treat petite: blueberry muffins

UPDATED: For my first "Treat Petite" challenge from Stuart (aka Cakeyboi) and Kat (aka The Baking Explorer) , I'm using one of my favourite past recipes - blueberry muffins. The theme for Treat Petite No. 1 is 'No Theme', so anything goes!  :)

I had a couple of extra days off from work last weekend so I was planning on whipping up a double-batch of banana crumb muffins (after I made them for the first time, there were a lot of complaints from family members who saw the photos and didn't get to try any so I was trying to bake enough for everyone).

While I was getting everything prepped, I noticed a HUGE bucket of fresh blueberries on the kitchen table. Apparently, my mom's friend had spent the weekend "picking-your-own" blueberries and ended up with too much, so gave us some. They were incredibly small (and juicy) and I immediately jumped on the internet to find a simple blueberry muffin recipe.

I ended up baking two batches of banana crumb muffins and one batch of these delicious blueberry muffins. The original recipe (on allrecipes.com) included a crumb topping, but I just used the same crumb topping that I use for the banana muffins.

Note: Crumb topping is always amazing if you eat the muffins on the same day as they're baked. Otherwise, they get soggy by the next day. If you aren't planning on eating these right away, I'd suggest skipping the crumb topping and just making simple blueberry muffins (Paul requested that I leave the crumb topping off one muffin for him and you can see from the photo above that it's still stunning).

Either way, these muffins are perfect for breakfast...or dessert...or a snack!  :)

bluberry muffins
source: adapted from allrecipes.com
printer-friendly version

ingredients:

for the muffins:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
approx. 1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries

for the topping (optional):
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

directions:

for the muffins:

Preheat oven to 400˚ F. Line a standard muffin tray with 8 paper liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.

Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and and then enough milk to fill the cup (approximately 1/3 cup of milk). Mix this with flour mixture.

Gently fold blueberries into the batter.

Spoon the batter into lined muffin cups (fill each liner almost to the top). If you're going to top with the crumb topping, go to the next step. If not, skip down to the step after ("Bake for 20 to 25 minutes...")

for the topping (optional):
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in softened butter until mixture is crumbly and has small lumps. Sprinkle topping evenly over the muffin batter.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Transfer the muffin tin to a wire rack to cool before removing the muffins.

yields: 8 muffins

Thanks to Kat for hosting this month's Treat Petite challenge!