In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment mix the butter and sugar together for 3-5 minutes to cream them fully on a low-medium speed.
Then add in one egg at a time. Followed by the vanilla extract.
In a separate medium-large bowl mix the dry ingredients fully.
Alternate, starting and ending with the dry mixture, adding in the dry mixture and milk into the wet ingredients on a low-medium speed. You'll add in ⅓ of the dry mixture at a time and ½ of the milk at a time.
In a separate small-medium bowl, toss blueberries in 2 teaspoon of flour. Then mix in lemon zest.
Gently fold the blueberries and lemon zest into the muffins. Cover with a dishcloth or paper towel and let sit for 20-ish minutes while you heat the oven, prepare pans, and do a little clean up.
Preheat oven to 400° F. Prepare 1-2 muffin/cupcake pans with oil or butter. You want to do the cavities as well as the top of the pan. If you plan on doing 10 large muffins, you will want to prepare 2 dishes and skip every other cavity (filling with water). Or if you plan on doing 12 normal sized muffins, just do one pan. You can also line them with liners. But greasing the top will help the removal of large sized ones later.
Scoop batter into the muffin pans. There is about 50 tablespoon of batter. If you do the 10 large ones, do about 5 tablespoon per cavity/muffin. If you are doing 12 muffins about 4 tablespoon + ½ teaspoon per cavity/muffin.
Sprinkle the topping sugar generously across the tops of all the muffins.
Bake each pan for 24-26 minutes (perhaps an extra minute or two for the larger ones) or until golden brown on top!
Remove from the oven and let the muffins cool. Then you may need to use a knife under the muffin top between the pan and muffin to release it from the cavity.
Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Why Toss Blueberries in Flour: I suggest doing this whenever you're making a cake, bread, loaf, or muffins with fruits or chocolate chips. This helps them to not sink to the bottom of the pan. However, frozen blueberries or canned might have more liquid so a teaspoon more of flour may be needed.
- Letting the Batter Sit: Letting the batter sit instead of directly adding it into the oven to bake will help the baking powder do a second rise and fluff up the batter just a little bit more. On cakes and muffins, I suggest doing this for 20-30 minutes.
- Greasing the Pan: I prefer a more sustainable route usually when it comes to muffins - I also just like the look of not having a liner. However, whether you use a liner or not, these muffins do require you grease the top of the muffin pans as often the blueberries can melt to the top of the pan as the muffin tops fold over the edges of the cavities.
- Number of Muffins: Now this is a little special trick, but most muffins can be made as 12 regular muffins, or about 9-10 larger muffins that really grow and fluff on top of the cavity. If you want to make the larger muffins, just be sure that you're alternating between cavities and using two room temp muffin/cupcake pans. And in the cavities that are empty place about 2-3 teaspoon of water.
- Allow the Muffins to Cool: This part is important because it will help the release of the muffins. It's hard to not dive right in, but this definitely is helpful!
- Sugar on Top: While not 100% necessary, it's a big part of this recipe as it really creates that beautiful and delicious crunchy top.