Perfect (?) Blueberry Muffins

I don’t think I’ve ever made blueberry muffins in my adult life, so what inspired me to make them now? It could be that the place I’ve been getting them from doesn’t have very good ones (too sweet), we had some great blueberries that I didn’t want to go to waste and I was going up to Boston to clean out the house and the availability of edible food was in question.

After searching the Internet for blueberry muffin recipes, I discovered this one from Smitten Kitchen. She’s tweaked it into “Even More Perfect Blueberry Muffins,” so it had to be great, right? Makes 9:

Blueberry Muffins

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Finely grated zest from 1/2 a lemon
• 3/4 cup plain unsweetened yogurt, sour cream or buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to defrost)
• 3 tablespoons turbinado (sugar in the raw) sugar

Heat oven to 375°. Line a muffin tin with 9 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray.

Melt butter in the bottom of a large bowl and whisk in sugar, lemon zest, yogurt and egg until smooth. Whisk in baking powder, baking soda and salt until fully combined, then lightly fold in flour and berries. Batter will be very thick, like a cookie dough.

Divide between muffin cups and sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then the rest of the way on a rack. Serve and enjoy!

My verdict:

These were really good, but not “perfect”. It could be because we grew up with corn muffins with blueberries, so the cakey ones have always seemed too sweet.

I’ve made these twice now, once with buttermilk and once with yogurt. I liked the yogurt ones better, and they seemed to rise more than the buttermilk ones. We always have yogurt in the house, and buttermilk can sometimes be hard to find.

The first time I made them, I went easy on the turbinado sugar, because too sweet, right? But you really need to follow the recipe, because it does make a nice crunchy topping when you use the full amount. I also think that the lemon zest was a little strong, so the second time I used a little less than half a lemon.