Sometimes cold and rainy days are great. You put on your comfies, a sit down to a nice movie or book and enjoy the warmth of your home. Buuuuut then you have days where the weather couldn't have picked a worse day to be cold and rainy. The kids are climbing the walls, trashing the house with every second and driving me absolutely insane. That's when recipes like this are huge life savers. I found this on Recipe Shoebox, a fabulous blog that you should go check out asap. As soon as I found it, I ordered the kids into the kitchen and got to baking. Muffins are so fun to make with kids, they're not complicated, but there are enough steps involved to keep them busy for a while.
The best part is not only are these a snap to make, they are INSANELY delicious. And this is coming from a person that doesn't usually go running to the muffin table. So soft and moist with the best flavor. Lemons and blueberries really were meant for each other. Two days and these bad boys were gone. I can't wait to make them again. Thanks Lara, you saved us on a rainy day!
Lemon-Blueberry Muffins
From the Recipe Shoebox.
Ingredients
2 cups flour (I used King Arthur's white whole wheat flour)
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. cold butter, cut into 6-pieces
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
TOPPING I never did the topping, just covered the top in raw sugar. I imagine the topping is wonderful though!
2 Tbs. flour
2 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. melted butter
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs (you want to be able to see small pea-sized clumps of butter still). In a separate smaller bowl, lightly beat together egg, milk, lemon juice, lemon rind and vanilla until blended. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture until just blended (do NOT overmix). NOTE: Batter will be somewhat thick.
Fold blueberries into batter. Spoon batter evenly into well-greased muffin pan.
For topping, in a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon until well blended. Spread mixture evenly over tops of muffin batter.
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400°. Muffins should be golden brown. Serve warm. Makes 12 standard size muffins. Enjoy!