Blueberry Muffins

Sunday brunch was a must this past weekend. We were expecting about 20 friends to be coming over before the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade and I wanted to be able to provide quick finger food to anyone who needed something to snack on.

In addition to bagels and a huge bowl of fruit we had out, I wanted to make muffins. I love recipes that do not require picking up anything extra from the store. And somehow, I had enough milk, eggs, AND butter in the fridge! That never used to happen. And with blueberries in the fridge and freezer, I knew exactly what kind of muffins I'd be whipping up.


What you'll need:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temp
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp baking soda
• salt
• 2 cups flour - I used 1 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat
• 2 tbsp applesauce
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 1/2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Once the butter was soft, I placed it in a bowl and used a spoon to spread it out. You want it to look somewhat creamy. Mix in the sugar and beat until pale.

Next add the eggs. I mixed each egg in separately and used the hand mixer to beat the eggs into the sugar mixture.

Add the vanilla, baking soda, and a pinch of salt, mix.

Fold in the flour & milk, alternating between the two. This is where I decided to add applesauce to the recipe. The whole wheat flour is dry so adding the applesauce really made the muffin mix the right consistency.

Lastly, mix in the blueberries and lemon zest.

Spoon the mixture into 2 greased muffin tins (you should have enough for 18 muffins).

Bake 15-20 mins.

With a waste not, want not thought process going on, I decided to use the rest of the fresh blueberries and raspberries we had and supplemented the rest with frozen blueberries. These muffins were delicious right out of the oven...hence the picture of 17 muffins....oops! :)

And 2 days later, they were a life saver Monday morning when I decided to sleep in a little and rush to get ready for work. Guess it was a good thing we had a few left over!

And, yes those are birthday wrappers. Like I said, I used what we already had this time. :)