TWD: Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie featured a simply delightful morning pastry from Marion Cunningham.  These buttermilk crumb muffins were a cinch to put together and, although unassuming and unpretentious in appearance, were undeniably delicious.  Sometimes the simplest ingredients, once stirred together in a certain fashion and combined with other, equally humble pantry staples, can produce a truly memorable treat.

After attending Mass early Sunday morning, my husband and I whipped these together in a jiffy.  We decided to add blueberries to half the batter and made 12 regular size muffins and 2 jumbo muffins.  Instead of shortening (I never have that stuff in the house), I chose to use butter.  The most tedious part about the whole recipe was rubbing the butter into the batter.  Since my butter had been chilled, it took quite a while for the warmth from my fingers to soften the butter enough to properly rub it into the flour/sugar mixture.  And by "quite a while," I mean about 5 minutes.  But, it seemed like forever.  I am usually impatiently hungry on Sunday mornings.

Little man ate two of these the second they emerged from the oven.  In total silence, he ate them with a fork (one of his quirks...heaven forbid his little hands should get dirty!) straight out of the wrapper.  With his cheeks still stuffed full with the remnants of his muffin, he held his plate up and, with a muffled voice, asked: "More...cake?"

I loved these muffins.  I cannot decide whether I prefer the plain muffins or the blueberry version.  They were both delightful. Paul's teeth were blue by the end of breakfast, so I don't think there is any doubt as to which version he liked best!

This was a great recipe and one we will definitely be making again. Next time, I might just dump the whole batter into a cake pan and make it coffee cake style.  Maybe this weekend...

If you would like to give these muffins a try (and I really think you should!), head on over to Alisa's Blog.  She was our host for this week!