There are three things I want you to take away from this post.  No foolin’ around… I’ll get straight to the point.

One.  You’ll want to stop by tomorrow if you think you might like to be one of those people that attends my (holy heck yes!) summer party.  It’s in August.  It’s for real.

Two.  You know that part of the pedicure when the lady at your feet goes to it with a pumice scrub?  It’s at that point that I have to try with every ounce of who I am, not not not to kick her in the face.  I’m ticklish.  Extremely.  Now you know.

Three.  These blueberry muffins are (yes) perfect.  Straight forward.  Simple.  Summer.  One whole hell of a lot better than the stale coffee shop version… perfect. How often do I say something is perfect?  Not often.  Fact.

Browned Butter Fresh Blueberry Muffins

adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

makes 12 glorious muffins

Print this Recipe!

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the Topping

3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Keep an eye on the butter.  Melt and cook down the butter until little brown bits appear in the pan.  The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that.  Keep a close eye.  Remove from heat.

Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.  Add the brown butter and stir to combine.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl  Add milk and butter mixture all at one and stir gently to combine.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.  Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

I know.  I’ve been coming up with some pretty strange combinations lately.  This ice cream and hot fudge combination may be the strangest yet.  Remember that homemade hot fudge sauce from last week?  Well, after trying it on nearly everything in my kitchen, it seemed that the proper thing to do was make some ice cream.  Blueberry sour cream ice cream sounded perfect for the approaching summer, and I crossed my fingers that it would work with hot fudge.

The combination was unusual, but fantastic!!  The ice cream is a beautiful blue purple, and the blueberry flavors are highlighted by the light, slight tang of the sour cream.  Smothering that mess in dark chocolate hot fudge adds a depth and richness to the light ice cream.  It’s absolutely delicious!  Like one of those fancy, strange sounding desserts at a hip and trendy restuarant.  

I wouldn’t lead you astray.  This blueberry and chocolate combination is marvelous!  If nothing else, try the ice cream!  It’s a dream!

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

from Baking: from my home to yours

Print this recipe!

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, if frozen, thaw and drain)

1/3 cup sugar, or more to taste

pinch of salt

grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime, or more juice to taste

3/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup sour cream

Put the blueberries, sugar, salt, lime zest and juice in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture boils and the berries pop and soften, about 3 minutes.

Turn the berries into a bender and whirl until you have a fairly homogenous puree, about 1 minute.  (It will never be completely smooth, and that’s fine!)  Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just to blend.  Taste and, if you’d like, and a squirt more lime juice or a tiny bit more sugar.

Pour the custard into a bowl and refrigerate until it is chilled before churning it into ice cream.

Photo below.

Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

Top with Dark Chocolate Hot Fudge.  Go crazy.

I come from a family of proud home bakers.  I developed my love for baking helping my father put together delicious desserts in our tiny, pea green family kitchen.  This recipe for pound cake came from my father’s sister.  My Aunt DeeDee loved two things in this life: Jesus and baking.  Even after being blinded by a brain tumor in her mid thirties, she would still insist on baking every family members’ birthday cakes.  Even without her sight, she still had the touch for the perfect cake.  This pound cake recipe came from her very old Kraft cookbook.  I’ve doctored it up with a bit of lemon and blueberry, but at its heart, it’s still my favorite of Aunt DeeDee’s masterpieces.

This cake is a champ.  It will always pull through in the clutch.  Why?  Because it has a secret ingredient: cream cheese.  Incidentally, I think cream cheese should be nominated as a super food along side spinach and avocados. This secret ingredient adds fat and flavor, and insures that, unless left in the over for the entirety of your Scrubs marathon, it will not come out dry and over baked.

And not so fast!  I have another secret to share with you.  In order to get an entrenched, even lemon flavor, I add lemon to this cake in two ways:  zest and juice.  But to get the most our of your zest, add the zest to your granulated sugar and with the back or your spatula, or with a plastic bench knife, grind the zest into the sugar.  The sugar will act as a sand paper, and will draw out all of those delicious lemon oils.  Then, when you cream the now fragrant sugar with the butter and cream cheese, you’ll diffuse lemon flavor all through the cake.  Brilliant!

Lemon Pound Cake

Print this recipe!

adapted from Kraft Cookbook

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 eggs, room temperature

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 325.  Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.  Cream butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer.  In the mean time, work the lemon zest into the granulated sugar.  This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.  Add the sugar to the butter mixture and continue creaming.  Add the lemon and vanilla extract.  Add eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute each.  Scrape down the bowl after each addition.  Slowly add the sifted flour and baking powder.  Don’t over mix in the electric mixer.  Bring the ingredients together with a wooden spoon.  Pour into a greased and floured pan and bake for 60- 75 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Easy Blueberry Sauce

1 bag frozen wild blueberries (try Trader Joe’s)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water

Make the blueberry sauce just before you intend to serve the pound cake.  It can be made in a flash.  Throw a bag of frozen blueberries, (I prefer the frozen wild blueberries found a Trader Joe’s) into a sauce pan with  granulated sugar.  Let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes.  The blueberries will have released some liquid, and the sugar will be dissolved.  While still at a simmer, mix in the cornstarch mixture.  Still constantly until you see mixture thicken a bit, and remove from flame.  Dress the moist pound cake with warm blueberries.  Breakfast perfection.