Warm, freshly-baked blueberry muffins are one of life’s simple pleasures. I like to enjoy mine with eyes closed, washed down with a glass of creamy cashew milk, or taking slow sips from a cup of piping hot coffee. I also like to get up before everyone else does (an ambitious endeavor) -particularly in our house nowadays. But I love to safeguard a little “me time” bright and early, with a bit of therapeutic baking in tow.
Tell you what; everywhere I look there’s “healthy” blueberry muffins; with Greek yogurt, with oats, with almond flour, with chickpea flour, with tiger nut flour, etc etc. And I’ll also tell you this: I have Blueberry Yogurt Muffins on my blog and Chickpea Flour Banana Bread and I just wanted to come up with a version of Blueberry Muffins that tastes like good ole’ fashioned Blueberry Muffins. You know what I mean?
I also wanted to start a conversation about something so very important (and not often talked about in health circuits): affordability!
I find it’s usually one of 2 things that keeps people from eating healthier:
- the assumption that cooking healthy things will be very time-consuming
- the fact a lot of the healthier recipes available call for expensive ingredients like; almond flour and raw agave and a batch of muffins may cost you upwards of $30 dollars.
Friends, I am well aware of these constraints and I want to share a ridiculously easy recipe that’s going to take you no more than 10 mins of active prep time and it’s super affordable!
Standard, gluten-free flour is easy to find at an accessible price point. You can use raw coconut sugar or brown sugar, and your choice of nut milk. You can use melted coconut oil; and a tub of this usually goes a long way! The recipe also calls for very little; 1/3 cup of melted coconut oil. Other oils that work: sunflower oil, or high heat avocado oil. The latter is typically bit more expensive than the first two options.
Oils I do not use/recommend: canola or vegetable oil. Yes, they are the cheapest. But they’re also not the greatest for you as they’re heavily genetically modified. Canola IS a type of vegetable oil made from the rapeseed plant. Most mainstream vegetable oils however are made with corn, peanuts or soybeans. Not the greatest of sources, either.
Friends, I cannot share with you the health benefits and full de-bloat I experienced when I cut canola and vegetable oil from my life. Note; I am not obsessive about it (as that’s also not healthy). I am well aware of the fact that a lot of the food I try at restaurants has one of these oils. But hey, when I cook at home and prep food myself- I use neither. And that comes a long way!
But back to these babies… blueberry muffins will forever be my fave, and this easy spin on a classic is a MUST TRY! Highly recommended weekend bake. Or weeknight bake; because they’re so easy and low maint!
Ways to enjoy them:
- with a thick, almond butter drizzle
- with a dab of vanilla ghee
- with a side of fresh blueberries
- with a smear of grass-fed butter (while still warm, so it melts!)
Enough said, go bake these! x
Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups + 1 tbsp all purpose gluten-free flour (or regular all-purpose flour if not GF)
- 3/4 cup raw coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1/3 cup of melted coconut oil (or sunflower oil)
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- 1/2 cup of almond or any nut milk (you can also do organic or grass-fed milk!)
- 1 cup packed with organic blueberries (I recommend fresh, not frozen)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg (slightly beaten) at room temperature
- 1 tsp of lemon zest (optional)
- 1/4 tsp of sea salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 375F and line 2 (6 muffin pan holders) with paper liners note~ if you over-fill them and are running short on batter, fill the remaining muffin tins halfway with water (no paper liners, on those).
- Mix the dry ingredients: GF flour, coconut sugar, baking powder and sea salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients: egg, coconut oil, vanilla extract, almond milk and lemon zest.
- Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry ingredients bowl and whisk to combine, don’t over mix; the batter will be thick. Feel free to pour over a splash of almond milk; it should stay thick, but you should be able to mix it.
- Finally, fold in the blueberries! Raspberries, blackberries or strawberries will do!
- I use an ice scream scooper to fill the muffin paper liners with batter note: don’t overfill them as these do rise a fair bit.
- I bake mine for ~20 mins, but please do check them at the 16-18 min mark; some ovens run hot. When the edges are golden brown, they’re ready!
- Transfer to a cooling rack and enjoy!
By: Aleyda/ The Dish On Healthy
