Bangin' BOBs...Or My New Favorite Muffin

I woke up dreaming about muffins.

Gluten-free muffins were one of the first things I made after getting my diagnosis. Using a Gluten Free Pantry mix, I stocked my freezer with muffins of all shapes and sizes. Corn muffins, dried cranberry muffins, chocolate chip muffins. It was the summer of muffins. 

...It also happened to be the summer of two jobs that had me working 60 hours, 7 days a week - 6 of which I was up before 7:30 am - and in order to survive, I needed a wholesome, quick, energy packed breakfast I could take on the run. 

Enter the muffin. I baked in bulk, making and freezing 2 dozen muffins at a time, and thanks to my microwave, I'd have a toasty warm breakfast in mere seconds flat. Morning after morning, I ate my muffin breakfast happily, amazed I never got sick of 'em. 

Oh muffins. Fluffy, yummy, and deceptively impressive, muffins are one of my favorite things to bake and share with those I love. Made nutritious and antioxidant filled with berries, vitamin packed with grated veggies, fibrous with oats, protein packed with nuts, spicy with cinnamon, low in fat and heart healthy with applesauce, or simply sweet with chocolate chips, is there anything that you can't put in a muffin? 

But I didn't just wake up dreaming for muffins for their versatility. 

The night before I'd fallen asleep trying to find a solution to a very serious problem. You see, as delicious as the Amazing Almond Orange Cake was, it left me with an excess of buttermilk and orange zest. And I hate wasting good ingredients. 

But when I woke up with a fully formed recipe - a variation on my brother's favored Bangin' Cranberry Cornbread (a variation itself on Hold the Gluten Maureen's Skillet Cornbread) - and I'm happy to say that the muffin that wrote itself while I was sleeping ended up being the muffin of my dreams. I'd be happy waking up to this muffin any day. 

Bangin' BOBs, Corn Muffin Style

(Better to fill your mouth with the Blueberry Orange Buttermilk goodness than waste time saying their whoooole name, right? Of course right. )   

1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum
1/2 cup of GF flour
1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 cup + 2 Tablespoon of cornmeal
1 cup of buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 cup of reduced fat sour cream (I used Horizon's Organic)
1/4 cup of canola oil
2/3rds cup of blueberries 

1/3  cup of orange zest (approx. the zest of of 2 oranges) 

4  Tablespoons of sugar, divided into 2 and 2

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups and sprinkle sugar into the bottom of each cup (approx. 2 Tablespoons for 12 muffins, more of less as you like. 

Mix all of the ingredients - excepting the blueberries and the zest! - in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter. Evenly spoon the batter into the muffin cups. 

In a small bowl, combine orange zest and the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with the sugary zest and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.