Yeah I said it perfect!

Muffins are one of my favorite things to make. They are fast, there are endless possibilities for fruit, vegetable, and nut combinations, and they make the perfect breakfast or snack.

In case I haven’t mentioned I have a thing for bite sized foods. I would much rather have little tastes of many different types of foods instead of a big plate of one thing. I have a dirty secret to admit, I love going to Whole Foods or Costco and getting samples. I love that I can get just a taste of multiple foods, I find it’s a great way to try new things.

Last Saturday was our Thanksgiving dinner tasting at the Whole Foods near our house. I of course was not about to miss this! Some of the samples they had to taste were, turducken, cranberry sauce sweetened with dates and orange juice, goat cheese mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with orange zest, stuffing, and my favorite bread pudding with a decadent vanilla cream sauce drizzled on top. The bread pudding about had me begging the guy for a second sample of it.

Of course after tasting all these delicious carbs I was in the mood to go home and bake. I grabbed a bag of frozen blueberries on my way out since fresh blueberries aren’t exactly in season right now. When I got home I printed off a recipe for blueberry coffee cake muffins that I had watched Ina make on Barefoot Contessa. These muffins had fabulous reviews however they weren’t exactly low in fat. So me being me, took the recipe and started slashing fat and sugar where ever I could.

I wasn’t sure that my blueberry muffins would turn out as perfect as hers, but I had to give it a try. When they came out of the oven they smelled heavenly. I could hardly wait for them to cool enough so that I wouldn’t burn my mouth on a juicy plump blueberry. As soon as they were cool enough I inhaled one. It was the Perfect Blueberry Muffin! Even though I had eliminated half a cup of sugar from the original recipe, it was still plenty sweet. I had also ditched half a stick of butter for fat free Greek yogurt, you’d never know. Finally, I added some whole wheat pastry flour to the recipe instead of using only all purpose flour. Amazingly, they didn’t turn out too dense. I will definitely be making more of these Perfect Blueberry Muffins, especially when blueberries are in season again and I can use fresh ones!

Perfect Blueberry Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

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Ingredients

• 8 T. room temperature butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, room temperature
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1/2 t. almond extract
• 1 1/4 cups plain non fat Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup non fat milk
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. kosher salt
• 2 cups frozen or fresh blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins with 24 muffin cup liners.
2. In an electric mixer combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes until they are light and fluffy.
3. Add in the eggs and egg white one at a time beating on low speed in between each egg.
4. Add the vanilla, almond, Greek yogurt, and milk until everything is combined.
5. In a separate bowl whisk together the all purpose flour, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
6. With the mixer on low speed slowly pour in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
7. With a spatula, fold in the blueberries.
8. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, about 3/4 of the way full.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Cool the muffins on a wire rack.
11. Serve immediately or cool completely and wrap each muffin individually and place in a freezer bag for a later day.

Notes

If using frozen blueberries don't defrost, simply mix in while they are frozen. Fresh blueberries may be used in place of frozen.