Sugar Top Blueberry Muffins

Sugar Top Blueberry Muffins – Making my sun rise from the highest heights.

Since the pandemic, I started hiking a few times a week in a place where I virtually see hardly anyone else. It’s a great way to unload some anxiety and replace it with endorphins. It elevates my mood, allows a little bit of adventure to my life which was once upon a time jam packed with experience, AND it gets my heart racing. <3

My favorite part of the climb is when I reach the top of the hill. In the far distance on the opposite hillside I see the golden dome rooftops of a nearby church. I reminisce of some of the pretty highlands I’ve perched and looked out into the open. Replaying my memories of the fjords of Norway, the top of Teotihuacan pyramids in Mexico, the lush hillsides of Perugia-Italy, the dense treetops of Lake Tahoe-California.

I imagine myself back in those places. Adding the keyboard flutes from Close To Me – The Cure as my soundtrack and picture a sunrise climbing up as a backdrop. I bite into a sugar top blueberry muffin and the fantasy is complete. My Sugar Top Blueberry Muffins are like food mirrors of far off destinations to me. I will gladly emulate these memories in my head for the time being and when this pandemic is over I will pay my favorite cliffs a visit in the flesh with muffins in tow. Gawd…. I can’t wait.

Ingredients for Sugar Top Blueberry Muffins:

1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons- room temperature)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup baker’s sugar + 1/3 cup for topping
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup half and half
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
Line cupcake pan with 15 cup cake holders. Set to the side.
In a standup mixer with a paddle attachment. Cream butter, vegetable oil and 1 cup of sugar together on medium speed for 3 minutes or until completely combined.
Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula and add in eggs. Mix to combine.
Add in baking powder, salt, vanilla, and lemon zest. Mix for 30 seconds on medium.
Pour in half and half and mix to combine.
Add in flour and mix until batter comes together.
Fold in blueberries.
Spoon in 4 tablespoons of batter per cupcake liner.
Smooth the top of each cup of batter with the back of a spoon or offset knife. Then sprinkle the the top with 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Bake for 28 minutes.
Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing for cupcake pan.
Enjoy!