I'm so disappointed in myself--I've gotten up before 8 practically every day this week! Well, okay...maybe it's jetlag. But still, I feel like I'm cheating summer.
Anyways, for those of you who
on a regular basis to eat breakfast, we present to you: Lemon Verbena Blueberry Muffins!
I added the lemon verbena leaves to give the muffins this nice citrus-y scent and more depth of flavor.
I'm growing it along with some other herbs this summer! If you can't find any, just omit it from the recipe, or use a teaspoon or two of grated lemon zest. It's still yummy.
Here's my lemon verbena plant. It's still little, but I couldn't help picking a few of the leaves--it smells sooo good. Did you know Scarlett's mother from Gone with the Wind used lemon verbena leaves for their scent? Sorry...on to the muffins.
It's pretty much your basic muffin recipe with one added step: Grind the lemon verbena leaves with the sugar in a food processor before making the batter. It'll look something like this:
Make sure to grind it up really fine. The leaves are pretty tough.
Click here for the printer-friendly version of the recipe.
Lemon Verbena Blueberry Muffins
Yields: 12 muffins
Ingredients
8 - 10 lemon verbena leaves (optional)
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
8 tablespoons butter, melted
a few drops of vanilla extract
2 cups blueberries
For the streusel topping:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon butter
chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Place 12 cupcake liners into the muffin pan.
2. Grind the sugar and lemon verbena leaves in a food processor, until very fine.
3. Mix together the flour, sugar mixture, and baking powder.
4. Mix together the milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla in a separate bowl.
5. Add the flour mixture to the milk/egg/butter mixture. Fold the mixtures together. DO NOT OVERMIX.
6. Fold in the blueberries. Put batter in muffin tin.
7. Mix together the ingredients for the streusel topping. Sprinkle on top of the muffins.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until muffins are golden.
9. Let muffins cool slightly; serve warm or at room temperature.
Enjoy!
-Monica and Caroline
