Blue Blueberry Muffins

We’re celebrating the release of COCONUT LAYER CAKE MURDER with a look back at some of our favorite Joanne Fluke recipes from the Hannah Swensen series! Tell us your favorite recipe in the comments.

By Joanne Fluke

Ingredients

For Blue Blueberry Muffins:

• 3⁄4 cup melted butter (1 1⁄2 sticks)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 beaten eggs (just whip them up with a fork)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (no need to thaw if they’re frozen)
• 1⁄2 cup blueberry pie filling
• 2 cups plus one tablespoon flour (no need to sift)
• 1⁄2 cup milk

Crumb Topping:

• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1⁄3 cup flour
• 1⁄4 cup softened butter (1⁄2 stick)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375ºF, rack in the middle position
• Grease the bottoms only of a 12-cup muffin pan (or line the cups with cupcake papers). Melt the butter. Mix in the sugar. Then add the beaten eggs, baking powder, and salt, and mix thoroughly.
• Put one tablespoon of the flour in a plastic bag with your cup of fresh or frozen blueberries. Shake it gently to coat the blueberries and leave them in the bag for now.
• Add half the remaining two cups flour to your bowl and mix it in with half the milk. Then add the rest of the flour and milk and mix thoroughly.

Here comes the fun part: Add 1⁄2 cup blueberry pie filling to your bowl and mix it in. (Your dough will turn a shade of blue, but don’t let that stop you—once the muffins are baked, they’ll look just fine.) When your dough is thoroughly mixed, fold in the flour-coated fresh or frozen blueberries.

Fill the muffin tins three-quarters full and set them aside. If you have dough left over, grease the bottom of a small tea-bread loaf pan and fill it with your remaining dough.

The crumb topping: Mix the sugar and the flour in a small bowl. Add the softened butter and cut it in until it’s crumbly. (You can also do this in a food processor with hard butter using the steel blade.)

Sprinkle the crumb topping over your muffins and bake them in a 375ºF oven for 25 to 30 minutes. (The tea-bread should bake about 10 minutes longer than the muffins.)

While your muffins are baking, divide the rest of your blueberry pie filling into 1⁄2-cup portions and pop it in the freezer. I use paper cups to hold it and freeze them inside a freezer bag. All you have to do is thaw a cup the next time you want to make a batch of Blue Blueberry Muffins.

When your muffins are baked, set the muffin pan on a wire rack to cool for at least 30 minutes. (The muffins need to cool in the pan for easy removal.) Then just tip them out of the cups and enjoy.

These are wonderful when they’re slightly warm, but the blueberry flavor will intensify if you store them in a covered container overnight.

Grandma Ingrid’s muffin pans were large enough to hold all the dough from this recipe. My muffin tins are smaller, and I always make a loaf of Blue Blueberry tea bread with the leftover dough. If I make it for Mother, I leave off the crumb topping. She loves to eat it sliced, toasted, and buttered for breakfast.

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Preparations are underway for Lake Eden, Minnesota’s annual Winter Carnival—and Hannah Swensen is set to bake up a storm at her popular shop, The Cookie Jar. Too bad the honor of creating the official Winter Carnival cake went to famous lifestyle maven Connie Mac—a half-baked idea, in Hannah’s opinion. She suspects Connie Mac is a lot like the confections she whips up on her cable TV cooking show—sweet, light, and scrumptious-looking, but likely to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

Hannah’s suspicions are confirmed when Connie Mac’s limo rolls into town. Turns out America’s “Cooking Sweetheart” is bossy, bad-tempered, and downright domineering. Things finally boil over when Hannah arrives at The Cookie Jar to find the Winter Carnival cake burnt to a crisp—and Connie Mac lying dead in her pantry, struck down while eating one of Hannah’s famous blueberry muffins.

Next thing Hannah knows, the police have declared The Cookie Jar’s kitchen crime scene off-limits. She’s a baker without an oven—and the Carnival is right around the corner. Hannah’s only alternative is to cook up a plan to save her business—by finding the killer herself…