Blackberry Muffins

Many years ago, I was waiting to have blood drawn at the doctor and started flipping through a magazine when a recipe caught my eye. The recipe was for blackberry muffins, and the photos of the blackberries made my mouth water. Growing up in Oregon, all I had to do was walk out the backdoor and there were amazing blackberries ready for picking in the summer. Since moving to California, I had felt the lack of good blackberries, and I missed them.

Sitting in the doctor’s office, I faced a conundrum, I wanted that recipe, but I couldn’t rip the page out of the magazine. This was before the age of smart phones, but I decided I could quickly copy down the recipe, and managed to do so before they called my name. Not long after, I baked these muffins for the first time, and fell in love…

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons butter, softened (I usually reduce to 6 tablespoons and don’t notice a difference)
• 1 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk (I use almond milk)
• 1 cup (or more) fresh blackberries

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Line muffin tin with liners (should make approximately 12 regular size muffins)
3. Cream softened butter and sugar at high speed
4. Add eggs one at a time
5. Mix dry ingredients
6. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, alternating with milk
7. Fold in fruit
8. Add to prepared muffin tin
9. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean and tops are golden brown