We weren’t afraid to include oil in these healthy fruit-and-veggie muffins. We used coconut oil, which contains high levels of lauric acid, a saturated fat that has been shown to raise levels of good (HDL) cholesterol. It also adds richness and tenderness, meaning that the recipe is still delicious even with less sweetener.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr |
| Prep: | 15 min |
| Inactive: | 20 min |
| Cook: | 25 min |
| Yield: | 12 muffins |
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1 1/2 cups blueberries
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/2 cup 2-percent lowfat milk
- 1/2 cup melted virgin or extra-virgin coconut oil
- 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 2 medium carrots, shredded and squeezed dried
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners and spay the liners lightly with cooking spray.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of the blueberries for garnish. Place the remaining blueberries in a large bowl and lightly crush them with the back of a fork (crushing keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin batter during baking). Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt to the blueberries and stir to combine. Whisk together the milk, oil, brown sugar, carrots, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla in another bowl, whisking until no clumps of brown sugar remain. Fold the milk mixture into the flour mixture until just combined (don’t worry if there are a few lumps).
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Press the reserved blueberries into the tops of the muffins. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the turbinado sugar. Rotate the pan and continue to bake until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Cool the muffins in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer the muffins to a rack to cool completely.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 230 calorie |
| Total Fat | 10 grams |
| Saturated Fat | 9 grams |
| Cholesterol | 30 milligrams |
| Sodium | 160 milligrams |
| Carbohydrates | 32 grams |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 grams |
| Protein | 4 grams |
| Sugar | 15 grams |
Reviews
I have already made them twice. Very Yummy!
Looked delicious and I love healthy eating…………….very disappointed, they were heavy, lacked flavor, and just were not sweet enough for a muffin. Even tried to salvage them by putting a little brown sugar on top,. Everyone agreed they were still not worthy of eating. Save your time and make muffins that may not be as healthy, just eat one or make them mini muffins.
I just made these this morning and they were delicious! I was a little worried at first because when I mixed up the batter it was super thick, and I was worried that they would come out dry. But they were very moist. This was my first time baking with coconut oil, and I was very pleasantly surprised. That hint of coconut flavor was very tasty! My eggs and milk weren’t quite at room temperature so I think when I added the melted oil everything started to thicken up and solidify again. The lemon zest added a very lovely and fresh flavor. I will definitely be making these again!
I followed the recipe without any changes or additions other than the fact that I only had skim milk instead of 2% and didn’t have enough lemons to add sufficient lemon zest. I bake quite a lot and I thought these muffins were not good. They do not taste BAD, but they are what my husband would call stodgy- the texture was like bread that didn’t rise. They aren’t sweet, but I dont need my muffins to be too sweet. These just aren’t particularly flavorful. They taste “healthy” — sort of like a dry, chewy bran muffin –and honestly aren’t all that healthy
These are delicious! I used almond milk in place of regular milk. I also used orange zest instead of lemon. I like the orange better with blueberries. I used almond, orange and butter flavorings along with the vanilla. I also added 1/2 cup greek yogurt. I didn’t have any turbinado sugar, so I sprinkled them with coconut palm sugar before baking. I also always used Splenda brown sugar in place of regular brown sugar.
I bake with coconut oil a lot. I gently mix it into my dry ingredients before adding the other wet ingredients. I have really good luck doing it this way.
I bake with coconut oil a lot. I gently mix it into my dry ingredients before adding the other wet ingredients. I have really good luck doing it this way.
I loved the flavour of these and they weren’t too sweet. I made as written except I forgot to get vanilla and cooking spray at the store so I had to omit. I used some of the coconut oil to grease the muffin cups and that worked well. I do think vanilla would be nice so will definitely use it next time. I also noticed that the coconut oil congealed into lumps when the cold ingredients were added so I zapped all the wet ingredients in the microwave for about 45 seconds or so and whisked to get rid of the lumps before adding to the flour mixture. I’ve never used coconut oil before but I think next time I may also let the milk and eggs come down to room temperature to hopefully prevent any lumps. The bake time for me was about 10-15 minutes longer but my oven is pretty old so I’m used to that sort of thing! Can’t wait to make these again and I think this is the type of recipe that allows for creativity with different fruit and maybe some nuts, coconut… the list goes on and on!
The flavors were good but the coconut oil did not work. When you combine melted coconut oil with milk and eggs it solidifies. The result was lumps of coconut oil in the batter which then melted when the muffins baked. This produced a very smokey kitchen and oily muffins. Again the flavors were good, and I will try to make again but with butter. I cook a lot with coconut oil and use it when I bake but only in recipes that call for 1-2 tbs of fat. Can anyone help me?
Is there a real review anywhere on these muffins? Geesh, ppl!