HEALTHY BLUEBERRY STREUSEL MUFFINS

Happy New Year friends!

This is one of my new favorite go to Muffin recipes of 2016 : so simple, so easy, adaptable and balanced.

I was lucky to find a new sweetener I really like.

You know the saying: when the student is ready, the teacher appears, well this was similar in the sense that after 23 years I was so ready to find a sweetener that fulfilled all my needs: and quite honestly I had used them all and they all had their imperfections. I wanted something naturally sweet, with benefits, easy to use, easy to love: no after taste, no weird ingredients, no adapting recipes, no bitterness. Something better than sugar both for health and in baking: same texture, taste and overall chemistry.

So these killer Muffins are made with Stir Sweetener a coconut sugar blend which I love because it has 37% fewer calories than sugar, has a gram of prebiotic fiber per serving, is a 1:1 replacement for sugar, is suitable for diabetics and tastes so much better than any sweetener I have used in 23 years.

RECIPE

Serves: 9

• 1¾ cup Spelt flour: such as Bobs Red Mill
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder: such as Rumford (note: at high altitude use half)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 large egg, organic preferably
• ¾ cup Stir Sweetener
• ½ cup greek yogurt, unsweetened
• ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
• ⅓ cup almond milk
• 1½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries, wild or conventional

• ¼ teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon
• ¼ cup Spelt flour
• ¼ cup Stir Sweetener
• ¼ cup almond flour
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1 generous pinch fine sea salt
• Zest of ½ lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and lemon zest (if using).
3. In a separate large bowl, mix together the egg, vanilla, Stir Sweetener, yogurt, and oil.
4. Add the dry ingredients and the milk (alternating) to the wet ingredients, mixing to combine with each addition.
5. Fold in the blueberries with a gentle hand.

1. Combine the cinnamon, salt, lemon zest, flours, salt and Stir Sweetener in a small bowl.
2. Add the melted butter and mix to form clumps.

1. Scoop the batter into muffin cups or a greased muffin pan until ¾ full. Top with the streusel.
2. Bake for about 20 minutes (start checking at 12 minutes) and remove when muffins are golden brown and the berries are bubbling with juice.
3. Let cool, then remove muffins from the pan and onto a cooling rack or perforated tray.
4. These muffins keep max for 2 days in a plastic container such as a recycled pre-washed spinach container.