Killer Blueberry-Macadamia Nut Muffins

OMG. I'm on a serious muffin kick right now. I found a hoard of muffin recipes and I just had to kick out the first batch. I LOVE blueberries and macadamia nuts and when you put on a sweet, little crumbly topping, I'm in muffin heaven.

Here are a few things I've noticed about baking vegan muffins. If you want to make goods ones, you gotta keep these things in mind:

1. Eggs add moisture. Instead of using flax seed or powdered egg replacer, I would recommend using 1/4 c. vegan yogurt or 1/4 c. pureed fruit. This adds both moisture and binding powers.

2. If you do use vegan yogurt to replace eggs, add 1/4 tsp. baking soda to the recipe if it doesn't call for any. Baking soda and yogurt work together in some sort of food science way to help the muffins rise. If the recipe already calls for baking soda, you don't need to add any additional. The recipe amount will do.

3. With vegan baking, it is essential that you get the muffins in the oven as fast as you put them in the pan. They will flatten out as the batter sits, and nobody likes sad, pancake muffins.

And uhh... I think that's it. Any nonvegan muffin can be veganized, it just takes a good recipe! This was veganized from an Eating Well magazine recipe.

This muffin recipe has not only been veganized, but lowered in calories and fat without any sacrifice in flavor. These got the boyfriend seal-of-approval as well, and as he munched them down he was like, "I freakin' love your muffins" and I was like, "yeah, my muffins brings all the boys to the yard...". But I digress... In this recipe I used all-purpose unbleached flour only because I was out of my whole wheat pastry flour. Feel free to use some WWPF if you'd like. I would normally.

Killer Blueberry-Macadamia Nut Muffins:
1 3/4 c. + 2 Tb. unbleached, all-purposed flour
1/2 c. + 2 Tb. brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. unsweetened, shredded coconut, pulsed in a coffee grinder until fine (or at least chopped up a little)
5 Tb. chopped macadamia nuts, divided
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tb. melted coconut oil
1 1/2 Tb. melted Earth Balance
1/4 c. plain or vanilla soyogurt
3/4 c. almond milk + 1/2 Tb. lemon juice
2 inch piece of vanilla bean, split and seeds removed (OR 1 tsp. vanilla extract)
1 1/3 c. frozen or fresh blueberries (if they are frozen, don't thaw them before adding them to the batter)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick, or lightly oil, or use papers.
2. Combine the almond milk and the lemon juice in a medium bowl, set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the 2 Tb. flour, 2 Tb. brown sugar, coconut, and 2 Tb. macadamia nuts. Drizzle with 1 Tb. of melted coconut oil, then mix until everything is nice and crumbly. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, combine the 1 3/4 c. flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a whisk until nice and combined. Set aside.
5. In the medium bowl with the almond milk, add the brown sugar, soyogurt, melted Earth Balance, the rest of the melted coconut oil, and the vanilla bean/extract. Stir with a whisk until everything is completely combined.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined (about 50 strokes). Stir in the blueberries and the rest of the chopped macadamia nuts, until just combined. THE BATTER WILL BE THICK.
7. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins and evenly divide the crumbly topping between all the muffins. Gently press it into the surface of the muffin so it sticks.
8. Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then remove and allow to cool on a wire rack.

THEN, enjoy with a big ol' glass of almond milk! This recipe makes 16 regular-sized or 12 large muffins. For 16 regular-sized muffins, each one has 137 calories, 5.3 grams of fat, and 2 grams of protein.

The next ones I want to make are like a raspberry-streusel muffin. So beware...

And finally, I'm going to being eating everything out of my pantry, so that I can have an epic Whole Foods bulk bin adventure in April (ahhh.... to have goals...). Prepare for a random assortment of recipes: lentils here, veggie burgers there, pasta somewhere... Just no soup. I'm completely souped out. Besides, that's a winter food and it's spring now! But yeah, as I was saying, I'm taking my Mom there so we both can stock up, she's never been. Also, I want to show her the glory that is the Whole Foods hot bar. Oooh, yeah. They also put in a Trader Joe's down the street since the last time I went there, so I might even have my first-ever Trader Joe's adventure. We'll see... April is gonna be a crazy month! Have a great day!