Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Mike requested a “lighter” blueberry muffin earlier this week. So, I obliged this morning.
I decided to make them gluten-free and use an alternative sweetener as well. I’m sure they’d work with regular sugar and regular flour, I looked at a few recipes to get ideas and most of them use regular granulated sugar and all purpose flour.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
2 cups gluten-free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand)
1 Tbsp flaxmeal
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup coconut crystals (also called palm sugar)
1 cup nondairy milk (I used almond)
3 -1/2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
2 vanilla beans, scraped (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
1-2 tbsp of maple syrup (optional)
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup frozen blueberries (not thawed)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease a muffin pan.
In medium bowl, combine flour, flaxmeal, baking powder, and salt. Mix.
In larger bowl, whisk together the sugar, about 1/2 of the nondairy milk, melted coconut oil and vanilla, until smooth. Add the flour and the remaining nondairy milk, alternating, until mixture is just mixed. Taste the batter and decide if it needs the maple syrup. I decided mine did :-) At this point, you can add already zested lemon peel or you can zest a lemon directly into the large mixing bowl. Add the blueberries and stir until combined. Scoop the batter into the muffin pan - about 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mike and I ate ours with a little bit of Earth Balance. Mike says they are lighter than traditional blueberry muffins and a little less sweet. The lemon zest and vanilla bean are a great combination.
