Fresh Blueberries

Fresh, locally grown blueberries! I love the sweet taste of a blueberry.  They are great to snack on, on their own. But, I especially love them when incorporated into recipes and baking them.  They are juicy, sweet and so good.  Not only are blueberries so tasty, they are healthy too.  They are loaded with essential Antioxidants.

There are so many ways of using blueberries.  They can be eaten raw, cooked or even made into jams and juices.  Blueberries can be used in desserts & breakfast recipes such as muffins, cakes, breads, tarts and pies.  They are also great to top your favorite yogurt or cereal with and can add a nice sweetness to you salad.

To ensure that you get a sweet tasting berry, you will want to make sure you pick blueberries that are blue or dark in color.

Do you have a favorite recipe that incorporates blueberries? Do you like to snack on them raw or cooked?  I have several recipes I like.  I especially love a good blueberry muffin and we have tried many store bought versions over the years.  Typically when buying them from your local supermarket bakery they have good flavor but they tend to skimp on the amount of blueberries they add to their recipe.  So, if you are like me, I love a muffin that is loaded with blueberries.  I want blueberries to be throughout almost all of the muffin when I bite into it.   So, I like to bake blueberry muffins at home so I can add more blueberries to them.  I can remember growing up and visiting my grandmother.  She always loved to pick fresh berries and then make homemade pies and muffins with them.  Her muffins would always be loaded with blueberries; they were the best.  Her house would smell amazing when you walked in because she was usually always baking something, especially if she knew we were coming for a visit.  Maybe that is where I got a passion for a muffin loaded with blueberries.

I also like to try making the muffins with different ingredients, like yogurt.  I have used plain yogurt and in this recipe I used a vanilla yogurt (since that is what I had in my fridge at the time) and they turned out really delicious.  The vanilla with the blueberries and the lemon flavor all went so well together.

Check out the recipe for my Blueberry Muffins w/Lemon Glaze below.

Blueberry Muffins w/Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

1 ½ Cups, All Purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons, Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon, Salt

½ Cup, Butter, melted

1 Cup, Sugar

3 Eggs

1 Teaspoon, Vanilla

1 (12 oz) Container, Vanilla Yogurt *I use Greek Yogurt

2 Tablespoons, Lemon Zest

1 Teaspoon, Lemon Juice

2 Cups, Blueberries

2 Tablespoons, Flour

Lemon Glaze:

1 ½ Cups, Powdered Sugar

1 Tablespoon, Lemon Juice

1 Tablespoon, Lemon Zest

1 Tablespoon, Vanilla Yogurt

¼ teaspoon, Vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.    In a mixer, combine butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, yogurt, lemon zest and lemon juice.   Slowly add the flour mixture until combined.  In a small bowl, combine blueberries and 2 Tablespoons of flour to coat all the berries.

Fold the blueberries into the muffin mix. Spray muffin tin and fill each one about 2/3 full.  Bake for 25 minutes or until knife comes out clean from center of muffin.  Place on baking rack to cool.

While they are cooling, make the glaze.  Wisk all the ingredients together for the glaze; using a spoon drizzle the glaze over the muffins.

Blueberries coated in Flour

Mangia! Enjoy!

 

Tips

Lemon Blueberry Muffin w/Lemon Glaze

By coating the blueberries in flour before adding to the batter, this helps them to not sink to the bottom of your muffin while baking.

Just look at those muffins; they are loaded with blueberries!