Blackberry, Lemon and Thyme Muffins

I haven’t done any baking using traditionally savoury herbs in desserts but this recipe sounded delicious. And it was……the combination of flavours was fantastic, the muffin was light and moist (I actually wondered if I used the same recipe as some of the epicurious reviewers!) and the crumble topping was crunchy.

The muffin was somewhat cake-like, both in texture and mixing method (dry and wet ingredients are added to butter creamed with sugar) but not as sweet. I used thawed marionberries and was happy to see that they remained suspended in the batter. Unfortunately, they did stick to the paper liners so I may just make these in a greased muffin tin next time. The recipe made 16 regular-sized muffins. I made an error with the oven temperature and baked these at 375F, a typical temperature for muffins, so they were done in 20 minutes. I can’t help but think that 40 minutes is too long a baking time, even at 325F.

The crumble topping was unusual in that an egg yolk and baking powder were included. I found it to be quite powdery and it didn’t hold together well so what didn’t clump together, about 1/3 of the mixture, didn’t end up on the muffins. I didn’t see the point of the baking powder either as there was barely any liquid for a reaction to take place. But the baked texture was nice as was the additional hit of thyme it provided.

I’m looking forward to making these again when fresh blackberries are in season…they’ll be a nice summertime treat.