the many roadside fruit stands to check it out. We picked a great one and scored an entire flat of strawberries for $14! That is seriously cheap. So now, after giving two pints away and eating them every morning for breakfast, I was faced with what to make/bake with the 4 pints I still had. I decided on Strawberry Cornmeal Muffins and a batch of Strawberry Freezer Jam! And it's no coincidence that these two items go together splendidly, nosiree.

Strawberry Cornmeal Muffins (taken from Eating Out Loud)
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk
1 cup chopped strawberries, plus 1/2 cup for garnish

In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add beaten egg, oil and milk, stirring until just combined. Fold in 1 cup chopped strawberries. I used smaller berries and simply cut them in half. I suggest chopping the berries no larger than 1/2″.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full, then garnish with a few chopped berries. Bake at 400F (200C) for 20-25 minutes or until testing done.

Allow the muffins to cool before removing from the muffin tin. I ran a sharp knife around the edge of each muffin, then popped them out of the tin.

These were freaking fantastic. Moist and delicate, easy and quick, and they made the whole house smell amazing. I wanted to smear them with butter and jam the instant they came out of the oven. The freezer jam, on the other hand, was only slightly successful. I don't remember where I originally pulled the recipe from so I'm not going to post it. Also, I'm unsure of what method we finally went with as Michelle and I were awfully confused on what to do between the recipe I got off the internet and the print out in the box of pectin. Ultimately, my sources (Michelle) tell me that the jam is delicious but still pretty runny. I guess that means we didn't use enough pectin. I'm going to have to try my hand at this again; I'm not going down without a fight, jam! We should have called the JAMLINE number that was listed on the box of pectin but I was too scared I would end up getting lectured by a grandmother in a rocking chair with a serious passion for jam. And now:

STRAWBERRY PHOTO MONTAGE!

Eat my muff.

I originally came across this recipe on Confections of a Foodie Bride via Tastespotting and knew immediately from the picture that I would be making these. I've always fancied myself more of a baker than a cook and muffins are one of my favorite things to make. Not only for the sheer versatility, such as sweet or savory options, but also because they are so easy. You rarely have to leave butter out to soften, they come together in a snap, and I can't recall ever messing muffins up. And don't even get me started on the portability of those suckers; I've spent many a morn grabbing a muffin and shoving it into my face on the drive down to work.

The end result was extremely tasty. I love the effect of coarse salt or sugar sprinkled on a muffin. My only complaint was that they ended up being a little dry. Next time I might try subbing yogurt for the butter and seeing if they moisten up any. Enjoy!

Scallion & Goat Cheese Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
2 large eggs, room temp
1 cup buttermilk, room temp
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 bunch scallions, sliced thin
5.5 oz goat cheese, crumbled
Sea salt, for garnish

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan or line with paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper into mixer bowl.

Lightly beat eggs and add to mixer bowl. Add buttermilk, melted butter, scallions, and goat cheese. Mix on medium speed until just combined - do not overmix.

Scoop the batter into the muffin pan. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 20 minutes, until well risen, golden brown, and firm to the touch.

Let muffins cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing. Serve warm or cool completely and store covered for 3 days.

Yields: 12 muffins
Source: Adapted from 1 Mix, 100 Muffins

Pre-oven

Baked!