Thrifty Thinkin': Healthier Homemade Blueberry Muffins

I am rather infamous for things I can cook in a muffin pan. Breakfast quiches, cupcakes, rolls, pancake bites, stuffed pizza bites, brownies, mini popcorn balls, baked macaroni...etc. A muffin pan is probably my #1 kitchen necessity. However, up until this week I had never made actual muffins in my muffin pan. I had actually never made muffins in my life.

Usually every weekend I try to come up with a reasonably quick and healthy breakfast that I can make in advance and then either quickly heat in the oven of in the microwave before my Airman husband has to get to work in the early morning during the week. Usually it involves eggs (and probably in a muffin pan). But this week I thought I might give something else a go- BLUEBERRY MUFFINS!

I did a little pinterest hunt and came up with this: Blueberry Muffins According to Martha Stewart. Then I did a little tweaking of my own. I followed her recipe exactly except for 3 minor changes. Instead of the 1 1/4 cups of white sugar (something I do my best to avoid in large amounts) I substituted in 3/4 cups of honey.  Because of the honey burning easier than white sugar, I also lowered the oven temp from 375 to 350 instead. Then, instead of the 1 cup of milk (something I also try and avoid in large quantity, especially now since some milk contains unlabeled aspartame), I substituted 1 cup of unsweetened original flavored coconut milk. You could also use soy milk, almond milk, etc.


So:  Here is Martha's Recipe (Martha Stewart Living, July/August 2000), with my changes in bold.

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tins
• 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling (3/4 cups of honey. I did sprinkle a little white sugar on top though)
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk (1 cup unsweetened coconut milk)
• 1 3/4 cups blueberries

 

I preheated my oven to 350. If using white sugar instead of honey, go ahead and set it to 375.

 

Butter your muffin pan. This recipe makes 6 large muffins or 12 small muffins. I went with the 12.

 

In once bowl, mix/sift together your flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.

 

In another bowl, cream butter and sugar/honey until fluffy, which will take about 3 minutes with an electric mixer, or about 5 with a wooden spoon. As I don't yet own a mixer of any type, I used a google old fashioned wooden spoon for this whole recipe. If you have fancy gadgets like Martha, go ahead and use those.

 

Add in the egg and egg yolks, along with the vanilla to the sugar/honey and butter mixture. Then gradually add in parts of your flour and milk/coconut milk until it is all combined into a dough. This can be done on low with a mixer or by hand. Then gently fold in your blueberries. I used frozen, but fresh would be equally delightful. This is the fun part because you get to watch the mixture turn blueishpurple.

 

Divide the muffin batter between the tins. Sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake until golden. Approximately 45 minutes for large muffins and about 30-35 for small muffins (this would depend on which temperature you set your oven too, so keep a watchful eye on them!). Before removing from the pan allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Once cool, I removed them from the pan and pack them up in a ziploc baggie, ready to go for the rest of the week. Now at 6:30 AM all I have to do it set a muffin in the microwave for about 45 seconds, slap some butter on it and hand it to my husband as he goes out the door. Easy and delicious!