Two years ago, I started my new year with a month of being vegan. I thought it would be a good way to detox during the new year and try implementing some new habits. I even invited my meat loving husband to join me, but wasn’t surprised when he declined. This year, you can imagine my shock when he announced that he was also going to try being vegan for a while. I didn’t really believe it until I offered him a piece of cheese and his normal response of “cut me a bigger piece” was replaced with “no, I’m vegan!”
Even though he’s been eating mostly healthy unprocessed food, I can tell that he gets the occasional sweet craving because I think he’s asked me if dark chocolate M&Ms are vegan about a million times, so I’m trying my best to be a supportive wife and bake him moderately healthy treats.
This blueberry muffin recipe makes a super small batch (just two!), so they satisfy the need for carby goodness but also for moderation. I’ve used maple syrup to replace some of the sugar, so they aren’t super sweet. They also satisfy my slightly snobbish need for freshly baked muffins just out of the oven, because I much prefer them to muffins that have been sitting around for a couple of days.
You can make this recipe healthier by leaving out the crumb topping altogether and they are still delicious. I’ve also some different versions using of these other flours in case you want to add whole grains, as well as a few flavor variations down below. This way, you can make a batch every day of the week and have them be slightly different (but perhaps that defeats the purpose?).
You can replace up to half of the all-purpose flour with whole grain spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour. Regular whole wheat flour will work too, but your muffin may be a little dense.
Update: I’ve been making these lately with 100% sprouted spelt flour and liking the results!
Flavor variations:
-Strawberry pecan
-Peach hazelnut
-Apple walnut
-Cherry cashew
Cheers to moderation and the occasional indulgence in 2017!
