Blueberry Muffins - that happen to be healthy

I've always loved blueberry muffins but most of the time I settle for the packaged mixes.  Don't judge - you  know you do too, because they're not terrible and they're easy.  But, like many people this time of year, I have been struck with a compulsion to take care of my body and put a little more thought to the things I put in my mouth and it turns out - blueberries are good for you.  I saw something about them including that buzz-word antioxidants, even though I don't know what's so wrong with oxidants.  So last night I set out to have a healthy evening and bake some muffins from scratch.  We made some great lean pork chops and broccoli and then....I had several pieces of toffee, a couple pieces of lefse (crepe-like potato tortilla-esque things stuffed with butter and brown sugar)....and no blueberry muffins.  Then tonight we tried again with turkey tacos and....a glass of homemade raspberry chocolate port wine. But alas, I did finally get around to those blueberry muffins.  I found a good recipe from this lovely lass at Ginger Rose and gave it my best shot.  Bonus, she even provides an awesome Arcade Fire soundtrack.

First, as all people naturally do, I gathered all the necessary ingredients and posed them for glamour shots.

Bonus points to the nerd who figures out which ingredient I forgot in this picture.

Next up, put all the dry ingredients - flour (both regular and fancy schmancy organic whole wheat flour) sugar, salt, and baking powder - into a bowl and stir em up.

Pour your 1/3 cup of apple sauce into a larger 1 cup measuring cup (I actually used a two cup one to give an allowance for the giant mess I make in mixing), crack in the egg, and fill the cup up with milk until it reaches the 1 cup mark.  Then you're going to need to take a trip to Mexico, drink a fresh Margarita, and buy one of these GIANT liters of vanilla.  This bottle has literally lasted me 6 years. Add the vanilla to your liquid concoction and stir.

Add the concoction to your dry ingredients and stir until almost blended.  Here's my interpretation of "almost blended."

Gather up 1 cup of blueberries, toss them with a heaping tablespoon of flour and add them to the mix. Stir them in, but don't cream the suckers.  Roll that beautiful blueberry footage.

Of course I had responsibly preheated the oven and lined the muffin tin with cupcake liners.  I didn't have any pretty minimalist french kitchen white ones, so I just had to settle for these sassy ones.

I scooped the mix into these blue beauties and got to work on the sugary crumbly topping.  The recipe says to mix the brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon with your hands but I thought I'd be smart and use a fork (you know, like you think you always know the way better than mapquest).  Then I gave in and got those hands dirty.  Also, I'm not the biggest fan of the texture of oats, so I left those out of the topping and this is what we got:

Stick em in the oven for 20-25 minutes, remove, do your best to wait until cool, and devour in such a manner as to defeat the purpose of health achieved in moderation.  And here's the thing - they're actually good!  Because those of you who know me know that it may be good for you, and I may WANT to like it, but if it isn't delicious...I ain't gon be eatin it.

Enjoy!

Makes 8 large muffins
Ingredients:
Muffin Batter
3/4 cup whole wheat all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white all-purpose flour + 2 tbsp
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup applesauce

1 egg
1/3 milk (1% cuts back on the fat but delivers the same results as higher fat milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries (do not increase amount)

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp white all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cold butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp rolled oats (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400º and line muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a medium-large mixing bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, white flour, sugar, salt and baking powder for the muffin batter.

3. In a 1-cup measuring cup pour in the applesauce. Crack the egg into the applesauce and top with enough milk to fill the cup. Add this into the dry ingredients along with the vanilla extract. Stir until almost just combined. Toss the blueberries with a heaping tablespoon of flour to coat and gently stir them into the batter until just combined. Do not over mix!

4. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop muffin batter into paper liners in muffin tin with the batter just reaching the top.

5. In a small bowl make the crumble topping. Using your hands, mix together the brown sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, and rolled oats. Evenly sprinkle the topping over each muffin and bake for 20-25 minutes.