My daughter loves muffins, well, she loves glorious morning muffins, and I wanted blueberry muffins. I am refraining from giving her any refined sugar for as long as possible, so I needed to develop a recipe for blueberry muffins that would make everyone happy. Light and fluffy for me, and fairly healthy for her. These are a good balance. The dates give them plenty of sweetness, that combination of flours keep them light, with just enough whole wheat I didn’t feel too terrible. The lemon zest gives the muffins a hint of spring and they are bursting with blueberries. I highly recommend these for second breakfast on the go.
Refined Sugar Free Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups, pitted, chopped dates.
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- zest from one small lemon (about 1 tsp)
- 1/2 cup sunflower oil
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 TBL apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp pure almond extract
- 1 cup fresh or frozen (not thawed) blueberries
Instructions
- Prepare a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or a light coating of oil and preheat oven to 375.
- Place the chopped dates in a heatproof bowl or measuring cup and pour the boiling water over the dates. Cover and set aside until soft, 10-20 minutes.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl stirring briefly.
- When the dates are soft mash them with a fork until relatively smooth (no big pieces), then add them to the flour mixture.
- Add the lemon zest, sunflower oil, non-dairy milk, vinegar, vanilla, and almond stirring to combine.
- Add the blueberries and stir to distribute evenly throughout the batter.
- Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups and bake 20-24 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before eating.
