do you know the muffin man?

In this case, the muffin woman, yes, me. I’ve never been much of a baker but I had a bunch of fresh blueberries I had frozen that were glaring at me every time I opened the freezer. I’d already made a blueberry crisp and needed a new idea.

That morning I clicked on the beloved foodgawker.com and had an AH HA moment. Blueberry muffins were first entry. So I went on to search for the perfect recipe, one without cream, buttermilk, sour cream or butter as the main components. I found one and substituted whole milk for skim and kept everything else the same. The only “bad” part was that there was a ¼ cup butter in the crumb topping. Next time I may reduce the amount of the topping or use margarine in its place. But then again, a little indulgence never killed anyone, right? Plus it only comes out to be 1 1/3 tsp of butter per muffin. Another experiment will be substituting whole wheat flour for all-purpose, I’ll let you know how that turns out.

The BEST Blueberry Muffins

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup skim milk
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• zest of one small lemon
• 1 cup fresh blueberries- fresh makes all the difference!

Crumb Topping:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the vegetable oil, egg, skim milk, vanilla and lemon zest in a mixer. In a separate bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, stir to combine. With the mixer on medium low, slowly pour in the dry ingredients until mixed. Don’t over mix. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Gently stir in the blueberries. Spoon the mixture into the muffin pan- I filled 9 that were of good size. Use the muffin liners, otherwise grease and flour your muffin pan.

For the crumb topping, in a separate bowl, melt your butter and mix in the sugar, flour and cinnamon, let cool slightly, then spoon crumb topping over each muffin.

Cook for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out cleanly. Cool on cooling racks.
When I say these are the best, I mean it, this picture doesn't do it justice (sorry iPhone pic). You’ll never go back to Duncan Hines after these. One more tip – heat them up in the microwave before indulging, blueberry perfection.