Blueberry Mini Muffins and Other Sweet Treats for the Holidays

Hopefully, I will find some time for baking my favorite sweet treats for Christmas. Last year, I baked up a storm, packed most of it to take to the mountains where we have celebrated Christmas many times. As we left on December 23, I got messages from my niece saying that my 91-year-old mother had fallen down and was on her way to the hospital with a fractured hip. I made my poor husband turn around and was on a plane to Germany the next day, December 24, arriving in Germany on Christmas Day. My mom by then had peacefully passed away with my brother's family around her.  
​I took a tin of cookies with me sharing them at the airline ticket counter and later in Germany. They were a connection to my life in California. Food can be so comforting and nourishing. As long as I can remember, I have baked goodies for the holidays. I don't always bake the same things. My Christmas recipe folder is bulky. Depending on how I feel, I bake different things, some of which I haven't posted yet. For my girlfriend, Marie, I bake the hazelnut 
meringue cookies (click for recipe here). My husband's favorite treat are his mom's sugar cookies that my sister-in-law bakes every year for him. His second favorite are my chocolate chip walnut bars (click for recipe here). I like gingerbread cookies, but nobody else does, so I don't make them very often. My Vienna vanilla nut cookies remind me of my childhood (click for recipe here). ​

My fruit and nut chocolate chunks are a healthy and tasty treat. Click here for the recipe.

​I enjoy making individual graham cracker gingerbread house ornaments with  young children. These cute little ornaments are a lot of fun and children just love them (click  here for the recipe ).
Another staple in my family have been blueberry mini-muffins.These tiny muffins have a crunchy almond sugar flavor with a burst of blueberries and lemon. The recipe comes from an old Gourmet recipe and is my son's favorite.

Print Recipe

Ingredients


 You will need a mini-muffin or something similar for this.

1 cup sliced toasted almonds 
1 3/4 cup flour
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
​2 tsp. grated lemon zest 
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp.salt
2 large egg yolks 
1 tsp. vanilla 
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup dried blueberries
½ cup berry jam

Directions

Put oven rack in the middle and preheat  the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 
Toast the almonds in a shallow baking pan, stirring once until golden brown, 3-5 minutes. Cool completely, leaving the oven on.
Pulse flour, sugar, 1 tsp. lemon zest, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add egg yolks and vanilla and process until the mixture begins to come together in clumps. 
Transfer 1 ½  cups dough to a bowl and stir in almonds, some almonds will break.
Gather the remaining  dough into a ball. Generously butter the mini-muffin pan. Press 1 TBS  dough into the bottom and up the side of each muffin cup. Chill the dough until firm, about 15 minutes. 
Mix the remaining teaspoon of zest, lemon juice, dried blueberries and jam in a bowl.
Spoon a rounded ½ tsp of the mixture onto the dough in each muffin cup. 
Crumble 1 rounded tsp. almond topping evenly over the muffins.
Bake until the topping it is golden brown and the filling is bubbling, about 20-25 minutes. Cool completely in muffin pan on a rack. Loosen edges of crumbles carefully and remove from pan.
Guten Appetit!
Recipe from Gourmet magazine 
Adapted by ©Sunnycovechef
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I hope your holidays are filled with warmth and happiness.
Gerlinde