Fruit-On-The-Bottom Blueberry Lemon Mascarpone Muffins
Rainy days are the best days...
...especially, when all you have to do that day is lay low and be lazy...
...and when you know it's spring break!!!
Words can't explain how excited I am for this year's spring break because.... guess what!?
I'm going to my favorite place ever. A.K.A New Orleans!!!
We're only going for 1 day, but I haven't been in OVER A YEAR, so I cannot wait to wander the crowded, noisy streets and sample pralines and eat amazing food for 24 hours straight.
I'm also thinking about doing a little travel post for it, too... So heads up!
Anyways, back to rainy days. I think I've mentioned this before on here, but I love the rain. Actually, saying 'I love the rain' is an understatement. I almost love it as much as New Orleans. Almost.
BUT not rainy days in New Orleans... No, see, I love rainy days because I get to stay in and be cozy and drink hot chocolate and watch movies all day. Rainy days on vacation are not so great...
Yesterday was one of those rainy days where I got to lounge around for most of the day. There's something about drinking coffee, watching Food Network, and just having an easy, slow weekend morning that is just so comforting. After enjoying what was probably my third cup of coffee, my mom mentioned how she wanted to use some mascarpone in our fridge before it went bad. Then, she mentioned muffins. We went back and forth between the idea of muffins with a mascarpone cream OR muffins with mascarpone in place of butter/oil. We decided on the latter.
The mascarpone made them SO insanely light and moist that they melt in your mouth as you eat them. They are divine.
To me, they're somewhere in between angel food cake and a soufflé, but since they were technically neither, I didn't want to mislead anyone by calling them "soufflé muffins" or something...
The blueberries settled to the bottom making it light and fluffy on the top, with a warm, sweet, juicy blueberry filling at the bottom.
Running through the crispy-on-top, soft-in-the-middle, and gooey-at-the-bottom muffins are hints of honey, vanilla, and lemon, making it 10 times better.
Hence the extremely long name-- Fruit-On-The-Bottom Blueberry Lemon Mascarpone Muffins.
Final words on these babies-- not much can beat mascarpone, honey, lemon, vanilla, and blueberry in muffin form.
Blueberry Lemon Custard Muffins
Makes 16 cupcakes
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. fine salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 lemon- juice & zest
1 cup fresh blueberries- washed and completely dried
granulated sugar for topping
Preheat oven to 350º.
In a mixer, mix the mascarpone, honey, and sugar together until completely smooth. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until incorporated, making sure to scrape the sides down. Add the flour (1 cup at a time), baking powder, and salt in, beating slowly to ensure nothing flies out of the mixer. Once fully incorporated, mix in buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Scrape down the sides once more and beat again. Gently fold in the blueberries.
Scoop batter into a cupcake lined or greased/floured muffin pan. Fill batter 2/3 way full. This will make 6 large muffins or 16 medium sized ones.
Top each muffin with 2 teaspoons granulated sugar. Bake for 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely...
Or dig in while they're still warm and EXTRA gooey like we did........ Oops?
