Recipe: Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping

I made blueberry muffins yesterday and they turned out fairly well so I thought I’d post the recipe here. I had decided on blueberry muffins a few days beforehand, but I didn’t have a recipe in mind at the time. So, I next checked AllRecipes.com — a handy recipe website with ratings and reviews for each recipe.

I found my way to their recipes for muffins & scones and, from there, to their section on blueberry muffins. They had about twenty blueberry muffin recipes, but the To Die For Blueberry Muffins caught my eye as it had a rating of 5/5 stars and it was also selected for one of the Allrecipes cookbooks.

Here’s the recipe:

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients — Muffin Base:

  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • ⅓ cup milk
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries

Ingredients — Crumb Topping:

  • ½ cup white sugar
  • ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup butter, cubed [half a stick]
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
  2. Combine 1½ cups flour, ¾ cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
  3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together ½ cup sugar, ⅓ cup flour, ¼ cup butter, and 1½ teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

The muffins turned out well — light and fluffy on the inside with a crunchy-sweet topping. Sliced in half and with a touch of butter, they’re rather delectable. And, other than the blueberries, most of the ingredients are items you probably already have in your pantry.

I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out with Splenda, so I just made them with regular sugar this time. But, I would imagine that Splenda would work fine (though the crumb topping may not have that characteristic sugar crystal crunch without the sugar).

As written, the recipe works out to 1.5 Tbsp sugar in each muffin along with an additional 1 Tbsp sugar for each muffin’s crumb topping (for a total of 2.5 Tbsp sugar). At 16g carbs per Tbsp, that’s 40g carbs per muffin that could be cut out (or at least 24g if you kept the sugar in the crumb topping).

Recipe: Mexican Muffins

I saw this recipe on the WhatsInTheFridge mailing list (and I would have linked to the specific post, but it seems that archives are only viewable by subscribers).

Mexican Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. lean ground beef
  • 1 pkg. (1 1/4 oz.) Taco seasoning mix
  • 1/2 c. water
  • 5 English muffins, split
  • 1 c. grated Cheddar cheese (4 oz.)

Preparation

Brown beef; drain well. Add seasoning mix and water; simmer 15 minutes or until lliquid is absorbed. Place muffins on baking sheet; top with meat mixture. Sprinkle cheese evenly over tops. Bake at 350° F., 10 minutes or until heated through.

Serves 5.

Note: For a Mexican hamburger, substitute hamburger buns for the muffins. Do not bake.

At first, the idea of a Mexicanized English-muffin seemed a bit odd to me, but I think I’ve warmed up to the idea. Of course, I’m now also contemplating whether guacamole & sour cream would improve the dish or if that would overdo it ;).