Cream Cheese Stuffed Blueberry Muffins

  • Cream Cheese Stuffed Blueberry Muffins

    There is something about blueberries and lemon zest and cream cheese… it’s kind of like chocolate and caramel and nuts- they just go together, and you don’t fight it.  (But really- check out these Caramel Chocolate Pecan Cubes after you’re done making these muffins.)

    I have married cream cheese with blueberries before (flash back to the Blueberries & Cream Pound Cake) with great success, but learned the lesson that one has to be moderately excessive with how many blueberries one can add to a recipe (instead of unreasonably excessive, which is something I have done before… more isn’t always better in the blueberry department.).  So for these muffins, I was careful with the blueberry volume.  But maybe not so much with the cream cheese filling.

    Yeah, about that cream cheese filling.  I made a bit of mistake with them here, so if you’re up for some entertainment, read about it in your spare time.  Just follow my instructions below and you won’t end up with a pool of burning cream cheese on the bottom of your oven.

    Adapted from Esther Brody’s recipe…

    4 oz. cream cheese, softened (half a block)

    1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

    2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1 tablespoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1/3 cup (6 tablespoons) melted butter

    1 1/4 cups milk

    1/2 cup light brown sugar

    1 egg

    1 teaspoon lemon zest, finely grated

    1/4 teaspoon almond extract

    1 1/2 cups blueberries

    1. Preheat oven to 375° and grease 12 muffin liners.
    2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth.  Store in freezer until ready to use.
    3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
    4. In a medium bowl, melt butter in microwave then add milk, brown sugar, egg, lemon zest and almond extract.  Stir until combined.  Add to flour mixture and stir until half mixed.  Gently stir in blueberries until just blended.
    5. Scoop a small amount of batter into bottom of prepared muffin liners.  Add 1 tablespoon of chilled cream cheese mixture, then top with remaining batter.  Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

    Tips:

    • No brown sugar?  You can use white sugar too.  No problem.
    • No almond extract?  Oh, shoot!  You really must get one, or else how do you plan to make Coconut Macaroons?  Go ahead and use vanilla extract this time around.  (Maybe you can add a splash of amaretto liqueur?)
    • Go ahead and double-layer the flavor- add a tablespoon of blueberry jam on top of the cream cheese, then add the batter on top.
    • Be sure to totally cover the cream cheese scoop with the top layer of batter.  You don’t want this to happen.
    • Enjoy!

     

     

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    February 19th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: ,

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