Blueberry Lemon Muffin Tops

We’ve timed out on muffins around here.  I make them all the time, and while they still taste good, my big oven reveals are not met with much enthusiasm anymore.  The boys will run into the kitchen, ask what I’m baking, then fake a smile and leave when I say it’s muffins.

So this morning, I played a little mind game with them and told them I was making breakfast cookies.  But I made muffins, just repackaged.  I’m a super fan of muffin tops and I don’t know why I have not done this until now.  Muffin top pans are sold in the stores, but I have a rule that I will NEVER buy a pan that is sold for one particular thing. Total rip off.

Instead, I found a muffin top recipe, doctored it up to my liking and used a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to drop small mounds of batter and bake. Voila!  I think I might stick to these for a while, they are so cute!  Let’s face it, we all like new incarnations of standard classics.

I used this blueberry muffin top recipe from Epicurious.  This is a good base to use because the batter is a little thicker than a typical muffin batter.  You can use this base and then add your own spices or ingredients.  Here are the updates I made:

• Cut back the sugar to 1/2 cup
• Used whole wheat flour (the kind for baking)
• Added 1 teaspoon lemon zest to dry ingredients
• Added 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to the batter
• Used frozen, wild blueberries (the tiny kind, but also because that’s what was in my freezer)
• I did not melt butter on the stove as suggested in the recipe.  I combined the dry ingredients, made a well in the center and added the eggs, milk, melted butter, vanilla and lemon juice.  I use as little bowls and pans as possible!

Once your batter is ready, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop about 2T of batter onto the sheet as you would cookie dough.  I used my hands and formed semi-round balls.  Top each with topping (or just use brown sugar if you don’t feel like making a topping). Bake at 375 for about 10-15 minutes until set.

Are these not the cutest?  What a fun alternative to muffins for a brunch or gift!  Enjoy!