Lemon Blueberry Muffins with Cinnamon Crumble Topping

Weather: 36 degrees, drippy and gray
What I’m listening to: Called Me Higher, All Sons & Daughters

In my mind one of the greatest culinary cruelties is that blueberry season is the opposite time of year as Meyer lemon season. They are a magical pairing. Meyer lemons are in season right now, typically December through April. Blueberries aren’t in season until at least early summer in most of the country – and in Alaska, we don’t pick our gorgeous wild Alaska blueberries until August and September. But, you’ll find that a great many Alaskans have stores of blueberries in their freezers, just so that they can experience familiar, bursting flavor of late summer right in the dead of a frigid winter.

This is an adaptation of a recipe that I’ve been making for about 13 years, since I received a cookbook as a gift that had a delectable recipe for lemon blueberry muffins with a cinnamon crumble topping. The great thing about this recipe is that you can use Meyer lemons or your standard lemon and you can use fresh blueberries when they’re in season or frozen when they’re not.  I used frozen blueberries (no need to thaw) and the muffins are glorious. I mean, would you just look at all those berries inside?

Oh, and about the crunchy, buttery cinnamon crumb topping. Cinnamon is also amazing with blueberries, in my opinion. People are often skeptical, but it’s true. The topping makes these muffins, so don’t skip it.

If you’re excited about these, you may also like my popular and well-reviewed Blueberry Zucchini Muffins come zucchini season.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Save

Print

A versatile and delicious lemon blueberry muffin recipe with a buttery, crunchy cinnamon crumble topping. Adapted from Family Circle Cookbook and [Fifteen Spatulas|http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/blueberry-meyer-lemon-muffins-with-streusel-crumb-topping/].

Yields: 1 dozen muffins

• For the Cinnamon Crumble Topping:
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• ¼ cup cold butter, cubed
• For the Muffins:
• 1 ½ cups flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (I used the zest of two small Meyer lemons)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 cups blueberries*

!To make the topping:

In a small mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Add the cubed butter and, using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Place topping mixture into the refrigerator while you prepare the batter.

!To make the muffins:

Preheat oven to 400. Line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners.

In a larger mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, and egg until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined (no need to get all the lumps out when making muffins; over mixing the dough produces dense muffins). Gently fold in the blueberries (you will find that there are just as many blueberries as there is batter and you may fear there's not enough batter and you've done something wrong. Don't worry. This is how you want it to be so that your muffins are packed with blueberries as pictured).

Divide the batter between the twelve muffin cups (I used my medium cookie scoop with heaping portions to do this). Sprinkle each muffin generously with the crumble topping. You will likely have a little topping leftover.

Bake the muffins 20-22 minutes (if using frozen berries, bake 24-26 minutes instead) until cooked through and golden. Allow to cool at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan.