Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Muffins puts Zest from one lemon, frozen blueberries and plus 1 teaspoon sugar at the center of a breakfast recipe and finishes in about 43 minutes, enough for 12 -16 muffins.

• Yield 12 -16 muffins
• Ready in 43 minutes
• Prep 15 minutes
• Cook 28 minutes

Ingredients

Lemon-Sugar Topping

• ⅓ cup ( 71 g ) sugar
• Zest from one lemon

Muffins

• 2 cups frozen blueberries , or 2 cups fresh
• 1 ⅛ cups plus 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 ½ cups ( 355 g ) all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons ( 57 g ) butter , melted and cooled slightly
• ¼ cup oil , vegetable or canola
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

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.
3. 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.
4. Transfer to a small bowl and cool to room temperature, about 10 to 15 minutes.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.

Cool the bake on a rack until the crumb sets, then slice.