Sometimes a hour spent in the kitchen is just what you need. Whip up a batch of these blueberry sour cream muffins to brighten even the gloomiest of days!
I am just going to be frank here, and tell you that I have been feeling blue. Not super bad, just mopey and unenthusiastic. Yeah, yeah — I’m taking my vitamin D and herbs, but… It has been a particularly cold, wet, and sometimes miserable winter. The basement keeps flooding and we can’t even drive the truck back to the barn to unload hay. Frequent snows have made winter mushroom foraging a no-go and it seems I haven’t been outside but to milk the cow and run errands in ages. Then there is the electric bill. Suffice to say living in a 100 year old home with “character” has its disadvantages by way of poor efficiency. I recognize that people are far worse off than myself, but I am just “over” winter already. All in all, I would kind of like to stick my head in the sand, er, mud, and wait for late spring to arrive with some sunshine and warmth.
But I gotta get out of this funk.
Time for some baking therapy. Because being productive, creative, and occupied helps keep the doldrums away. Side note — did you know that “doldrums” is a nautical term describing persistent showery, low wind conditions around the equator which make for poor sailing weather? You know, that feeling of going nowhere fast? Doldrums…
Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins – I charge you with the responsibility of pulling this nitty gritty mama out of the muck and the mire.
I have a freezer still brimming with fruit from the last growing season. My long-time, childhood co-4Her friend has a gorgeous fruit farm a few miles away and I generally purchase 30-40lbs of her blueberries every July. I put some up as our favorite Blueberry Lavender Jam, some as pie filling, and the rest get sorted into quart bags for the freezer. My kids love to snack on frozen blueberries all year long. We toss them into smoothies and on top of homemade yogurt. But blueberry sour cream muffins are divine and the perfect thing to remind me that better weather is ahead.
I also happened to have exactly enough blue cupcake liners for this recipe yesterday when the baking bug bit. Serendipity. Clearly blueberry sour cream muffins were in order.
Sour cream may seem like an odd addition to a baked good for some. Please let me assure you that it is very, very good thing. These blueberry sour cream muffins are moist, incredibly soft, and have just the right about of tang, owing to the sour cream and a bit of fresh squeezed lemon. My recipe has notably less sugar than a lot of muffin recipes. I don’t like things terribly sweet and Tami’s blueberries are always perfectly ripe. If you want to increase the nutrition and fiber content of these sour cream blueberry muffins, substitute ¼ cup flax seed meal for the an equal amount of all purpose flour. You can choose to top these with a little streusel-esque topping, but they are equally yummy without.
So let the baking therapy begin. Blueberry sour cream muffins are just the thing to brighten a rainy and miserable day.
Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins with Lemon
Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins with Lemon
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour (substitute 1/4 cup flax seed meal for 1/4 cup flour for a healthier version)
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- .5 tsp salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2/3 cup organic sugar
- .5 cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
Optional Topping
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp butter softened
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with liners or liberally grease the individual cups. I also grease the top of the tins to help release any muffin top that puff over during baking. Sift together 2 cups of flour, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.In a separate bowl, mix sour cream, sugar, melted butter, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla until well combined.Pour wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well until no dry patches of flour remain in the batter.In another bowl, toss blueberries with one tablespoon flour. This will prevent the berries from sinking to the bottom of batter while baking. If using the topping, mix the flour, brown sugar and butter with fingers until crumbly.Gently fold floured blueberries into batter until evenly distributed. Spoon into prepared tins and sprinkle with optional topping over batter if desired. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the muffins tops are slightly golden. Cool before removing from tins.
2 Comments
Hi, Devon. I love honey on my roasted garlic so this sounds great! Thank you for mentioning the blue color the garlic may take on! I am new to fermenting but made a large jar of Fire Cider last December. I have never dared try it! The garlic turned blue & to my mind that was *not good*! The blue mellowed out & that jar is still sitting there looking golden & tempting… Is it still ok (for more than a kitchen decorstion) after 8 months?
Hi, Diane! Unless your fire cider has mold, I think that you are probably in the clear to strain and consume! The vinegar would keep most things well preserved. It will be some potent medicine!!!