Baking Recipe: Blueberry Muffin with Cream Cheese Filling & A Switchup

 

I was going through my collection recently, and realised that I have not shared with you my blueberry muffin with lemon cream cheese filling. Sometime ago, I had my hands on blueberries and I just couldn't resist from baking my family a batch of warm, soft berry muffins. This is a great weekend breakfast treat. Serve it with coffee, latte or milk and I assure you it's possibly the best way to kick start your weekend.

What is the switch up? I made some light vanilla bean cream [recipe] to frost some of the muffins, and turn them into blueberry cuppies. So at the end we have 2 choices. A plain blueberry muffin filled with all the goodies and a another one which is slightly sinful is a blueberry muffin or cuppies frosted with a tiny heap of light vanilla bean cream topped with a fresh berry.

Recipe

For the blueberry lemon cream cheese muffins
adapted from Two Peas and their Pod  (Yields about 9 muffins)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
Zest of 1 large lemon
1/4 cup canola oil (or substitute with vegetable oil)
1 large egg
1/3 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)


Cream cheese filling:
3 tablespoons cream cheese
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon sugar
**Some Turbinado sugar-for sprinkling on muffins before baking


To prepare muffins:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pan or line pan with muffin liners. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.

3. In a small bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest. Rub sugar and zest together, until fragrant. Add to the flour mixture and whisk again.

4. In a separate medium bowl, mix canola oil, egg, milk, and vanilla together.

5. Incorporate the wet ingredients into flour mixture. Add slowly and do not over mix. The batter will be lumpy and thick. Gently fold in the blueberries.

6. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, lemon zest, and sugar until smooth. Fill each muffin cup half way with batter. Next, add about 1 teaspoon of cream cheese filling to each muffin cup. Cover each cup with remaining batter so you can't see the cream cheese filling. Sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar.

7. Bake muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let muffins cool on a cooking rack.

xx