Mmmmm...Muffins

Okay, I swear this isn't going to turn into a baking blog. I wasn't planning to post anything today but these turned out so gorgeous that I wanted to share them to hopefully inspire someone else to make delicious muffins.

At this time of year, berries are in season so they come in huge containers. It's wonderful of course, but I can't fit anymore into the bento lunches than I already do, so I ended up with some leftover berries that weren't fresh enough to eat straight, but perfect for baking. I decided on muffins.
I used this recipe from allrecipes.com and I can't rave about it enough! I'm actually not exaggerating when I say that I have never had a better muffin. And this is coming from someone who has eaten many, many muffins in my time.

I think the trick to this recipe is to whip the butter a whole lot. It makes them melt-in-your-mouth fluffy. I whipped the butter with an electric mixer for a solid minute before adding anything to it and then for a solid minute after every addition (i.e, after the sugar, after each egg and after the vanilla). Then I put the mixer away and gently folded everything else in very slowly.

I used a mixture of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. I used jumbo sized muffin cups (finally a use for these! They're way too big for cupcakes) filled almost to the top and they raised up to a great height. The recipe made 15.

The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute brown sugar for white in the streusal topping. I had never heard of a white sugar streusal before and it made me a bit nervous so I decided to stick with what I know.

It's a great weekend to make muffins. If you've got any fruit in your fridge that needs to be used up, this is a yummy way to do it!