Blueberries were on sale at the store and I couldn’t resist. The berries were so unbelievably large! Where could they have been grown this time of year? The label read Mexico. Well, at least they made it over the border.
I was in the mood to make muffins. Maybe a lighter version than the recipe I posted previously on the blog Blueberry Muffins. Although that version was made with yogurt so they weren’t too bad on the nutrition scale.
This version of blueberry muffins is only 93 calories! I checked and double checked with several nutrition counters and came up with the same number. They do have sugar in them but they are awesome muffins for the calories.
What I learned making this recipe:
If using frozen berries, let them come to room temperature before mixing them into the ingredients. The oven temperature used to cook these muffins is 400 degrees and it will cause the berries to burst. Personally I don’t mind a messy looking muffin if it is just for my own consumption. I just want to warn you so you’re not surprised at how they look when they come out of the oven.
The muffins are small and if you like or want bigger muffins (oh I’ll leave that statement alone) you could fill 14 or 16 muffin cups fuller instead of stretching out the ingredients to fill 18. However, these smaller-sized muffins are the perfect size to accompany a smoothie or as a mid-morning snack.
Okay, so I can’t leave the “bigger muffins” statement alone. What came to mind as I was making these muffins is the English movie “Calendar Girls.” The movie is about how 12 woman raise money for a memorial of a friend’s husband who died from cancer. The only way they can think of to come up with the funds was to create a calendar — with the novel idea of using the middle-aged women of their village as nude models (this is before “Go Fund Me”). Keep in mind these are mature women of average to more abundant size.
As they are posing, and being somewhat discrete, the woman who was hiding certain body parts behind the muffins was considerable size and it was obvious she needed bigger muffins to be fully covered. It is an entertaining movie with Helen Mirren and other notable British actors. Yes, I think I’ll be making these muffins bigger next time too.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup applesauce (homemade or store brand)
- 1/3 cup milk (regular, 2%, or skim)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Prep 18 muffin cups by using paper lining or spraying with cooking spray.
- Mix sugar, applesauce, milk, egg and vanilla together.
- In a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon together.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients to combine.
- Fold in the blueberries and then fill the muffin cups 2/3 full.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
p.s. A book club I once belonged to thought the “calendar girls” fundraising idea was something we could do (well that thought came to us after one too many margaritas) and we started putting together our own calendar. I posed behind a large cookie sheet. Needless to say, the calendar was never completed.