Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Summer is upon us, and that means the abundance of fresh Ontario produce is upon us as well! You can always tell what's in season by just taking a quick glance around my kitchen. My mom is always aware of what produce is in season and makes sure to take advantage by stocking up each time she makes a trip to the grocery store. Looking around my kitchen now I can see beets, strawberries, broccoli, cherries, and of course blueberries! Blueberries are one of my favourite fruits simply because I associate blueberries with so many delicious foods. Blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes, blueberry crumb cake, blueberry danish...oh my lord I could keep going and going! Yesterday, when I found my fridge stocked with massive bulk-sized containers of blueberries, I knew it was time to preheat the oven and come up with a new baked blueberry recipe!

Because I've been exercising daily for the past month or so, I wanted to make something on the healthier side so I wouldn't feel so bad when I went back for seconds...or thirds...or hey who's counting? I'll take one more! I decided to make a healthy version of blueberry muffins with whole wheat flour, applesauce, and rolled oats, which not only made my muffins healthier but also amped up the flavour. Whole wheat flour gave my muffins a nuttier flavour as well as a bit of texture, the applesauce made the muffins moist and gave an underlying apple flavour, and the oats gave my crumble topping a bit of a crunch. I was surprised by just how delicious these muffins turned out! Moist, flavourful, with that crunch from the topping, I can't imagine ever going back to plain old white batter muffins. With healthy muffins that taste this good, I promise you, you'll forget all about your old blueberry muffin recipe!

Note: This is a great recipe to bring up to the cottage because it doesn't require any special mixers or blenders, just a spoon, bowl, and muffin tin!

Tip: Tossing your blueberries in a couple tablespoons of flour will help prevent them from sinking to the bottom of your muffins as they bake.

Tip: If you want to make this recipe even more healthy, use all whole wheat flour and cut the white sugar in the muffin batter down to 2/3 cup. The muffins are pretty sweet, so cutting back won't hurt the flavour.

Makes 8 large muffins
Ingredients:

Muffin Batter

3/4 cup whole wheat all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white all-purpose flour + 2 tbsp

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup applesauce

1 egg

1/3 milk (1% cuts back on the fat but delivers the same results as higher fat milk)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup fresh blueberries 

Topping:

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp white all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cold butter

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp rolled oats

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º and line muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a medium-large mixing bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, white flour, sugar, salt and baking powder for the muffin batter.

3. In a 1-cup measuring cup pour in the applesauce. Crack the egg into the applesauce and top with enough milk to fill the cup. Add this into the dry ingredients along with the vanilla extract. Stir until almost just combined. Toss the blueberries with a couple tablespoons of flour to coat and gently stir them into the batter until just combined. Do not over mix!

4. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop muffin batter into paper liners in muffin tin with the batter just reaching the top.

4. In a small bowl make the crumble topping. Using your hands, mix together the brown sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, and rolled oats. Evenly sprinkle the topping over each muffin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Listening To:

Arcade Fire - Ocean of Noise

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