100% Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Normally, I like to substitute applesauce for oil. Usually there is enough fat in the butter slathered on the muffin/pancake to allow the fat soluble vitamins to work their magic. There is fat in the buttermilk too though. The applesauce gives it more flavor, too than the bland oil. I had posted previous blueberry muffins before and they are good. They taste more like a bakery blueberry muffin. These I just love, however, that could be because I have been eating mainly non-processed foods and whole grains for so long that the regular stuff doesn’t taste as good to me. 100 days of real food? Uh, yeah I started that like a year ago when trying to lose weight! Too bad I didn’t make it into a webpage and been a pinterest star! Ha ha! (You know I’m kidding, right? Actually as the oldest of 5 girls in one household I have a need for attention complex. LOL)

Why I love this recipe: It is a standard muffin recipe. I don’t need to get my beaters dirty and everything is usually on hand.

Plus these are WAY better than the new Duncan Hines “Simply” blueberry muffins. I had to throw all of those away because they tasted disgusting!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
yield 12 muffins

2 and 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, optional (I omitted)
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen Wyman’s wild blueberries)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-3 drops of fiori di sicilia extract, optional
1/3 cup vegetable oil or applesauce (I used applesauce)
1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk or 1 and 1/4 cups of liquid whey
*I did the usual buttermilk substitute and added 1 and 1/2 Tb. of lemon juice to a measuring cup and filled to the top with the 1 and 1/2 cup line with milk. Let sit for 5 minutes.

toppings: cinnamon and sugar, coarse sparkling sugar, or none

1. Make your buttermilk if you don’t have the real stuff.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease the 12 cup muffin tin or put in liners. Grease the top of the tin too so the muffin tops never stick.
3. In a great big bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. Flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon (optional) and blueberries.
4. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together (you can use the same whisk!) the vanilla, extract if you have it – completely optional, vegetable oil or applesauce and buttermilk or whey.
5. Add wet to dry ingredients. Fold until just combined.
6. Fill each cup pretty much near the top. Sprinkle cinnamon and/or sugar if you like. Bake 18-20 minutes using the toothpick test.
7. Let sit for 10 minutes and remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. Not as very important when doing family muffins, but really important with liners and making for other people and extremely important when doing cupcakes!