Sparkling Blueberry Muffins

My sister, who dislikes almost all sweet treats (including chocolate. What?!!) LOVES blueberry muffins--and honestly, who doesn't? She requested that I make some blueberry muffins for her, so I agreed. However, she doesn't know that I made them today! She has finals this week, so I decided to surprise her. She'll be thrilled when she gets home : )

I've never made blueberry muffins from scratch before, so I figured this would be a great place to start! I LOVE the addition of sparkling sugar on the top to make these that much more beautiful : ) The extra crunch that the sugar lends is an added bonus! : ) This recipe is from Sally at Sally's Baking Addiction (seriously. GORGEOUS blog.)

Like my other muffin recipes, this recipe calls for you to set the oven to a very high temperature initially to create high, domed muffin tops, then bring it down to a lower temperature for the remainder of cooking time.

I made a few muffins without the sparkling sugar for my dad--they're just as pretty, and the sugar is completely optional! : )

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk (skim, 1%, almond, rice, soy are all ok - room temperature)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• Coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners. Set aside.

In a large bowl, gently toss together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until all dry ingredients are combined. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined. Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Mixture will be pale and yellow. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand--no mixer necessary! Avoid overmixing. Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain. The batter will be very thick and somewhat lumpy. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top. Top with a sprinkle coarse sugar, if you like. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and continue to bake for 16-18 minutes until tops are lightly golden and centers appear set. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before enjoying.

Muffins taste best fresh the same day. Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well for up to 3 months.