Blueberry Lemon Muffins

I bought four more cookbooks this weekend. But wait, these are really good ones! Oh, the others?...yea they're good, too. But isn't there always one special book out of the pile that seems to have it all? This time it's the book, "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes" by Todd Wilbur. You've heard of him, right? He's the guy who clones all the top recipes from restaurants and coffee houses. He's even cloned the Twinkie...and Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bar.

He's really a funny guy and his books are just really fun to read. The stories before each recipe are not only fun fact filled ( try saying that 3 times!), but he interjects his humor into each.

So what does that have to do with a blueberry muffin? Glad you asked! I noticed he had a recent article pertaining to a certain blueberry muffin mix that contained...no real blueberries! Wow, big surprise. But his real gripe was the fact that the photo on the front of the box shows real blueberries, when, in fact, the mix contains none. He calls it deceptive advertising, which I agree. And that...finally brings me to why this post is on blueberry muffins. His article got me to thinking how darn easy to make your own...and they taste a whole lot better!

This recipe is created from here and there with my spin on it by adding a lemon glaze and some lemon zest in the batter. I tried to show an easy and fairly basic recipe. I had a bag of frozen mixed berries, rather than all blueberries but I just picked out all the blues and had to add a few other berries to make up the cup amount but they came out great. Nice and light and with a great lemony flavor that goes so well with blueberries.

So, the next time you want to make your family blueberry muffins...I say, give 'em real berries and save the fake stuff for...oh, I don't know...maybe potpourri!

The easy thing about making muffins is that you combine the dry with the wet, mix the two together and bake.

So, having said that, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Using a large bowl allows you more room to mix the batter.

In a glass measuring cup, combine the oil, egg and milk to reach a one cup amount.

Make a well in the center of the dry and add the wet.

Then mix just enough to combine the wet and dry and gently fold in the berries.

Scoop batter using a large cookie scoop...

And fill the muffin cups 2/3 the way full. (I ran out of regular size muffin liners but they came right out).

Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

While they're cooling, make the glaze but simply putting 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar into a small bowl and adding enough lemon juice to make a thin consistency.

Then, while the muffins are still slightly warm, drizzle the glaze over the top of each.

The glaze will kind of disappear but the flavor remains!

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Makes about 9 regular size muffins

1 1/2 cups AP flour

3/4 cup sugar ( I would cut this down to 1/2 cup next time..but I think everything is too sweet)

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil ( I used canola)

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/3 cup milk

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Glaze:

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

lemon juice, enough to make a thin glaze

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Preheat oven to 400. Using a regular muffin pan, place liners in cups or spray each cup with a vegetable oil spray.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.

2. Place oil, egg and lemon zest into a glass measuring cup, then add the milk to make a full cup amount.

3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the wet mixture, mixing just til barely combined.

4. Fold in the berries, then scoop the batter into the cups, filling 2/3 full.

5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or til toothpick inserted comes out clean.

6. Cool about 5 minutes in pan, then transfer to a wire rack and drizzle glaze on top of each.

Glaze:

Mix confectioners' sugar with enough fresh lemon juice to make a thin consistency glaze.