Irish Muffins

(And by "Irish," I mean that they are green. 'Cause I dyed them.)

Ryan's daycare was having a St. Paddy's Day party today, and I volunteered to make muffins.



I used a recipe for Healthy Blueberry Muffins from My Tiny Little Kitchen Creations, and they were awesome. My only problem was that I forgot to add the green food coloring until AFTER I had reached "mixing completion;" so they were a bit more Play-Doh-ish than I would have liked. But hey - my audience was a bunch of toddlers, so whatever.


(Special thanks to Cara's Cravings for the tips on turning a regular muffin recipe into one for mini's...)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Vanilla.)
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)

Directions:
Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F (I did 325).

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel.

Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt.

Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.

Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil or grapeseed oil using a pastry brush, or with a little butter. Or use one of those convenient vegetable oil sprays. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.