Blueberry Muffins

Did you know July is National Blueberry Month? I didn't - I was informed by Klane, of all people. Anyway, blueberries were on sale this week. Hurray! Mmmm, maybe I'll make pancakes next. Or cake. Or bars. Or scones. I just can't get enough blueberries.

Blueberry Muffins

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 ½ cups blueberries
1 tablespoon flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel.
4. Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.
5. Grease a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.

Makes 24 muffins.

They look so happy in there.

Recipe from Simply Recipes.

I should tell you a little secret. I often do not follow recipes because I don't have everything on hand. Whew - glad to get that off my chest. But the reason I'm telling you this is so you will know that you can still make this (and many other recipes) if you don't have every little ingredient. It might be a tad different but it will probably still be delicious. For example: I didn't have fresh lemons (so no lemon zest). Just added some lemon juice instead. Also, I got to the middle and realized I only had about 3/4 cup of vanilla yogurt. I attempted to make up the other 3/4 cup with sour cream and only had about 1/4 cup of that. So I used buttermilk. Well, actually, I didn't have buttermilk, so I used a buttermilk substitute, which is a cup of buttermilk mixed with a tablespoon of lemon juice. Goodness. That's a lot of random substitutions. And you know what? They turned out just perfect!