blue artichoke

Another Sunday. More muffins. More blueberry muffins, to be specific. Still working on cleaning out the freezer a bit, I dove into one of the big zipper bags of blueberries and came out with these uber-righteous muffins. For something that is supposed to be so healthy, they taste pretty good. Better than most of the other healthy muffin recipes I've tried, for sure. Like last week's, these are hearty. I ate only one, but it was a good one, full of blueberries and a nice rough-chewy texture. And I have plenty left over for breakfast throughout the week. Nice!

Blueberry-Walnut Wheat Germ Muffins

Serve these hearty, slightly sweet muffins with cubes of papaya, fresh strawberries, and vanilla yogurt. For an extra health boost, add 1/4-cup ground flaxseeds to the dry ingredients before baking. I did add the flaxseed, just for fun. The batter was rather runny when I slopped it into the muffin tins, but baked up nicely.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 egg, well beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup nonfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries or frozen wild blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl, combine flours, wheat germ, baking powder, and salt. Stir in walnuts. In a medium bowl, beat together egg, oil, honey, and molasses. Beat in milk and vanilla extract. Add liquid ingredients to dry, stirring just until mixed. Gently fold in blueberries.

2. Line muffin cups with paper liners, and divide batter among cups. Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and tops are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before turning out of muffin tin onto a cooking rack.

Makes 16
Delicious Living, March 2006