Blueberry Muffins

I woke up a little on the early side this morning. As I was trying to go back to sleep, I couldn't shake the thought of blueberry muffins from my head. So I headed down to the kitchen, made some tea, and started flipping through my cookbooks and magazines in search for the perfect recipe.

While there is nothing like a fresh, still warm-from-the-oven blueberry muffin, too often they are like eating dessert, not a wholesome breakfast. Of course, it's also possible for a muffin to taste "too healthy." A quick search through my recipe collection and on the internet yielded a lot of recipes, but none that were just what I was looking for. As a last whim, I decided to glance through one of the books I recently acquired for an article I was writing, The Volumetrics Eating Plan by Barbara Rolls, PhD. Sure enough, there was a recipe for blueberry muffins that intrigued me. Though it used applesauce in place of all but one teaspoon of oil (which seemed a little too restrictive to me), overall, the recipe was pretty close to what I was looking for.

Always up for an experiment in the kitchen, I decided to give the recipe a try. Though the base of the recipe remained the same, I did make some adaptions and modifications, including subsituting kefir for buttermilk, increasing the amount of canola oil (it's a good fat after all!), and using a 10-grain flour mix instead of whole wheat flour. I also increased the size of the muffins because I only had 12-cup muffin tin, not 16 as the original recipe called for. The end result was exactly what I was looking for, a super-moist, tender, bursting-with-blueberries muffin, that didn't leave you feeling like you just ate a pound of butter.

Here is the final recipe. Remember, a key to tender muffins is mixing the wet and dry ingredients as little as possible.

Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12 good-sized muffins

1 1/2 cups + 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup 10-grain flour (or whole-wheat flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cardamom (or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon)
1 1/4 cups low-fat kefir (buttermilk or plain yogurt would also work)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, brown sugar, 10-grain flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom. Make a well in the middle.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the kefir, applesauce, egg, oil, and vanilla extract.
4. Toss the blueberries in 1/4 cup of flour.
5. Spray a 12-muffin muffin pan with cooking spray.
6. Add the kefir mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries.
7. Portion the mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
8. Place the muffin pan on a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing. Enjoy!

Like most baked goods, these muffins are best served when still slightly warm. Once cooled, you can wrap leftover muffins in plastic wrap, place in a resealable bag, and
toss in the freezer for future breakfasts or snacks.

--posted by Maria--