Blue's Clues

One New Year's resolution that I'm really trying to stick to is "cut the carbs out of the my diet."  I feel like I eat pretty well - hardly any fast food, lots of veggies, nothing fried, etc. My Achilles heel? A warm, delicious carbohydrate.  I love them like I love my family.  How delish is crusty bread dipped in really good olive oil?  A cheesy bowl of pasta?  A sandwich with thick, toasted wheat bread?  I could go on for days...

SO that being said, what am I unable to get off of my mind?  You guessed it...muffins.  To ensure that I don't go totally crazy over the next year, I'm allowing myself one dirty, doughy cheat meal a week.  This week's will definitely be homemade blueberry muffins.  I found this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and can't wait to make them.

Perfect Blueberry Muffins

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then yogurt and zest. Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift half of dry ingredients over batter. Mix until combined. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears. Gently fold in your blueberries. The dough will be quite thick (and even thicker, if you used a full-fat Greek-style yogurt), closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups. 

You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more, so you might only need 9 instead of 10 cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean (you know, except for blueberry goo). Let cool on rack (yeah right), or you know, serve with a generous pat of butter.

Images and recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.