Many years ago my son and I went to a local farmers market one weekend. While we were browsing all the fresh veggies and fruits, tucked away was a cozy little booth filled with many varieties of baked goods. I decided upon strawberry bread and this wonderful muffin called Blueberry Lemon Muffin. I had never had such a wonderful combination of flavors mingle in my mouth, the fresh blueberries, creamy lemon inside and the crunchy streusel topping, yum! I had to make these at home.
So there I went searching the vast world of the internet. Lo and behold I found the exact recipe from the muffin I had sampled. I can't recall where I found it, and I can't seem to find this exact recipe anymore on the web. So now I share it here with you. I think you'll be really happy when you make these!
Recipe:
This will make 12 muffins
Streusel Topping
3 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cold Unsalted Butter, Cut Into Pieces
1/2 Teaspoon Freshly Grated Nutmeg
Muffins
1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
6 Tablespoons (3/4 Stick) Cold Unsalted Butter, Cut Into Pieces
1 1/2 Cups Fresh Blueberries
1 Large Egg
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Milk
1/3- 1/2 Cup Lemon Curd
Place your oven rack into center position and preheat oven to 350
Place cupcake liners into muffin tin. Set aside.
For the streusel topping, combine flour and sugar in a small bowl. With a pastry blender or your fingertips, work in the butter until it's in small flakes. Stir in nutmeg. Refrigerate until needed.
For the muffins, sift flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt together into large bowl. Add butter and cut in with pastry blender or two knives until pieces of butter are the size of small peas. Add blueberries to mixture,toss gently with fingers.
In a small bowl beat the egg lightly. Stir in vanilla and milk. Add milk mixture to flour mixture all at once. Fold gently with a rubber spatula just to moisten dry ingredients. Batter will be thick.
Divide half the batter into muffin tins equally. Add a small spoonful of lemon curd into each muffin cavity. Spoon remaining batter into muffin pan equally.
Remove streusel from refrigerator. Sprinkle streusel mixture over the top of each muffin, be generous.
Bake for 20- 25 minutes, until muffins are golden brown and spring back when gently pressed. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove and serve warm or cool.
Tip: Double the streusel ingredients. The streusel gives a nice crunchy topping to your muffins!
Don't you just want to make these right now!
Baking can be tricky and if you don't follow steps in the right order you can have a complete mess on your hands. Following is a pictorial for this recipe.
A special thanks to my husband for taking the pics.
Prepare streusel using a pastry blender
Make sure butter is well chilled when cutting into mix
Blend until the butter is in small flakes
Sift all of the dry ingredients.
I use an 8 cup measuring cup, it helps when filling muffin tins
Tap gently on the side of sifter to help the ingredients along
Add pieces of cold butter to sifted ingredients
Cutting in butter with a pastry blender use your fingers to dislodge butter sticking to pastry blender
Blend until butter is the size of small peas
Until it looks like this
Fresh blueberries are the best for this recipe
Add blueberries to sifted ingredients
Toss gently, you don't want to mush the blueberries
Until well coated
Add wet ingredients to dry mix
Fold gently this will take some time
You want it to be mixed just until all dry ingredients are moist
Don't over stir, the result will be a tough muffin
Add half of the batter to muffin tin
Store bought Lemon Curd, you can also make this home made
I use a demitasse spoon when filling the muffins with lemon curd, its the perfect size
Spoon lemon curd into half filled muffin tin
Spoon remaining batter into muffin tin
Ready for streusel topping
Streusel topping added, place into preheated oven and bake 20-25 minutes
Fresh out of the oven
Cooling, but ready to eat!