Blackberry Muffins and Weird Coincidences

I was lucky enough to be gifted a couple of quarts of homegrown blackberries recently that have been hanging out in my freezer, patiently waiting for me to do something with them.

I was itching to make something with those little gems (blackberries are my absolute favorite berry!) but there were so many choices.  I thought about making blackberry BBQ sauce, pie, cobbler...eventually I settled on muffins.  I'd never actually made blackberry muffins before, but when I saw this recipe I knew I needed to give it a try.  :-) That may have had something to do with the fact that I already had all of the ingredients on hand and I love being the first to photograph a new recipe on Allrecipes, but whatever.  I went with muffins.

Do you know who else went with muffins, I would later find out?  My dad, in a completely different state, also made blackberry muffins- also for the first time- on the same day that I did.

Random, right?

Anyway, I think there was some big, cosmic "make blackberry muffins today" thing in the air and after eating these lovelies I am quite glad that I answered when the universe came calling.  :-)

This is a super thick muffin batter- possibly the thickest I've ever worked with.  To be honest, I was a little nervous, but it turns out my concerns were completely unfounded.  The muffins bake up dense- but light.  Incredibly moist.  Lightly tangy in a way that I never thought I would want in a muffin but trust me, I do.  They are sweet, but not cloying.  Just perfectly balanced and I honestly can't think of a single type of berry that wouldn't work well in them- I think I'll try blueberries next but even if you're working with a more tart berry like an olallieberry I'm fairly certain this muffin base will hold it's own.

I stuck to the original recipe with the exception of tossing the berries in a little flour before folding them into the batter to keep them from sinking to the bottom.  Also, I would recommend making sure your berries are frozen before baking with them.  That may seem counterintuitive if you're working with beautiful fresh berries, but freezing them before baking helps ensure that you don't stain the batter with berry juice and end up with funky colored muffins.  :-)  Just my two cents, feel free to toss them in without freezing first if you prefer.

I'm so glad I stumbled across this muffin recipe- it's definitely one of my favorites ever!

Delicious Blackberry Muffins

Modified slightly from Allrecipes.com

2 C all-purpose flour

2/3 C white sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 C sour cream

1/2 C butter, melted

2 eggs

1 tsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

11 oz fresh blackberries

2 Tbsp flour

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.

3. Whisk sour cream, butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract together in another bowl. Stir into the flour mixture until blended. Toss blackberries with remaining flour and fold blackberries into the batter.

4. Spoon batter into a prepared muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 full.

5. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.