enJOY it

I realized last Saturday that while the hot weather makes it tough to cook in the evenings that shouldn’t stop me from a baking in the mornings. We recently picked up a ton of blueberries on sale and I remembered that I’d seen this killer recipe. We had guests coming into town last weekend so all together, that seemed like a perfect excuse to pre-heat the oven.

I usually make a few alterations to recipes. Usually it’s because I want to cut a bit of sugar and add a bit of wheat flour (which I did here). But also it’s because I don’t always have the exact ingredients and need to make a substitute (which is why I substituted greek yogurt for plain). Baking, so much more than cooking, is an exact science, but for some reason, that makes it all the more satisfying when I take my own spin on a recipe and it turns out.

This one, thankfully, was a tremendous success. Again, here’s the original recipe and below is mine with some adjustments.

Makes 12 muffins and takes about an hour of prep + cooking.

for the muffins:

• 2 cups blueberries
• 3/4 C sugar + 1 t sugar
• 1/4 C milk (we used non-fat, I’m sure the thicker the better)
• half a lemon
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 1/2 C white flour
• 1 C wheat flour
• 2 T wheat germ (don’t worry if you don’t have this on hand, but I’ve found that when I substitute wheat flour, adding a bit of wheat germ levels out the flavor really well.)
• 1 t salt
• 2 eggs
• 4 T butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 C vegetable oil
• 1/2 C greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 t vanilla

for the crumb topping:

• 2 T sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 T wheat flour
• 2 T white flour
• 1 1/2 T butter, melted

Combine the dry ingredients for the crumb topping and add in the melted butter, stirring with a fork to get a crumbly texture. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425*F.

Combine 1 C washed blueberries and the extra teaspoon of sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat. Use a wooden spoon to stir and break down the berries. After a few minutes, it will bubble and become thick. This is the blueberry mixture that will turn the muffins that pretty deep blue (we decided it was totally worth it over simple loose blueberries in the batter.)

Pour 1/4 C of milk into your measuring cup and add in the juice from one half lemon. Let sit.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry muffin ingredients (remaining sugar, flours, wheat germ, salt and baking soda).

In a smaller bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until thick. Slowly add in the butter and oil. Finally, add in the yogurt, milk + lemon and vanilla and mix everything together well.

Fold the wet mixture into the dry. Adding the second cup of blueberries as you go. Be careful not to over mix, but also leave no dry spots. The consistency was like a blend of cookie dough and cake batter (and smelled amazing).

Line your muffin tin with muffin cups (or should you find yourself without them like I did) butter the insides of each cup well and spoon in your batter until you’ve cleared the bowl. (The cups will be full to the brim.)

Spoon the blueberry mixture from the saucepan into the center of each muffin cup and use a fork or toothpick to mix it in.

Add your crumble on top and wipe away the excess.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes (I hit the sweet spot at 18). A toothpick in the center should come out dry or with crumbs. Let cool in the tin for a few minutes and then remove from the tin to cool some more.

Enjoy!

This weekend we have family in town so tomorrow morning I think I’ll try these!