One sunny Saturday during this homestay season, it felt like a good time to bake some fresh muffins and I had some fresh blueberries. And a lemon.
I happen to think that lemon and blueberry make a splendid marriage, especially in a muffin. I found a recipe from a trusted online source right away, being too lazy to check my own recipe file and voila, I started to bake.
The muffins were ready in no time. My neighbor Katie was upstairs on our building’s rooftop deck with her cousin, and I told them I was bringing them a surprise. The muffins freshly warm from the oven was that surprise.
It was my intention that they could be shared. Katie ate one and swore it was the best muffin she’d had, ever, in her entire life! I seem to remember that they weren’t shared as evenly as I had intended …
It wasn’t until later that I realized that recipe had no lemon in it, so I re-mastered it to include lemon, which is this recipe. Katie tested them for me and insisted that still, they were her favorite muffins ever.
I just wanted to make sure, so as not to lie when I named them accordingly.
Katie’s Favorite (Lemon-Blueberry) Muffins Ever
1 1/2 cups white-whole wheat flour or all-purpose unbleached flour*
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
¼ cup almond meal*
⅓ cup vegetable oil/olive oil (may also use melted coconut oil)
½ cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Freshly grated zest of one large lemon (save zested lemon for juicing)
1 cup (6 ounces) blueberries, fresh or frozen + 1 tsp flour
1 Tbsp turbinado sugar (also called raw sugar), for sprinkling before baking
Juice of one fresh lemon + ¼ cup powdered sugar, for glaze
*1 ¾ cups almond flour may be used in this recipe as well; or, simply use 1 ¾ cups flour if you don’t have almond meal
Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Grease 12-cup muffin tin with butter or coconut oil or, line cups with paper liners.
Sift flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix in almond meal and nutmeg; set aside.
In large bowl, whisk oil and maple syrup. Add the eggs and blend well; add the yogurt, vanilla, and lemon zest; combine thoroughly.
Gently stir dry ingredients into moist batter and mix until combined well; do not overmix.
Toss blueberries with 1 tsp flour in medium bowl. The flour keeps the blueberries “buoyant” and from sinking to the bottom of muffins while baking; especially important for frozen berries. (This is an important tip for baking with frozen fruit, in general!) Gently stir blueberries into batter.
Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle each muffin with a pinch of turbinado sugar.
Bake the muffins for 13-15 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
While muffins bake, mix fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar for glaze. With pastry brush, lightly brush each muffin with glaze while warm. Allow muffins to cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Store in airtight container for up to 5 days.
Yields 12 muffins; recipe may be doubled in direct proportion.
