Blueberry Lemon Muffins

I’ve been looking for a really good blueberry muffin recipe for a while now. So I was happy when I got an email last week that included a link to this recipe. That email was from my friend Brenda who I worked with for years and who is so lucky to be retired now. She and her husband, Ted,  spend about half the year on Lake Blackshear in south Georgia and the other half on Mackinac Island. I’ve never been to Mackinac, but I feel like I’ve experienced it through her blog, Bree’s Mackinac Island Blog. Mackinac Island seems like a magical place in our modern world. A place where no motorized vehicles are allowed and everyone either walks, bikes or rides a horse-drawn carriage. How lovely.

Brenda’s email included a link to the recipe for the Blueberry Lemon Muffins from the Iroquois Hotel on Mackinac. She said that they put these lovely little muffins in their diners’ bread baskets and that she and Ted both love them. Now that I’ve made them I can certainly see why!

These have a lighter texture than the usual muffin and are not overly sweet. I had two with my coffee this morning and I have to say they are one of the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever had. I’m so pleased to add this recipe to my collection and I hope you enjoy it, too.

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tblsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup cooking oil
1 ½ cups blueberries
2 tsp. lemon zest, divided
4 tblsp. butter, melted
½ cup sugar 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin with butter. 

In a mixing bowl, sift the flour and then add the remaining dry ingredients. Stir to combine and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs lightly. Add the milk and cooking oil and stir together. 

Make a well in the flour mixture and pour all of the milk and egg mixture into the well.

Stir as little as possible to moisten the flour. Set the batter aside to rest for a minute. 

In another small bowl, combine the blueberries and 1 ½ teaspoons of the lemon zest. A microplane zester makes really quick and easy work of the zesting.

Fold the blueberries and lemon zest into the batter with a large spatula. Stir very gently and only enough to fully mix in the berries. 

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake the muffins on a rack in the middle position of the oven for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. Removemuffins from the oven and let them sit while you prepare the topping. 

Melt the butter in a small pan. Put the sugar and remaining ½ tsp. lemon zest in a small bowl. Mix the sugar and lemon zest together well. 

Run a knife around the edges of each muffin. Remove muffins from the tin one at a time.

Brush the top of each muffin with melted butter and then dip it in the sugar and lemon zest mixture.

Place muffins on a rack to cool completely. 

Enjoy!

Download a printable copy of Blueberry Lemon Muffins.

–Recipe adapted from the “Iroquois Hotel Blueberry Lemon Muffins” published by
The Seminal http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/57042

Other great blueberry muffin recipes:

• Blueberry Muffins on Simply Recipes
• Alton Brown’s Blueberry Muffins on Food Network
• Blueberry Muffins from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook
• Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins at Epicurious

Tagged as: blueberries, blueberry muffins, Breads, Breakfast, cooking, Desserts, Food, lemons, muffins, quick breads, recipes