So I had almost 1 cup of fresh NJ blueberries leftover from the weekend. Past experience indicates blueberries do NOT make good margaritas, so it seemed I needed to go in a solid direction. I saw a delicious recipe on a blog I follow, but true to form, I didn’t have enough blueberries to make the full recipe (nor a lemon, nor the brown sugar). So I did what I usually do — make a substitution or two.
Generally when I deviate from a recipe, it’s not so much that I feel the need to IMPROVE upon it, but rather, I’m missing one or more ingredients. Sometimes it’s a home run, sometimes just a lame imitation. I think this one is a good solid double. We’ll see what the Culinary Guinea Pig says 
Since I was a hair light on blueberries, and didn’t have the brown sugar to make the streusel, I looked around for something to amp up the flavor alongside the blueberries — and found the bottom of a bag of crystallized ginger in the top of my pantry. It was the perfect POP of flavor that I was looking for … I hope you agree!
Blueberry Ginger Muffins, adapted from Heather Christo Cooks’ Lemon Blueberry Streusal Muffins
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 – 3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons bottled lime or lemon juice
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberries
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare 10 standard muffin cups with paper liners (have one or two extra liners just in case).
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt (I like to use the whisk from stand mixer as a hand whisk for this). Toss in the ginger pieces and use your fingers to ensure they are separated and lightly coated with flour. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle beater, mix the oil, sugar, egg, and citrus juice until well combined.
STOP mixer. Dump in half of the dry ingredients and mix on low until incorporated.
STOP mixer. Add the buttermilk and mix on low until incorporated.
STOP mixer. Add the second half of the dry ingredients and mix on low until incorporated.
Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and fold in the blueberries by hand.
Fill the lined muffin cups about 2/3 full of batter. Bake the muffins at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Rotate the pan and cook another 4 to 6 minutes until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (or with only a few crumbs).
Makes about 10 muffins.
