I must confess, I have fallen in love with blackberries. Not because we pick numerous cups of them every other day from our garden, but because they are...DELICIOUS. Over the past month, we have been adding and substituting blackberries in many of our favorite dishes. To date, I think the best use of our blackberries was in our Sunday morning pancakes. We have made blackberry (and peach) cobbler, blackberry jam and blackberry breakfast bars. I will end this obsession with blackberry muffins.
I knew I had a few cups of blackberries in the refrigerator that I needed to use. We are almost out of blackberry breakfast bars which I made at the beginning of the week, so why not one more breakfast food. (The breakfast bars were a big hit at home as well as at work!) I googled blackberry muffins and this Williams-Sonoma Blackberry Muffin recipe was at the top of the feed. The ingredients looked simple and I liked that there was a hint of lemon in the recipe. I pressed print, with recipe in hand, I was off to pick a few more blackberries and make these wonderful breakfast goodies.
When I'm baking I love any recipe that has an ease of use. The topping was basic, melt your better, add a few basic ingredients and put it aside. The muffin batter was even easier. When a recipe says, mix all the dry ingredients, make a well, pour in the egg, buttermilk and melted butter, stir until blended...that's my kind of recipe. The other side to this recipe is that it makes "just enough" muffins. Many times, I double recipes and freeze the excess. This time, I was looking for something everyone could enjoy and they wouldn't be sitting around for days. As I get ready to leave for work, 6 have already been eaten.
Since I made them last night, my first thoughts this morning were 1. coffee and 2. blackberry muffins. I said to Jeff, "I think I have a new found love, these are better than blueberry muffins." He agreed. I don't know if it is the freshness of the berries or that we don't normally eat blackberries. Having them in our garden has been such a fun experience and we have gotten to enjoy all sorts of blackberry recipes.
So, grab a pint of blackberries and try a different spin on your favorite muffin. You may have a new found love.
Blackberry Muffin recipe was adapted from Williams-Sonoma.
For the topping:
1⁄3 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of flour
Grated zest of 1⁄2 lemon
2 tablespoons of butter, melted
1/3 cup of pecans, finely chopped
For the muffins:
2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of white sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Grated zest of 1⁄2 lemon
1⁄4 teaspoon of salt
1 egg, beaten
5 tablespoons of butter, melted
1 cup of buttermilk
Preparation:
Preheat an oven to 375°F. Grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter or nonstick cooking spray.
To make the topping- In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, flour and lemon zest. Stir in the melted butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add the pecans and stir to combine. Set aside.
To make the muffins- In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt. Make a well in the center and add the egg, melted butter and buttermilk. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Sprinkle with the blackberries and gently fold in with a large rubber spatula just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Take care not to break up the fruit. Do not over mix.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each to a bit above the rim of the cup. Top each muffin with the topping, dividing it evenly (the sugar will melt and produce a glaze effect).
Bake until the muffins are golden, dry and springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes 12 muffins.
