I only cooked one night this weekend for a dinner party to celebrate the visit of my friend Inbal. She moved to Israel last year, but she’s back for the month to visit friends in all corners of New York State and she spent the weekend on the lovely futon in my living room. (Lovely is a bit strong. Creaky and lumpy may be more appropriate adjectives.) I decided to keep things simple by using existing recipes, so we made salsa, salad, and a summer tomato tart. We finished the night with cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar and a tasting of our friend Sean’s amazing home brewed beer, along with a few rounds of Rock Band.

This afternoon was my first time back in the kitchen, and as I assessed the contents of the fridge, I was faced with a wall of questionable leftovers. The three items that held up were the blueberries, figs, and a forgotten lemon (it should have been zested for the tart), so naturally I thought, “Muffins.”

These muffins are a take on the traditional blueberry muffin with pureed fresh fig and a dash of lemon zest. I think they have just the right level of sweetness, but you could get away with cutting down the sugar to 3/4 cup. They’re also a great way to use leftover ingredients if you make the Fig and Goat Cheese Salad I posted last week. Recipe after the jump.

Blueberry Fig Muffins
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
-1 cup sugar
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-1/3 cup milk
-1 tsp. lemon zest
-2 cups flour
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 cup pureed fresh fig (5-6 small figs sliced in half and pureed food processor or blended with 2-3 tbs. water)
-1 1/4 cup blueberries

1) Pre-heat the oven to 375º and lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

2) Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat until smooth, then add the lemon zest. Finally, add the milk and stir until fully incorporated.

3) Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add to the batter in three separate parts and do not overmix.

4) Gently fold in the fig puree and blueberries using a spatula. Once evenly distributed, fill the muffin tins. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

The swiss cheese in this simile could easily be replaced with a blueberry muffin, as I often feel like the cakey space between the deep purple pockets of blueberries goes on far too long. My answer to this dilemma is a recipe for Extreme Blueberry Muffins: where extreme meets blueberry. It’s a recipe for those who love muffins, but use them as a vehicle for fruit.

This recipe is adapted from one by Alton Brown that uses no butter, but does use yogurt. The result is a very light muffin that has just the right amount of sweetness. I should also note that it’s not the most beautiful muffin, but it tastes great.

Extreme Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Alton Brown
Yields 12 muffins

-1 1/2 cups flour
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-Heavy pinch salt
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1 egg
-1 cup yogurt
-2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the blueberries. Stir mixture for a count of 10. Add 1 1/2 cups blueberries to mixture and stir 3 more times. Reserve the 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Add the mixture to greased muffin pans (Mo note: I recommend not using the muffin cups if you want to have the whole muffin be slightly crispy). Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of berries on top of muffins and press down lightly. Place into the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down on tea towel or paper towel to cool completely (Mo note: Because of the amount of blueberries in each muffin, they will be fragile until fully cooled. Turn out with caution). Serve immediately or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.