Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

Whenever I find a recipe entitled "Best Ever ______," I usually save it and make it, and I think it's pretty good, but I don't want to commit to calling it the "Best Ever," so I change the name to something else and then put it on the blog.
But for these... I really do believe that they're the BEST EVER blueberry muffins. Jeff really likes blueberries, so I make a decent amount of blueberry stuff and guys... these are really, really good. Like really good. I'm pretty sure that as far as blueberry muffins go,  it doesn't get any better than this! 

Recipe adapted from here.
Ingredients: 1/3 cup sugar (for topping) and 1 1/8 cups + 1 tsp sugar (for muffins) Zest from one lemon (for topping) 2 cups fresh blueberries 2 1/2 cups flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs 4 tbsp butter, melted 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil 1 cup buttermilk  1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:  1. Prepare the topping by stirring together 1/3 cup sugar and lemon zest. Set aside. 2. Preheat oven to 375. Grease and flour a muffin pan.  3. Rinse one cup berries and pat dry with paper towels. Simmer the remaining cup of blueberries and 1 tsp sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mash with a spoon periodically and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture has thickened and reduced to about 1/3 cup (this takes about 5-10 minutes). Transfer blueberry-sugar mixture to a small bowl and let cool to room temperature. 4. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Toss the rinsed berries in witht he flour mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and 1 1/8 cup sugar until thick. Slowly add in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla. 5. Gently fold the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just combined (batter will still be lumpy, a few streaks are okay). Don't overmix! 6. Spoon the batter into muffin cups until they are about 3/4 full. Spoon a teaspoon of the cooked berry mixture into the center of each mound of batter. Using a toothpick, gently swirl the berry filling into the batter. 7. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over the tops of the muffins. Bake until muffins are golden and just firm, about 16-18 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool for another few minutes before serving. 

(lemon zest + sugar)

(topping mixture)

(berries + sugar)

(berry-sugar mixture)

(cooling berry-sugar mixture)

(flour + baking powder + salt)

(adding in the berries)

(eggs + sugar)

(adding vanilla and buttermilk)

(finished batter)

(about 3/4 full... or a little more)

(adding the berry-sugar mixture)

(swirling with a toothpick)

(ooh, pretty blueberry swirls!)

(so pretty!)

(lemon sugar added on top)

(ready for the oven)

(finished!)

(look at that oozy blueberry goodness!)

(golden and delicious!)

(cooling on a tray)

(delicious!)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!