Blueberry Muffins

Earlier this week, a fellow foodie told me that he loves blueberry muffins, the top part to be exact, and I totally understand why. Long before I discovered this blueberry muffin recipe, I used to just eat the top of the muffin and leave the rest for the "thanks for stopping by bin" a.k.a. trash. These little bad boys made me a believer of eating the whole thing. The texture is more of a cake than muffin, spongy and oh so light with a good crumb. It's has the right amount of sweetness that balances the creamy tanginess from the mascarpone, ricotta and cream cheese.

My son Khalel (yup, that's Superman's name!) loves blueberry muffins, thus my quest to find the best blueberry muffin recipe for him. About a year ago, while still in that quest, I stumbled upon the recipe for Holy Muffin, and since then, I tweaked the recipe to suit my palate.

This recipe will make about 12 regular muffins and a small loaf pan.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 oz cream cheese

4 oz ricotta cheese

4 oz mascarpone cheese

6 tbsp butter

1 cup sugar

2 L eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 t vanilla extract

1 t almond extract

1 pint fresh blueberries**

**I discovered that if I leave fresh blueberries in the refrigerator for about 3-5 days, just when they start to become prune-y or wrinkly, the sweetness intensifies and it becomes less watery, thus when I add to the muffin, it's not as soggy as when using 'fresh' ones. They also remain suspended in the batter thus I don't get the blueberries all in the bottom of the muffin.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-tin muffin pan and a mini loaf pan with Baking Joy. In a bowl, mix the first 4 ingredients, set aside. In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, the sugar, cream cheese, mascarpone and ricotta at medium speed until smooth. Add the almond and vanilla extracts. Add the eggs one at a time with a minute interval. Incorporate the dry mixture alternating with the milk, ending with the dry mixture. Scoop batter halfway in the muffin pans, then drop 5 blueberries. Fill muffin tin 3/4 full, drop 3 more blueberries, and try to submerge them in the batter by pushing them in and smoothing the top. Bake 20-25 minutes until browned or when a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

One of these days, I will turn 'John-the-muffin-top-lover' to a convert with these muffins!