Blueberry Almond Crumb Muffins

This recipe is very loosely based off this one this one, which I pulled from allrecipes about 800 years ago.  Before I became an adventurous baker, I made the recipe as suggested several times.  It's plenty good, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for in the perfect blueberry muffin.  This is.

Muffin Batter
¼ cup butter, soft or melted
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
¼ tsp. almond extract
1 egg
1 6-oz container vanilla yoghurt (about half a cup, low-fat is fine)
zest of one lemon or orange (optional)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen – wild blueberries are best
½ cup toasted almonds, slivered or sliced

Crumb Topping
¼ cup butter, cold
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup toasted almonds, slivers or slices

Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin liners (I also grease my muffin liners).

Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract, and orange/lemon zest. Mix in egg and vanilla yoghurt

In separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir in almonds

In another bowl, make crumb topping. Stir together all ingredients except for butter, then cut butter in with a pastry cutter, fork, or your hands. I use my hands.  Add almonds and stir to blend. It should look like so:
Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients, then fold in blueberries. I was very generous in my interpretation of “a cup of blueberries.”

Spoon evenly into 8 muffin tins. Top evenly with crumb topping.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Makes 8 large muffins.

The only problem with these muffins is the temptation to devour the muffin top first.

The muffins are moist and have a soft crumb.  They're sweet without being cake-y and dense without being heavy.  They are muffin heaven.

Printable recipe here.