Blueberry-Lemon Curd Streusel Muffins

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!