Yes, dear readers – the cat is out of the bag. I refer to my mother as Mommie. I had contemplated titling this post “Mom’s Blueberry Muffins” to avoid any potential embarrassment, but then I realized that there are a billion and one recipes out there called “Mom’s Blueberry Muffins.” So I figured, why not call it like it is?

These moist and fluffy muffins are filled to the brim with blueberries, topped with a crispy crumble of streusel, and even better – they contain NO oil. Magical, right? A worthy adversary for Starbucks’ Bountiful Blueberry counterpart. And Starbucks Gold Card carrying Martin gives my muffins his seal of approval, so that’s a vote of confidence right there! We hope you’ll enjoy this sweet intermission from our Boston recap series.

Mommie’s Blueberry Muffins

adapted from AllRecipes.com. I made a few further adjustments as well.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or vegetable oil, per typical recipes)

1 egg

1/3 cup milk, approximately – skim milk is OK

1 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen blueberries dusted in all-purpose flour)

—

Crumb Topping:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

—

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Using a 12-muffin tray, line 8 muffin cups with paper liners and fill the remaining 4 with a bit of tap water (about 1/8 cup each). Set aside.

This is the mix-together-dry-ingredients step, but pause – are you using fresh blueberries or frozen? If frozen, reserve about 1-2 tablespoons of the flour in a small bowl. Use this reserved flour to dust the frozen blueberries; this small but important step will help keep the frozen little buggers from bleeding and exploding in your finished product.

Now combine the (remaining) flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a medium-sized bowl.

Time for the liquids! Take out a liquid measuring cup with capacity for at least 1 cup of fluid. Add the applesauce (or oil), egg, and enough milk to fill the cup to the 1 cup line, approximately 1/3 cup depending on the size of the egg. Beat well.

Take this opportunity to prepare the crumb topping. The wet and the dry ingredients can hang out separately but once you mix them, you’ll want to get the muffins into the oven as quickly as possible. Anyway, place the stick of butter in a small bowl and measure out the sugar, flour, and cinnamon.

Using a fork, break up the butter and work the streusel mixture until you end up with crumbs no larger than pea-sized.

Now for the moment of truth. When combining the liquids with the dry ingredients, you will want to work quickly to avoid over-beating the batter. Pour the liquid mixture into a “well” in the center of the dry ingredients. Stir just enough to moisten and combine.

As the streaks of flour start to disappear, fold in blueberries. Now stop mixing!

Fill prepared muffin cups to the top.

Generously sprinkle the streusel crumb topping over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20-22 minutes in the preheated oven. Transfer the finished muffins to a cooling rack and store in an airtight container. These will keep for about 3-5 days out on the counter (if they last that long!) but they can also be wrapped individually and kept in the freezer for a quick rainy day snack or breakfast. Simply microwave for 1 minute or so for that fresh-baked feeling!

We just entered blueberry season and found these lovelies at our local farmer’s market. They make wonderful muffins as well, but I prefer to save them for non-baking applications that would benefit more from their freshness. That said, the muffins I whipped up with these were pretty darn tasty!

I think one of my all-time favorite kitchen substitutions has to be applesauce for oil in baking. Someone once told me, “Everything in moderation!” – so by using applesauce and skim milk for the muffin batter (leaving only the egg yolk to provide fat among 8 muffins), and then topping it with the decadent butter-laden streusel, I’d say we have a well-balanced breakfast… maybe. Humor me*.

*Disclaimer: I often write jokes that are probably funny only to me. Also, I am not a registered dietician. Please do not take this recipe and go rouge with some sort of Morning Blueberry Muffin Diet.

Enjoy~!