Blueberry Lemon Cottage Cheese Muffins

Hello March Madness!  I usually love this time of year.  Don't get me wrong, I am still cheering on my teams, but my teams left . . . are few.  What is up with all these double digit seeds beating the #3 and #4 seeds?  And my Jayhawks?  What a miserable game.  Letting a #16 seed play even with us was plain embarrassing.  But KU won and thats what counts.  They are about the only hope left in my busted bracket.  In case you were wondering, I did actually choose K-State to win their game.  And imagine that, in this rare moment of me wishing them success, they lose. Don't they understand the sacrifice it took for me to pick them?

But I did choose KU to win it all. :)

In our family, whoever wins the brackets gets to pick a meal.  We do the same for football bowl games.  And bragging rights are highly coveted here at our house.  (Can you tell we are sports people?)  Not to brag, but yours truly has gotten to choose many meals in years past.  And if I win again (even with my losing record, I am in second, but my chances of earning more wine are not likely!) these muffins will be on the table.

You know those crazy recipes that yield 8 muffins?  Or 13 servings?  I despise those.  What recipe makes 8 muffins?  People, we operate in dozens.  Oh and then there is 13 . . . I just don't bake with prime numbers!

Today is a recipe that has eight servings.  I know, I am sorry.  It wasn't supposed to be that way, but somehow I ended up with more batter than could fit into 6 muffin cups even after I sampled it a half dozen 13 times to make sure it tasted right.

I had never used cottage cheese in baked goods before.  But I've tried Greek yogurt and sour cream, girl, I use avocado with chocolate, so cottage cheese isn't that much of a stretch.  The light, fresh flavor of lemon is one of my favorites and I've been on a blueberry kick lately, so I decided to combine the two.

The cottage cheese makes these so tender so that the whole wheat's density isn't noticable.  And those blueberries bursting into lemony bread - the perfect balance of tart and sweet. As the girl's were sampling them, all I heard were "Yummm," "That's my crumb!" and "Let's pretend there were only seven, then we can split another."  Devious child  . . . takes after her older sister.

The food processor made this a breeze. Let me restate how much I love that kitchen appliance.  It took my clumpy cottage cheese and whoosh! blended it nice and smooth.  Then I just added my wet ingredients and pressed on!  Done.

Dry ingredients are easy peasy too.  Whisk those flours, salt, soda, and powder together and that bowl's done too.  Really simple, right?

Blueberry Lemon Cottage Cheese Muffins
Recipe Source: Loosely adapted from A Southern Fairy Tale
Yield: 8 muffins

1/2 cup whole wheat flour *
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup cottage cheese (I used low-fat)
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. applesauce
1 egg white
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup white sugar
zest from 1 lemon
3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (more to press on top of muffins if desired)

Preheat oven to 350.

Stir together flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.  In a food processor, cream cottage cheese until smooth.  Add butter, applesauce, egg white, lemon, juice and vanilla.  Mix sugar and zest together and add to cottage cheese mixture.  Cream until smooth.  Pour cottage cheese mixture into dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Add blueberries.  Drop into 8 muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes.

*You can use 1 cup all purpose flour in place of the 1/2 cup whole wheat and 1/2 cup all purpose.

The zest is the key to that wonderful tart lemon flavor. Mixing it with the sugar gives it the balance of sweet and sour and complements the blueberries beautifully. If you happen to be blessed with leftovers, store in closed container so they stay moist. These are delicious in the morning . . . I'm already looking forward to tomorrows breakfast!

Okay, so you may be thinking, "Those cupcake liners look just like the one's in Chloe's post!"  Ding, ding, ding, you're right!  They are the same liners and my pics from that day of baking and photo shooting are  below.  I really enjoyed the darker wood at their house and how it contrasted with the cream icing.  Oh, and those pearls?  Aren't they UH-DORABLE?  Credit goes to Chloe!  And yes, I am a barabaric toothpick stabber.  I prefer toothpick terror, personally, but all I know is waitresses beware!