Muffin Mania

If ever there was a recipe designed to please Martin, Smitten Kitchen's latest entry is it. Blueberry muffins are a staple around here...though in a much inferior form. Martin likes his muffins straight from a box and, in case you've never sunk so low as to cheat in this manner, let me just tell you they're not all bad. Whatever brand mix I choose, they all seem to turn out pretty light and cake-like. The only strange thing about box muffins are the blueberries themselves. I don't know what crop they come from but these blueberries are always scarcely bigger than bbees! Downright creepy opening up that can and staring down at the emaciated purplish balls calling themselves blueberries.

The recipe I used tonight says you can use frozen or fresh, but since blueberries are in season now, I used fresh. It did my heart good to see those fat, juicy berries folding into the mix - deliciousness in each round orb. Even if I weren't used to a mix, I think some of the ingredients in this version might have seemed a bit unusual, such as lemon zest and sour cream (or plain yogurt). When you get done putting all the stuff together what turns up is a very stiff, cookie like dough. There's no pouring this mixture into the muffin pan. Using a tablespoon measure I rounded out big, thick glops into ten muffin cups (Spongebob Squarepants design, no less) and then waited to see what would come out - and whether my husband would eat them or throw a mini-revolt and beg for his box muffins with the itty-bitty mutant blueberries.

I loved the result and it was very well received by the Muffin Man...and his (our) son.