Sugar Dipped Meyer Lemon Muffins with Blackberries

OK, I’m just going to say it.  These muffins are good. Crazy good.  Up there with the best I’ve ever made.

The combination of tart yet sweet Meyer lemons and juicy blackberries all in a buttery, light and caky muffin is sublime.  Then I took this Meyer lemon blackberry muffin and dipped it in a light lemony sugar glaze that made the muffin top glisten with sweet goodness.

I can’t take full credit for this lemon muffin.  One of my favorite lazy Sunday afternoon activities is to look through some of my old cookbooks for inspiration.  Most of the really old books don’t have pictures which is a bit disappointing, but it does let my imagination run wild with all the ways I could photograph the item to make it eye popping delicious.  I found my lemon muffin recipe in a little book simply called "Muffins" that was published in 1985. It's very unassuming but has great recipes.

Our family happened to have made a Costco run this weekend.  We don’t go very often, but we had a gift card and wanted to take full advantage of this shopping opportunity.  My sixteen year old son loves the trip and generally makes lunch out of all the samples being distributed.  It requires patience but somehow he finds a way to leave the store with a full belly.

There’s always lots of fun and good quality products at Costco.  My daughter and I spotted a large carton of Meyer lemons and snagged them at once.  Our love affair with these lemons started when we lived in the Bay Area.  We had a small Meyer lemon tree in our front yard, which produced copious amounts of this golden citrus.  This varietal is almost a cross between an orange and a lemon.  It has floral undertones and a nice balance of sweet and sour. My daughter actually often eats them straight, like an orange.

If you don’t have access to Meyer lemons you can definitely use regular lemons.  They will be a little different but delicious all the same.  Couple recipe notes; I employed a couple of new techniques while preparing these muffins.  First I used a food processor to chop the lemon zest with the sugar and to then cream the butter and eggs.  I was really pleased with the results.  As well, I incorporated the baking soda into the yogurt before combining it with the rest of the batter.  The yogurt will bubble since it’s reacting with the acid in the yogurt.  I’m not sure how much of a difference these techniques made, but the muffins are extremely light, fluffy and moist – a dreamy way to start your day. 

Sugar Dipped Meyer Lemon Blackberry Muffins

                                                                                                                                    Recipe by - Liz Hughes, Virtually Homemade

Yield: 8 large muffins or 12 medium muffins

Ingredients

• 1 medium meyer lemon, peeled with vegetable peeler
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1/4 cup fresh meyer lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Put the lemon peel and 1 cup of sugar into your food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process one to two minutes, scraping sides once, until lemon peel is finely chopped. Add butter; process about 30 seconds until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, processing briefly after each addition.
3. Scrape mixture into a large bowl. It make look curdled but that is fine.
4. Stir baking soda into yogurt, it will start to bubble and rise up. Fold flour into lemon mixture one third at a time, alternating with yogurt. Fold in blackberries (if your blackberries are really large you may want to cut them in half).
5. Scoop into paper lined or well greased muffin tins. Bake 15 minutes for smaller muffins (12) and 20 minutes for larger ones (8).
6. While muffins bake mix lemon juice and sugar in a small bowl. Stir until sugar dissolves.
7. Remove muffins from oven and let cool for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from pan and dip muffin tops in lemon sugar mixture. Place on cooling rack.