Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

Today is a cloudy day.  A cloudy day in need of some sunshine.  Lemons, to me, are like liquid sunshine.  For whatever reason, they make me feel happy.  And when you add a summer fruit, even a dreary day like today is sunny.  This recipe comes from my family cookbook, and it’s a recipe my grandmother used to make often.  I honestly don’t know where she got her recipe from–probably from her local newspaper years ago, as she was apt to try many recipes from there.

You can use fresh or frozen blueberries.  A trick to keeping them separated from each other and not turning your batter purple is to coat the berries with a little bit of flour.  Just a little bit will do.

This is the normal mix-all-the-dry-ingredients-together-and-then-the-wet-ingredients-and-them-mix-the-two-together batter.  Here’s the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

And here’s the wet ingredients, whisked with a fork.

Now pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until it is all incorporated.

FOLD in the blueberries.  This is very important; that is, unless you want purple batter, and if that’s the case, then stir the berries in.  Folding allows the berries to be gently mixed in and not smashed into the batter.

Once the berries are folded in, scoop the batter into muffin tins.  The batter makes 18 muffins, and since they don’t rise too much, you can almost fill them to the top.  Mix lemon juice and sugar in a small bowl and sprinkle the mixture on top of the batter.

Bake these for about 25 minutes in the oven, and then, once they’re cooled slightly, you can enjoy your liquid sunshine.  Just make sure to share with others! xoxo

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

yields 18 muffins

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 c sugar

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 c buttermilk, or sour milk

1/3 c vegetable oil

juice and grated rind of 1 lemon

1 t vanilla

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 c blueberries, fresh or frozen

2 T sugar

1 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, beat buttermilk, oil, lemon juice and rind, vanilla, and egg together; add to dry mixture, stirring until just blended.  Fold in blueberries.  Spoon into greased muffin tin, or line tin with muffin liners.  Mix 2 T sugar and 1 T lemon juice together and then drizzle on top of each muffin.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick entered comes out clean.