Developing Blueberry Muffins

My mom normally skips breakfast, which irritates me whenever she does this, but since she has been getting busier and busier at her work during lunch hours she felt that it would be best to eat breakfast since some days she misses lunch all together. Thus, I decided to start baking muffins for her to eat on her way to or at work (since she said that these days she just buys a cup of coffee and a donut =_=).

Because she usually eats out a lot during lunch, and I absolutely have no idea what she does for dinner...if she eats dinner...I decided to try and incorporate a few healthy additions to her muffins, like whole wheat flour, oats, a banana now and then, etc., to try and get some dietary fiber into her diet. After doing this for twice (I make a batch every weekend for her to eat during the week) I wanted to develop a muffin recipe that would have less oil in it (I use 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in my muffins) because, in the end even if it is a better type, oil is still oil and I feel it best not to have too much of it in a day. Therefore, I decided to work applesauce into the mix ^_^.


So, the goal was to make moist muffins that are mildly sweet (I don't have much of a sweet tooth these days and that goes for my mom too) with good blueberry flavor, which is one of her favorite fruits. I also know she likes almonds to I made sure to include those in there too. I also used some whole wheat flour and honey to sweeten, vs having sugar alone. No oats this time though, it would have been a little overwhelming, I feel. I also used low fat yogurt in the recipe too to take the place of some of the 2% milk to impart a different texture and flavor in the finished product...well, at least I felt it would ^_^.
TADA!~ Ready to bake! Don't ya just love the internet~

Out of the oven and almost completely cooled

In the end, the recipe turned out wonderfully moist and pleasantly dense chewy muffins with delicious blueberry aroma and flavor.
It was pretty successful, except for one exception. I did come across a problem which I didn't really think about prior to this. When I tried to take the paper liner off it stuck, a lot, to the muffin; I assume it was because there wasn't a lot of oil in them for release. My solution I guess would probably be to either bake them without paper liners or bake them with a increase from 1 tsp of oil to 1 tbsp. But with a little finesse and slow peeling, it came off without taking much of the muffin with it and leaving the muffin relatively unharmed (see pictures below).

I do love how the wild blueberries are speckled everywhere in the muffin. So tasty!~

Okay, so here is the recipe:














Blueberry and Almond Muffins

• 1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1/2 cup of low fat yogurt
• 1/4 cup of 2% milk (or enough so that, when added to the yogurt= 3/4 cup 0f yogurt/milk)
• 1 cup of fresh or frozen wild blueberries (they work better, I feel, because the smaller size makes them easier to distribute while not making it so you bite into a big berry pocket when you eat them)
• 1/2 cup of sliced toasted almonds, unsalted, + more for topping
  

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line muffin pan with 12 paper cup liners (or spray muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray).
   
2. Spoon flour into measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine both kinds of flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl. Mix with a whisk or whatever you have on hand until combined.
3. Measure out a cup of fresh or frozen wild blueberries in a separate bowl and add enough of the 1/2 cup of flour until you can coat all of the blueberries. Pour the left over flour into the rest of the flour mixture.
4. Whisk egg in a large bowl. Add the honey into the egg and whisk until well combined. Then, add applesauce, milk/yogurt, extra virgin olive oil, and vanilla extract into the same bowl until everything is well combined.
5. Spoon half of the flour mixture into the wet mixture. Mix with a spatula until it starts to incorporate (it doesn't have to be well mixed). Add the rest of the flour mixture into the large, wet mixture, bowl and mix until it is just all well incorporated. Add the 1/2 cup of almonds and gently fold into the batter until almost combined. Add the 1 cup of flour coated blueberries into the batter and gently mix until just well combined. (It's okay if it the blueberries just start to bleed a little, it shouldn't affect the finished product's color all that much).
6. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups and top each muffin with some of the extra almonds (you can be pretty liberal with how much you put on).
   
7. Place muffin pan into preheated 400F oven and bake for 5 minutes. Then, turn the heat down to 375F and bake for another 5 minutes. After this, rotate the muffin pan (consider checking how done they are by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean) and bake at 350F temp for another 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The muffins should also spring back when touched lightly.
8. Remove muffin pan and cool for 5 minutes in the pan (if you are doing it without paper liners, consider taking them out earlier since they might start getting a bit soggy on the bottom). Move the muffins to a wire rack and let cool for another 10 minutes (or until the cool completely if you don't care to eat them just yet).

I still don't feel that she gets enough nutrition in her diet, but I guess having her eat a better breakfast is better than nothing.

Enjoy!~

Note: The paper actually came off better after a day in the fridge! Thats good to know, hehe~