Last Minute Muffins

For some reason I really had a craving for some muffins this past weekend. And not just any muffins... lemon poppy seed muffins. But Leslie doesn't like those... so we compromised and I made lemon blueberry muffins instead. I used a few elements from a few recipes, but the main one I used is here. Oh, and this is our 19th recipe of the year.

The Recipe

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

1/2 Cup Sweet Creamy Butter

2/3 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs, Separated

1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1-1/3 Cups Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Zest of Two Lemons

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1-1/2 Cups Blueberries

Preheat your oven to 330 degrees and grease your muffin tins. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add the egg yolks one at a time, beating between. Next, beat in the yogurt, lemon juice, and vanilla. Combine all the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and lemon zest - in a separate bowl and mix well. Remove a few tablespoons of this mixture and toss it with the blueberries to cover them (this prevents them from all sinking to the bottom of the batter). Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir only enough to just combine - don't over mix! In another bowl, beat the egg whites to form soft peaks. Add this, along with the blueberries, and gently fold it in. Again, do not over mix the batter! Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full and put them in the oven. Once they're in, turn the heat on the oven up to 350 degrees and cook until done (about 20 minutes), rotating halfway through.

The Results

These are very tasty. Our muffin pans, for some unfortunate reason, seem to darken the bottoms and sides of whatever we bake in them (maybe because they're the dark, nonstick kind?). So the bottoms were a little darker than I'd like, but the insides were lovely. I didn't follow the linked recipe exactly and more or less used Alton Brown's "muffin method" basics (check it out on Good Eats, "The Muffin Method Mad"  - Season 7, Episode 4, or his blueberry muffin recipe found here). One thing I might consider changing would be to use ricotta instead of yogurt, as lemon, ricotta, and blueberry combine to form a super-powered team that gives groups such as the Axe Gang and the Avengers a run for their money. I'd also consider using different muffin tins next time... we might have to visit Bed Bath & Beyond after Christmas for some. But these were pretty delicious and I'll probably give them another go next time the urge to bake arises.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!