Blueberry Muffins

This morning, we had snow...again.  What do you need besides a lot of coffee on a cold morning???  How about a blueberry muffin that's loaded with blueberries and topped with a fragrant lemon sugar topping??

I saw this recipe and knew immediately that I needed to make it.  I was not disappointed!!  It came from America's Test Kitchen, they have lots of free recipes on their website.  The following is one of them.

The Best Blueberry Muffins

Lemon Sugar Topping

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon peel

Muffins

2 cups fresh Blueberries

1 1/8 cups sugar; plus 1 teaspoon

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. For The Topping

Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

2. For the muffins

Adjust oven rack to the upper middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or insert muffin cup liners.  Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes.  This will cool while you prepare the batter.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.  Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds.  Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.  Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.  Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until moistened.  (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots dry flour; do not over mix.)

4.  Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should fill cups and slightly mound).  Using a spoon push a teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound.  using a chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter.  Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

5. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17-19 minutes.  Cool muffins in tim for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack until cool.

ENJOY!!!