Blueberry Streusel Muffins

I start out to make muffins with the best of intentions - meaning to use applesauce in place of oil, and whole wheat flour. But somewhere along the way I begin to channel Julia Child, and before I know it I've not only doubled the sugar, but added stuff like extra berries and more sugar in a topping, and slathered the whole thing in butter.




That's what happend here. I actually had the applesauce sitting on the counter, next to the whole wheat flour. I just couldn't resist the whole 'semi-cupcake' thing - especially when my litte muffin-head Bladen started jumping up and down saying "you make the BEST muffins Mom!". Nobody could resist the attempt to go over the top in the face of that little pixie kid egging you on. I will say though - an entire double batch of 24 presented to the Precious Darlings and two of their friends disappeared within one half hour session at the breakfast table. That's four muffins per kid. Picky kids at that.



That's a good muffin, mon amis.

Ingredients:

You'll Need:



(Makes 12 - recipe doubles easily)



For the Muffin Batter:



•2 eggs

•2/3 cup sugar

•2/3 cup light brown sugar

•½ cup vegetable oil

•1 teaspoons vanilla extract

•2 cups all-purpose flour

•Several grates fresh nutmeg

•1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

•1/2 teaspoon salt

•1/2 teaspoon baking soda

•1 cup sour cream

•1 1/2 cups blueberries

For the Struesel Topping:



•1/4 cup brown sugar

•1/2 cup all purpose flour

•3 tablespoons cold butter cut into pieces

•1 tsps cinnamon

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 400F. Either grease and flour a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper muffin liners.

2.In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, then add sugar and beat well. Add oil and vanilla, stirring to combine well.

3.In a seperate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon.

4.Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, then half the sour cream, mixing after each addition. Mix only as much as necessary - overmixing will mean tough muffins. Repeat with the remainder of the flour mixture and sour cream.

5.Gently fold in blueberries.

6.Make streusel topping my combining flour, butter, sugar and flour in a small bowl. With a pastry cutter or your fingertips, pinch butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

7.Using a disher or ice cream scoop, scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. Top each muffin with a generous tablespoon of the struesel topping.

8.Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. A wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of the muffins should come clean.

9.Allow muffins to cool for a minute on a wire rack - but serve warm!