Truth be told, I have never been a muffin person. It seemed like every one I had as a kid was overly sweet and flavorless. These are not those muffins. They are full of flavor and not too sweet. They are blueberry muffins with lemon and cardamom and are like the grown-up, sophisticated, and crave-worthy muffins of your dreams. The addition of lemon and cardamom really gives them that extra special something, something.
They also have a full two cups of fresh blueberries, which makes the blueberry to muffin ratio skew heavily to blueberry.
I started craving them a few weeks ago when I was driving back to Kentucky from California, after seeing all those hotel pastries that are never amazing, I wanted one that was really good. I wanted an amazing blueberry muffin. I decided that it should have lemon, because all good blueberry things have lemon. I also thought it should have cardamom because all the best things do. So, I set to work on I recipe that would be perfect.
The muffins:
On top of being delicious, these are super easy to make. This muffin is made like a cake by creaming together the butter and sugar. Then adding in the eggs and flour and milk (alternating between the two). You add the lemon zest to the milk and the cardamom to the flour and baking powder before mixing. After the batter has been made, you fold in the blueberries and then bake. Super easy.
Another key element to these muffins is the sugar crust. Sprinkling the tops of the muffins with coarse sugar before baking gives them the most wonderful crunchy crust.
The inspiration for these came from a New York Times article, and then I adapted it to make them less sweet and added they lift of cardamom and lemon.
Other breakfast pastries:
Brown Butter Bourbon Doughnuts
Print
Blueberry Muffins with Lemon and Cardamom
Ingredients
- ½ cup softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- ½ cup milk
- Zest from 1 lemon
- 2 cups blueberries
- 3 teaspoons coarse sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. Add in the vanilla.
- Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and cardamom. Add the lemon zest to the milk. Add the flour and milk mixtures into the butter and sugar mixture alternating between the two.
- Fold in the blueberries.
- Line a 12 cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners, and fill with batter. Sprinkle the 3 teaspoons of coarse sugar over the tops of the muffins and bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.
