Share a Spoon - Summer Fruit

 

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Share a Spoon
"Summer Fruit"

Image provided via Google Images

Have I ever mentioned how much I love fruit?  I love fruit!  Love, love love it!  However, I'm picky about my fruit.  I don't like strawberries, watermelon or bananas.  *gasp*  I know, I never claimed to be normal.  I don't even know how I developed such a strong aversion to those fruits either.  I liked them when I was little.  I remember going to pick strawberries when we were kids.  We would skip school, my sisters and cousins.  Get up before the roosters and my aunt would drive us to Plant City to pick strawberries.  We ate so many we would have belly aches at the end of the day.
I remember eating watermelon until it would cover us from head to toes in the summer.  Every family gathering, church function, picnic, etc. included coolers with watermelons nestled in melting ice getting them as cold as possible.  It's so hot in FL that ice cold watermelon felt great as the juices ran down our face, and arms, and legs.  Plus, spitting watermelon seeds at your siblings and neighbors was always big fun.  Then one day my taste buds changed and I just didn't like it anymore.  Same with strawberries.  Bananas though...that's all about texture!
Anysquishyfruit, my daughter and her wonderful boyfriend have brought me blueberries the past two years fresh from the farm.  They go down and pick them on his grandfather's blueberry farm, much like we picked strawberries when I was little.  Blueberries are so sweet when they are in season.  
Blueberries make THE best muffins!   That's my opinion, and there's not much anyone can say to change it.  I do love lemon poppy seed muffins, and I am more than fond of cranberry orange muffins.  However, blueberry muffins take me back to my childhood and blueberry crunch!  Mmm...mmm....good!

Blueberry Muffins w/Crumb Topping

1½ cups cake flour

½ cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 extra large egg

½ cup whole milk

¼ cup canola oil

1½ cups fresh blueberries w/2 Tablespoons sugar

1 lemon zested

Crumble Topping:

2 Tablespoons softened butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup cake flour

Pinch of nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  

Add milk, egg and canola oil to dry ingredients.  Stir by hand until ingredients are just combined.  

Wash and drain berries.  Sprinkle berries with 2 tablespoons of sugar. 

Fold in sugared berries and lemon zest.

Line muffin tin with paper liners.  Spoon in muffin mix to fill each tin 2/3 full.

In a small bowl mix crumble topping ingredients together with a fork.  Mash together until all combined.  

Sprinkle each muffin top with the mixture. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

These muffins are perfect.  You can make them all year round using frozen berries.  Don't thaw them if using frozen, but add the sugar.  However, during the summer when the berries are fresh, these muffins are absolutely AH-MAZING!  The sugar helps to keep the berries evenly distributed in the muffins so that every single bite has blueberry!  

That's my real "recipe".  During the summer though, I buy fruit every time I go to the grocery store.  Whatever looks amazing and smells fresh I pick up.  I like to keep a large container of cut up fruit in the refrigerator for snacking.  Melons, grapes, berries and apple slices!   Grab a couple of lemons, juice them.  Add a bit of agave nectar.  Toss over the fruit.  It will keep the fruit from turning dark.  Plain yogurt also makes a nice "dressing" for a fruit salad.

There you have it Smackers!  Share your favorite FRUITYLICIOUS recipes with me today!  Leave me some love and let me know what you want to see here on Share a Spoon.  Ya'll have been slacking in the theme department lately!  Speak up!