Blueberry Lemon Sugar Muffins

In the middle of winter when it is definitely not blueberry season I suddenly had the immense desire to make blueberry muffins after seeing the cute aqua cartons that blueberries are sold in at the Farmer’s market outside my apartment on Thursdays. Paired with smelling a blueberry muffin at a brunch restaurant nearby, these were enough reasons to make some blueberry muffins. Instead of using my old recipe, I decided to first make the non-dairy free version of these when I saw a blueberry muffin recipe in Cook’s Illustrated Science of Good Cooking Cookbook. What caught my eye bout their rendition was the use of lemon zest infused sugar to create a crust on the top of each muffin, and the use of melted blueberries to create a more jam-like texture to the center of the muffin. The lemon zest sugar is added to the muffins before they start baking, and when they finish the top of the muffin has a hard sugar cap with a “tap tap” sound when you tap on it. I really prefer this baked on sugar compared to dusted sugar! The texture is a lot crunchier. Cooking blueberries with sugar into a jelly like substance to pour on the inside of the muffins seems like an extra step, but really does improve the complexity of texture in the muffin. Instead of swirling the jelly all over the muffin with a toothpick in the batter, I opted to just keep it in the center so eating the muffin feels a little like eating a jelly donut with a gush of something sweet and moist in the middle. Here is a glimpse of the jelly berry center!

One thing that really improves the effect of the hard lemon sugar is letting the muffins cool 100% without any kind of covering. The first time I made these blueberry lemon sugar muffins I let them cool open to air for a few hours before putting them away or eating them and that helped the sugar get very hard and crunchy. The second time I made these, I thought they felt pretty cool to the touch but the inside of the muffin was not done cooling before I put them inside a plastic container. This caused some of the sugar to melt and the sugar was not crunchy on all parts of the muffin top. I would say 3 hours is a safe time for the muffins to cool completely inside out if you intend to put them away in an airtight container after.

After tasting the texture of these muffins from Cook’s Illustrated, I knew I had to make the non-dairy version so the Spork could enjoy them too. The main substitutions to make this dairy free was using Earth Balance instead of butter, and substituting buttermilk with a mix of soymilk and lemon juice. You can also use apple cider vinegar instead of the lemon juice, but I liked using lemon juice since I already used the lemon skin for zesting. Also, as a side-note did you know after you zest a lemon it turns hard as a rock very fast? In the past when I zested lemons I hoped I could use them to make lemonade in 1-2 days, but within a day my lemon turned so hard I could probably knock somebody out if I threw it at their head.

My initial blueberry muffin recipe from a few years ago was a blueberry muffin with a crumb topping. This lemon sugar topping is quite different in texture, and I think I prefer it a little to the crumb topping. Mostly because I like crunchy foods. If you have tried both ways of topping a muffins, let me know which one you like more!

Blueberry Lemon Sugar Muffins

Savoring Spoon

Recipe for 6 muffins

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 17 minutes mins

Total Time 47 minutes mins

Cuisine dessert

Servings 6 muffins

Ingredients

  

Lemon Sugar

• 1/6 cup sugar
• 1 medium lemon worth of lemon zest

Muffins

• 5 oz 1 cup blueberries
• 3.875 oz sugar 1/2 cup
• 6.25 oz all purpouse flour 1 1/4 cup
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons unsalted Earth Balance melted then cooled
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice in 1/2 cup plain soymilk let sit room temp 15 min prior to use
• 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

 

reheat oven

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Make lemon sugar

• Zest 1 medium sized lemon
• Add 1/6 cup sugar to teh lemon zest and mix with a fork
• In a separate cup, squeeze out lemon juice to use for your buttermilk

Make the "buttermilk"

• Measure out 1/2 cup plain soymilk and add 1/2 teapsoon lemon juice, stir, set aside at least 15 min at room temp prior to use

Make the blueberry sauce filling

• In a small saucepan, add 1/2 cup blueberries to the pan and then add 1/2 teaspon sugar. Cook on medium heat and mash the berries with the back of a wooden spoon whie you heat Stir to cook the berries (Takes about 3-5 minutes) until berries form a thick slury.
• Take off heat and let cool to room temp in a bowl for 15 min.

Make the muffin

• Mix flour, baking powder, salt in a large bowl. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then add in remaining sugar. Then add in melted butter and oil. Add the soymilk with lemon juice, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Then fold the liquid mixure into the dry mixture. Add remaining blueberries into the mixture and mix lightly.
• Line muffin pan with cupcake liners
• Spoon in 2 tablespoons of batter in each muffin cup. Then spoon in about 1 teaspoon of cooked berry slurry on top. Then spoon another tablespoon of batter over the slurry. Each muffin cup should be filled to the brim.
• Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over top of each muffin.
• Bake until toothpick inserted to center of muffin is clean of crumbs (having berry mix come out on the toothpick is normal, but it should be crumb less), and edges are a golden brown. This took 17 minutes in my oven. Halfway through rotate the muffin tin.
• Let muffin tin cool for 5 minutes after baking, then transfer muffins to a cooling rack to cool completely prior to serving (or eat it warm!).