buttermilk blueberry crumb muffins

It’s celebration time!

Fasten your seat belts people, because what you’re about to see is proof of my first successful bake in over 3 MONTHS! That’s huge. Because if you know my oven, you know that it’s completely wretched and should be donated to a museum or something. That beast is a million years old…takes over an hour to heat up… and is exactly 120 degrees off. So, let’s just say that it is not the most user friendly appliance in my kitchen especially when you forget to fasten the hook. Oh, yes the hook. You know, the thing that keeps the oven door from shooting open like a jack-in-the-box?

One is conflicted.

Mommy? When are you going to make us muffins again? You don’t bake your bread anymore…

Ah, yes. Leave it to a small child to rope you into the ultimate guilt trip.

On Wednesday, I decided to stop the pity party and to start baking again. For the kids. For me. I knew that if I was going to commit to this cumbersome task, I would do it right and bake more than just one recipe. The plan was to bake several things at once to take advantage of time and electricity. I would be The Clever Bakery. I made these buttermilk blueberry crumb muffins, a zucchini cake, and a lemon poppy seed loaf.

Oh, it’s on now.

Let’s talk about crumbs…

This is your topping. The topping that you will methodically eat first when devouring your muffins. It is also very messy. Do yourself a favor, and find a bigger bowl than I did because you have to mix everything together with your hands. You will need more room than you think. I lightly flavored this one with cinnamon because I love the combination of blueberries and cinnamon.

Once you’re done sprinkling the crumbs over each muffin, gently press a few blueberries into the batter. The heat from the oven will make them burst giving you that quintessential blueberry muffin look. I’m eating using my frozen stash…

If you read this post, you’ll know that I’m very picky about blueberry muffins. Although the blueberry cornmeal recipe is my usual go-to, this version is a wonderful alternative. The addition of buttermilk replaces most of the fat and adds a slight richness to the batter. The cinnamon-crumb topping creates a delicious crunchy texture just begging to be picked at. It’s the perfect amount of tart and sweet.

Tips:

• My secret is to use salted butter for the crumb topping. It adds just the right amount of flavor. Don’t skip this!
• If using store-bought frozen blueberries, your batter will turn slightly blue/purple in color when mixing (it’s from the residual moisture). This is completely normal and will not affect the look and taste of your muffins. 

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