Disclaimer: These are NOT healthy muffins. Generally, I think anything called a muffin or fill-in-the-blank (like banana) bread are really just cupcakes and cake called by a different name to make you feel better about eating them. Like breakfast cookies. Really? Breakfast cookies? They're just cookies, folks.
Best Blueberry Muffins - Makes 12 muffins
This is a recipe from Cooks Illustrated May 09 that I tweaked to double the blueberries, use yogurt instead of buttermilk, and add lemon zest to the streusel topping. I usually use frozen blueberries for the cooked berry jam, and then fresh for adding at the end. You can use all fresh; I just can't keep that amount of blueberries in my house long enough to make muffins because they get eaten by my three little fruit bats. This recipe always takes longer than I think it should to make muffins, but when I eat them, all the time is worth it.
Lemon Struesel:
3 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
pinch table salt
1 1/2 tsp finely grated zest from 1 lemon
1/2 c. plus 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
5 tbsp warm, melted unslated butter
Muffins:
2 c. frozen blueberries, 2 c. fresh blueberries, picked over
1 1/8 c. plus 2 tsp sugar
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp table salt
2 large eggs
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 c. vegetable oil
3/4 c. low-fat yogurt thinned with 1/4 c. milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
1. FOR THE TOPPING: Combine sugar, brown sugar, salt, zest, and flour in small bowl. Drizzle with butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms large chunks with some pea-sized pieces throughout. Set aside.
2. FOR THE MUFFINS: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle positing and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 2 c. frozen blueberries and 2 tsp sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/2 c, about 10 minutes.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 c sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in milk, yogurt, and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining 2 c. fresh blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (batter will be very lumpy with a few spots of dry flour; do not overmix)
4. Scoop batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon scant tablespoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle streusel topping over muffins.
5. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.
I really truly believe that one should not bother making healthy desserts (and muffins are dessert). Why ruin such a good thing? Just don't eat them often, but when you do, add the butter, sugar, and white flour. In fact, I was super proud of myself when I made the above blueberry muffins last week, and as I was getting out the baking stuff, Tanner exclaims, "Are we having a party?!" We weren't, but I loved that he thought baking was only for parties. However, I wanted to make an actually healthy baked good with the bananas that get brown on my counter. So, here is my recipe that I am working on for healthy muffins.
Banana Muffins that are healthy, for real
1/2 c. walnuts
1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
1 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp honey
1/4 c. apple sauce
4 bananas, mashed
2 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. whole oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast walnuts on baking sheet for about 5 minutes until fragrant. Grind in food processor/chopper until very small pieces and the mixture starts to become like peanut butter (but it doesn't need to be smooth). Place cupcake liners in standard muffin tin and spray with cooking spray (when I just used cupcake liners, it sticks a lot to the liner). Mix wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients. Combine. Cook at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes.
