Healthier Blueberry Muffins

Life: I AM TIRED. That is all. 

No, you guys know me, I’m too wordy to leave it at that. But, seriously, it feels like my entire life right now consists of: ‘I AM TIRED. More coffee please.’ ☕️☕️☕️

Tristan has woken up in the middle of the night for the last three of five nights. What’s up with that? 

So, probably other things are going on in my life right now, but darned if I can think of what they are! We should probably just move on to the food today. We’ll talk more when I get more sleep and can form coherent sentences once again. 

Food: For a long time now I’ve been trying to eat less sugar (actually with surprising success), more vegetables, and more whole grains. Breakfast is my most challenging meal as far as these things go. No matter how healthy I manage to eat the rest of the day, first thing in the morning all I want is a big BIG (especially with the sleep lately) ole’ cuppa coffee and some kind of bread-ish thing. Scones, pastry, a slice of fresh baked bread, muffins, they all work for me. Protien and vegetables in the morning? That I usually just can’t face. 

I’ve tried some experiments making some of my favorite breakfast items in VERY whole grain versions. While they weren’t bad, and certainly much healthier they generally didn’t end up hitting my breakfast buttons in the way I was hoping for. So this time I decided when I wanted to take a go at more whole grain blueberry muffins that I would compromise. Instead of aiming for the most perfect whole grain sugar free muffin, I’d tried to aim for healthier but tasty.

And I am so pleased with the result! (Charlie is always telling me that being moderate and balanced ends up being more successful in the long run. I now have muffin flavored evidence to confirm.) 

These muffins are moist, with a little bit of chew from the whole grains (bran and quick cooking bulgar wheat); but the over all they have that light crumb texture you want in a good muffin (thanks to the inclusion of white whole wheat flour). Plus, these muffins are pleasantly sweet, but not overly sweet, which means the wonderful flavor of wild blueberries is front and center. So basically what I’m telling you is this is a perfect, healthier (but balanced and delicious!) semi whole grain muffin. 

Heads up, I will warn you these muffins have a few more ingredients, and an extra step or two you won’t find in most blueberry muffin recipes. That’s just what it takes to get an awesome healthier blueberry muffin. But, I believe you’ll find it worth it when you have a muffin, chock full of blueberries, you don’t need to feel incredibly guilty about eating; that you actually want to eat. Well, I know the few extra steps are worth it to me. These are going to become a staple at my house anyway. I hope you guys enjoy them too! 

Healthier Blueberry Muffins- Yields 6 large muffins.

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour *(see notes)
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4-1/2 cup sugar* (see notes)
• 1/4 cup quick cooking bulgar wheat
• 1 cup of water for boiling bulgar (1/3 cup of the cooking liquid the bulgur needs to be reserved)
• 2/3 cups canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cups frozen wild blueberries

Notes: 

• 1 cup whole wheat flour can be substituted for the white whole wheat flour. It works well, and still gives the muffin a pretty nice texture. However, the white whole wheat flour does yield a lighter texture then the regular whole wheat. You can also omit the all purpose flour completely, and use all white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour, but do be aware the texture of the muffin will become denser. However, if you are trying to avoid the white/lighter flour these substitutions do work.
• I’ve found I enjoy the muffins with as little sugar as 1/4 cup. However, I don’t eat a lot of sugar most of the time, and find most desserts to run overly sweet to my tastebuds anymore. If this isn’t the case for you, you may prefer to use the full 1/2 cup  of sugar. Also, if you end up with a slightly more sour batch of blueberries you may find you want to use the full 1/2 cup as well. 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400*. Grease a jumbo muffin tin well, using spray oil and set aside. 
2. Add the white whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, wheat bran, baking powder, salt, and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if using a hand mixer). Mix well to ensure the baking powder is evenly distributed through the flour. 
3. In a small pot with a lid bring 1 cup of water to boil over high heat. When boiling add the quick cooking bulgar and reduce the heat to medium-high to keep a gentle boil going. Boil for six minutes and then drain the bulgar, reserving 1/3 cup of the cooking liquid. (Don’t skip the boiling or you will end up with really chewy/hard bulgar in the final muffin. Boiling allows the bulgar to cook enough that it leaves a little bit of chew texture in the final muffin without actually being crunchy.) 
4. Add the bulgar, the 1/3 cup of reserved cooking liquid, and the canola oil to the flour mixture and mix well. Allow the mixture to cool slightly before adding the egg (so that the egg doesn’t partially cook when added to hot batter). When the batter has cooled add the egg and mix well to combine. 
5. Add the blueberries (still frozen) and mix in by hand using a large spoon. 
6. Evenly divide the batter between the six prepared muffin cups. Bake on the middle rack at 400* for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (don’t put the toothpick through a blueberry). Allow the muffins to cool for ten minutes in the pan. Gently run a knife around the edge of the muffin cups to loosen the muffins, then remove the muffins from the pan. Allow the muffins to cool completely before storing in an air tight container.