Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Yes! I know. These are not BEAUTIFUL muffins, but they are tasty and rather healthy.  I saw this recipe on Facebook and decided I should make them since (1) it was rather cool outside this morning so it was okay to the oven on, (2) I already had all the ingredients in the house, and (3) life is just better with baked goods. 

I was not a fan of these muffins fresh out of the oven; the texture seemed a bit coarse, the muffins seemed kind of dry, and they were not super flavorful.  I put the slightly warm muffins in a gallon-sized plastic zip close bag this morning and let them sit all day long at room temperature.  I tried a muffin this evening and the texture and flavor improved dramatically. This recipe is a keeper!  The texture is smooth, moist, and just perfectly sweet.  You would never guess that these muffins have only two tablespoons over butter spread out over a dozen muffins.

The recipe is from one of my favorite blogs called Skinnytaste.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 cups 100% whole wheat pastry flour (I used White Whole Wheat Flour)
• 1/2 cup raw sugar (I used granulated sugar)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries (I used frozen wild blueberries)
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°.
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well.
In a medium bowl, mix eggs, melted butter, vanilla and applesauce. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just blended.  Gently fold in blueberries.
Pour batter into 12 lined muffin tins and bake at 325° for 25 minutes (mine took a few minutes longer), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes.

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There are a lot of comments on the Skinnytaste blog about these muffins.  Some folks switched up the ingredients with good results (chocolate chips or chopped apples and cinnamon in place of blueberries, for example... or bananas in place of the applesauce).  One big point of conversation was the use of different flours (whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, white whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, or a combination of these various flours).  I have observed that whole meal flours seems to need more liquid so some folks suggested omitting a few tablespoons of flour if using whole wheat flour in place of whole wheat pastry flour.  A lot of folks also commented that the batter is surprisingly thick; that was my experience as well.  One thing I would do differently next time is let some of my ingredients come to room temperature. I know it's not a good baking practice to add cold ingredients. My applesauce and egg came right out of the refrigerator and my blueberries were frozen.  But despite all that, these muffins are really good.

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Zach and I continue to cook together.  We made more rice and shrimp last night and he's enjoying having these precooked items in the refrigerator to make healthy meal preparation quick and easy.  Soon we plan to make pumpkin pie, blackened fish, and boiled potatoes. 

As you can tell from the photo below, the dogs are pretty happy that Zach is home... or maybe they just want some grilled chicken?!