Secret Recipe Club: Blueberry Muffins

The Secret Recipe Club is back!  After a month long hiatus, the group is back to blogging and sharing recipes.  This month I was assigned the blog, A Cook’s Quest.  She had a number of recipes I considered featuring for this post, including the Lemon Meltaways, Slow Cooker Marinara Sauce, and the Oatmeal Bread.  However, the blueberry muffins described as “the best ever” – how could I NOT make those?!  Plus I still had some blueberries in my freezer from when I went fruit picking in Michigan this summer.  A perfect way to use them up!

The Best Ever Blueberry Muffins, adapted from A Cook’s Quest

Sugar Topping

1/3 cup sugar
1½ teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

Streusel Topping
3 T white sugar
3 T brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
4 T melted butter

Muffins
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 1/8 cups  plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon water
2 1/2 cups  unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil (I used grapeseed)
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.  For the streusel, combine ingredients until it is the size of peas and set aside.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare standard muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray or liners. Bring 1 cup blueberries, water,  and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing the berries with your potato masher or fork several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced by about half.  This will take about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and well combined. Slowly mix in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not over mix.)

Using a cookie scoop or large spoon, divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle streusel and lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

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

Makes 12 muffins.