blueberry muffins for sal

Did you read Blueberries For Sal growing up?

I loved that book. Looking back, that may have been an early sign of a budding foodie - enamored of a book that told the tale of a young boy who stole away to fill his belly with sun-ripened blueberries, the best and freshest of seasonal fruit.

I mean… we all should have known.

Recently, I made blueberry muffins on a lazy weekend morning. Weekend baking is the best of the best: a slow, careful, relaxing morning. I’m talking about baking, carefully leveling off cups of flour and sugar, whisking slowly as the sun begins to shine, music softly playing in the background to usher in a Saturday or Sunday. Don’t get me wrong, I love pancakes, but weekend baking isn’t pancakes: it’s less hectic, more meditative. It’s hair wet after a post-run shower, barefoot in the kitchen, trying to be quiet so no one else wakes up, sitting with a hot cup of coffee while the kitchen slowly warms and smells of goodness.

It makes me think of you, because of course it does, and of course a quickly snapped photo of one of these muffins would have been something I sent to you on a sleepy weekend morning. Mixing the batter, I thought about Blueberries for Sal, and remembering my favorite book made me smile. And then I wondered: did you read it?

Did you read it to me? That seems entirely possible, that I would have demanded a narration, again and again. Maybe that was the first time you read it? Maybe it was the millionth?

We lose so much when we lose someone. Even small things, like the ability to smile at the memory of a childhood book and send a text of a muffin and ask: did you read this?

I hope you did.

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS FOR SAL
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
½ cup melted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup milk
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Optional streusel topping:
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cold butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep muffin tin with liners.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a medium bowl or base of a stand mixer, add butter and sugar and cream. Add yogurt, mix, add eggs one by one, mix until combined. Add lemon and vanilla and mix.

Add in half the flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Add milk, blueberries and rest of flour mixture and fold until completely mixed.

Fill muffin tin. Make streusel topping (cut butter into cubes; combine all ingredients until crumbly) and top each cupcake with streusel.

Bake 25-30 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.