Citrus-Topped Double Blueberry Muffins

Two weeks ago, we had our first golf tournament meeting.  It was more of a "email the golf course/ plan the date/ catch up on my wedding plans" kind of meeting, but it was nice to get things going (who wants a great day of golf on June 21!?).  Since my team was meeting here, I decided to make them some breakfast, which turned into brunch because I got up late, but it was still delicious and much appreciated!  I will blog next time about one of the recipes I made, but the other was one that I had spotted in my mom's Better Homes and Gardens magazine and immediately knew it sounded absolutely perfect: citrus-topped double blueberry muffins.  I love citrus in anything, and citrus in a blueberry muffin sounded fabulous.

The citrus topping is a mixture of lemon peel, orange peel, and sugar, which sounded amazing to me, and the double blueberry part comes from both berries and blueberry preserves.  Can you imagine anything that sounds better?!

So, I made them, and I am glad that I did.  They are definitely best when they are right out of the oven, because they are so moist that they get really mushy and wet if they sit for too long (they are pretty strange by day 2 so eat them all day 1!).  But if you eat them when they are hot and still steaming, they are an amazing experience.  Christy exclaimed that she couldn't believe how many berries were in there; I had to break it to her that some of it was the preserves that you spoon right into the middle of the cups and cover it with  more batter!  But they were really good: sweet, tart, with lots of berry flavor.  All but one of them went here, and that's a pretty good record for me!

Recipe:

citrus-topped double blueberry muffins
from Better Homes and Gardens, March 2013

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2  1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk or milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup blueberry preserves
1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line twelve 2  1/2-inch muffin cups with paper liners.  Set aside.

2) Stir together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; set aside.

3)  Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and 6 tablespoons melted butter.  Add all at once to the dry mixture.  Stir until just moistened (batter should be lumpy).  Fold in blueberries.  Remove 1 cup of batter.

4) Spoon remaining batter into prepared muffin cups, fillimg about half full.  Spoon 2 teaspoons of blueberry preserves into the center of each muffin.  Top with remaining batter to cover the preserves, filling muffin cups about two-thirds full.  Bake 20 minutes or until golden.

5)  Meanwhile, stir together orange peel, lemon peel, and the 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Remove muffins from the oven; brush with the 2 tablespoons melted butter.  Sprinkle citrus-sugar mixture on top.  Cool in muffin cups on wire rack 15 minutes.  Serve warm. Makes 12 muffins.