There’s nothing sweeter than late-night baking.

Sometimes, after a long day of work, I come home to a house that is an absolute disaster zone. The laundry is on the couch. My husband’s possessions are scattered every which way. And piles of mail call out for my attention.

Still, I prance past the nearly toxic environment, as though I am a horse with blinders on both sides of my head. I have ingredients in the fridge and a joy in my heart that means the rest of the world can wait until tomorrow. (And yes, my tomorrow-self hates when I do this.)

Anyway, for my own sanity, I will occasionally forgo the immense amount of chores waiting for me throughout my house, and will instead head straight to my stand mixer.

The cherry red mixer, with its stainless steel bowl, gleams as I pull it out from the bottom cabinets, and draws me in to bake once again.

This week, I needed a break from the chaos and the mixer was calling to me. But I didn’t want a sickly-sweet dessert. I’ve still been dealing with a low appetite this summer, and cakes and cookies and the like did not appeal to me.

Instead, I wanted to make the next few days easier on myself. And therefore, I wanted to make muffins.

Muffins (or pseudo-cupcakes) are the perfect way to trick yourself into feeling good first thing in the morning. You have an instant breakfast to eat, instead of having to go through the motions of cooking breakfast.

You also have the advantage of having a sweet little treat before you have to go off to work, still yawning from the terrible night of sleep you had for however many reasons you can’t sleep. Each bite you take, the muffin makes things a little better.

Plus, muffins have the added benefit of occasionally having fresh fruit mixed into them, which means you can convince yourself that, no really, they are better for you than a piece of cake. Actually, I’m being extremely healthy by eating this, and no one can tell me otherwise.

So when the mixer started calling, and I wanted to bake, I found this recipe for lemon blueberry muffins on Sally’s Baking Recipes that seemed like it would make all my dreams come true.

The batter was a lot thicker and fluffier than a typical muffin batter, I think because the butter and sugar are creamed together before the rest of the ingredients are added in.

It also has Greek yogurt mixed into it, providing some contrast and depth of flavor to the dominant fruit flavor. Fresh out of the oven, I could taste the notes it added, along with the lemon and blueberry.

Now, the next morning, I took a bite out of one of these muffins and it tasted just plain with blueberries in it. Once I reheated it, I could taste all of the lemon and other flavors again. So I would definitely recommend eating these hot. And often.

LEMON BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

(Adapted from Sally’s Baking Recipes)

Ingredients
For muffins:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

For crumb topping:
1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
2 tablespoons packed light or dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions
■ Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
■ Make the muffins: Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
■ In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl regularly to keep this mixture from sticking. Add the lemon zest and beat on medium speed 1 minute. Add the eggs, yogurt and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, then turn up to high until the mixture is combined.
■ With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients, milk and lemon juice into the wet ingredients and beat until no flour pockets remain. Gently fold in the blueberries. Avoid overmixing. Batter should be thick and fluffy. Fill the prepared muffin cups all the way to the top.
■ Make the crumb topping: In a small bowl, use a fork to mix all of the crumb topping ingredients together. Spoon topping on top of each muffin cup, pressing gently so it sticks.
■ Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for an additional 18-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean.
■ Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Enjoy warm, or at room temperature (but mostly warm!).

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