Baking with Olivia and Caroline

If you’ve read even a small percentage of our recipes, you already know we love breakfast. Muffins may not be a “complete breakfast,” but they sure are convenient. If you’re rushing out the door you don’t have to pour any milk in your cereal bowl, butter any toast, or fry any eggs. Just grab a muffin and go! No dishes made and no time wasted. Pack one in your lunch for a mid-day treat and have another after dinner as a reward for making it through the day. Treat yourself is our personal policy, and we stand by that always. 

I have to thank Caroline for this recipe. We’ve both made many muffin recipes in the past and they have always been just, well, meh. Because of this, she had been working on this recipe and asked if I would try it. I whipped up the batter and gave it a taste test. The flavors were wonderful. The real test would be if the muffins met my moisture requirement. As soon as I took them out of the oven I could tell they were going to be good and sure enough, they were! I love a moist blueberry muffin with a great crumb topping, and these deliver. The addition of lemon juice and zest put them over the top. Blueberry and lemon is such a perfect combination. We added a lemon glaze, but that’s an extra step you don’t have to take if you don’t want to. They are perfectly delicious without it.  

We always have plenty of taste testers that are willing to try our creations. Muffins received 5 stars from all of them, well, not all – one taste tester said they were a 10! But, you’ll of course have to try them for yourselves. 

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup of melted butter
2 large eggs
½ tbs vanilla
Zest of a lemon
2 tbs lemon juice
2 ½ cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup sour cream
1 cup frozen blueberries

Crumb topping Ingredients

½ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ cup room-temperature butter

Lemon glaze (optional)

½  cup powdered sugar
2 tbs fresh lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 425° degrees. Oven rack should be in the middle of the oven. Spray a muffin pan generously with cooking spray or use cupcake/muffin liners.

In a medium bowl, mix sugar with oil and melted butter. Add eggs one at a time and mix until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. Next, mix in the buttermilk and sour cream. Gently fold in the frozen blueberries. The batter will be thick and will become thicker once you add the blueberries due to the temperature change. 

Scoop the batter into the greased or lined muffin tins with a large ice cream scoop or large spoon. 

Combine the crumb topping ingredients together and mix until crumbs start to form (do not mix until smooth). Sprinkle a generous amount onto each of the muffins.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425°. Reduce heat to 350° and bake for 10-15 minutes more. They should spring back when gently pressed with your finger. Allow to cool before drizzling them with the lemon glaze.

Muffins for May, muffins for Mother’s Day! Bake these for your mom, and she might be just as proud of you as I am of Caroline! As always, enjoy. •

Olivia and Caroline are enthusiastic foodies and bakers who are constantly in the kitchen, as well as explorers who create their own adventures in our area – and did we mention they are mother and daughter? Follow Olivia on Instagram to see her many creations at