Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins (with recipe)

Thing #5 loves to bake!  Seriously.  She asked Santa for her own baking set last Christmas.  He delivered and we all benefit!  She loves watching Food Network and doesn't like cooking so much as baking.  I think this is her brilliant plan to eat more sweets in this organic household. :-)  Good plan.

I found an amazing recipe online posted to one of the blogs we like to follow and decided to print it out for Thing #5 to try.  I made some recipe notes of our own at the bottom.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold is fine
1/2 cup sugar
Finely grated zest from 1/2 a lemon (previously: 1/2 teaspoon zest) (we left this ingredient out because Thing #5 is only 9 and .... we'll get to lemon zesting later)
3/4 cup plain sour cream
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups blueberries, frozen (we like our berries frozen when we bake - they hold their shape better!)
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions:

Heat oven to 375°F.

Line a muffin tin with 9 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray.

Melt butter in the bottom of a large bowl and whisk in sugar, zest (if using), sour cream and egg until smooth.

Whisk in baking powder, baking soda and salt until fully combined, then lightly fold in flour and berries.

Batter will be very thick, like a cookie dough. (truth!)

Divide between prepared muffin cups and sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon brown sugar, if you go over, don't worry, it will be delicious!

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean. (we use toothpicks)

 Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then the rest of the way on a rack.

Our Recipe Notes:

• We used paper liners and the blueberries leaked through - not a big deal, we were eating them at home and just used plates under each one.  But maybe the paper liners...not such a good idea.  It's also possible that Thing #5 put in a bit more blueberries than the recipe called for :-)  Hard to know.
• This recipe makes EXACTLY 9 muffins.  

The family's assessment?  DELICIOUS!  Thing #3 and Thing #4 scarfed them down and Thing #3 went back for more!  These didn't last long in our house :-)

Thing #5 was incredibly proud of herself!  "They're healthy, mom!  All organic!"  Well....sure. :-)