I Heart Blueberry Muffins

Seriously, look at that deliciousness...

I don't know about you but this is one of my comfort foods.  Of all the pastries to choose from, blueberry muffins are ALWAYS at the top of my list.  In fact, I love just about every blueberry baked goodie out there but the muffins are oh-so-scrumptious and make me weak.  One of my first loves when it comes to food.  Blueberry muffins are the reason I started to bake and made me determined to be a darn good baker.  Ahem, I must say I'm pretty good at it yet I still have a lot of learning and practicing ahead of me.  That's otay.  My good friend, Cristina, says it is therapeutic for her, and I have to agree. J

I first started making muffins from a box (gasp!) and didn’t attempt to make them from scratch until after I got married.  I was so afraid of ruining them that and I did not want it to be a killjoy.  Well… they turned out to be not oh-so-scrumptious.  I was so bummed and disappointed.  Obviously, I had become too comfortable and confident making them from a box all those years.  After that I did baking research and read all sorts of tips, advice and how-to’s.  Then I came across a slew of blueberry muffin recipes.  I have been using the same recipe for a few years now and I’m quite happy with it.  So are Mr. DP3 and my sweet girl because they always give me a thumbs up.  Yay. (My boy is not a fan of the blueberry muffin – sniffle, sniffle.)  The recipe I use is from here but I tweaked it a bit and this is my version:

INGREDIENTS:

·         1½ cups all-purpose flour

·         ¾ cup white sugar

·         ½ tsp. salt

·         2 tsp. baking powder

·         1/3 cup vegetable oil

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract

·         1 large egg (room temp or close to)

·         1/3 cup buttermilk plus a little extra

·         1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Topping (optional)

·         ½ cup sugar

·         1/3 cup all-purpose flour

·         ¼ cup butter, cubed

·         1½ tsp ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 12 cup muffin pan or line with liners.

2. Combine 1 ½ cups flour, ¾-cup sugar, salt and baking powder.  Place vegetable oil into a 1-cup measuring cup; add the egg and beat together; add vanilla and enough buttermilk to fill the cup (going past the 1-cup line is okay). Mix this with flour mixture until there are no dry ingredients left.  You don’t want to overdo it or else you’ll have flat top muffins.  Fold in blueberries.  Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture (optional).

I use a small scoop for the batter.

Three scoops per cup is usually the norm for me.

3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together ½ cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, ¼ cup butter, and 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon.  Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.  Mine are perfect at 20 minutes in my oven. 

Oh did you notice those liners?  Don't they look kid-like?

They are dinosaur liners left over from one of my son's parties.  I took muffins to work in dinosaur liners.  My co-workers thought they were fun.  Awww.

There ye have it ladies and gents.  You have yourselves my favorite blueberry muffin recipe (to date) and I hope you all can bake a batch for yourselves and devour enjoy them as I do.  J  I make mine without the topping most of the time to save calories and also my hubby really doesn’t care for it.  They taste great either way!



I gotta have my muffin with my fave coffee from Mickey D's.

The perfect combination to start off my work day.

Now tell me what baked goodie you heart and share your recipes with me.  The more recipes in my kitchen the better!