02 March 2012

blueberry muffins filled with lemon curd

Folks.                                                                                     

Seriously, why hasn't anybody thought of this before? 

So I made some lemon curd, as per Sydney's instructions over at Crepes of Wrath. I wasn't really sure why, I just knew I had some lemons to use before they went bad and I had all the other ingredients around as well. Or maybe it's just that I always see it at the store and think it'd be fun to try, except it's super expensive. So stick it to the man! Make your own curd! You can even make your own crud as well, since that seems to be all that I can type...

Then I had to figure out what to do with it. Many responses from the Google told me that eating it directly out of the jar with a spoon was a very reasonable thing to do. Not gonna lie: it is that tasty. But what else? Seemed like it'd be good as a layer on a cake or inside some cupcakes. It'd be a killer filler (!) for donuts for sure. 

But I didn't feel quite that motived for my kitchen adventure. 

I liked the idea of having it on warm scones, but instead I put it on pancakes. I very seriously recommend that you give this a try as well. :)

So yeah. Scones! But you know what would be more fun? Curd inside a scone. But scones aren't generally filled, so... muffins! Why give cupcakes all the glory? I dug around the archives of some of my favorite blogs, and found this recipe for perfect blueberrry muffins at smitten kitchen. The title is no joke. I mean, if you have a great auntie's family standard muffin recipe, by all means go for it. But this one won't ever fail you. I also think it is key that the batter is super-duper thick for a quick bread. I definitely wanted to eat that batter with a spoon. If I piped it onto a plate and called it mousse au blueberry muffin, you'd totally buy it, I swear to you! 

Here's the assembly I'd recommend:
1. Spray muffin tin.
2. Fill with a tablespoon or so of batter. Use a small spoon (or your finger... you can lick either implement when you're done!) to squish the batter into the bottom of each muffin form, as the dough doesn't really flow like a liquid at all.
3. Make a well in the middle of the dough for each muffin.
4. Place a generous teaspoon of curd into each well. 
5. Add more batter to each muffin so that each liner is about 3/4 full. 
6. Smooth batter over, making sure the curd is fully concealed!
7. Bake as usual. Sneaky!

I really wanted to add lavender to the curd... maybe next time! I just say this awesome post over on 101 Cookbooks for ginger grapefruit curd... so many possibilities! Any requests? Cinnamon orange curd perhaps?