Lemon Blueberry Muffins

As part of my undergraduate degree in dietetics I had to take some college cooking classes...ahem... food science classes. These were some of my favorite classes of college. My MOST favorite was called Experimental Foods. In this class we learned the why behind cooking. I found out all about the different cuts of meat (which I have since forgotten) and all the details of baking. I truly believe that because of this class I am confident in making the adjustments that I do in the recipes.

One thing we learned about was the "muffin method" of baking. Did you know there's a whole method to muffins? Anyway, we also learned that there are many things that can go wrong with muffins that are easily explained. Here are a few:

1. If your muffins don't rise either your oven wasn't up to temperature, you didn't mix the batter enough or you used muffin cups which are too large.

2. What causes muffins to be tough and rubbery? Probably too much egg. If you are using an egg larger than a "large" size egg, this might be the culprit. This can also occur when using dark nonstick pans.

3. Why are there tunnels and crazy peaks on my muffins instead of nice rounded tops? You probably beat the mixture too much. When the recipe says to stir until just combined, they mean it.

So why am I telling you this? Because I made this recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything and I definitely broke rule #3. These bad boys were so ugly! They had crazy peaks and looked like the noses on the Smurfs.

The original recipe provides the following per muffin:
265 calories
12.5 g fat
35.6 g carbohydrate
0.9 g fiber
3.6 g protein

I made two small changes. I substituted applesauce for the butter. I also tried something new. I put some old fashioned oats into the blender and made them almost into a flour. I substituted 1/2 cup of the white flour with 1/2 cup of the ground up oats.

Even though these bad boys were ugly, they still tasted good. Good enough, in fact that I took a bag full of them over to a family at church when I brought a meal over.

Lemon Blueberry Muffin - BETTER

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
zest of one lemon
1 egg
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup frozen blueberries

Topping
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar

Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Beat eggs, milk and applesauce thoroughly. Add dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in blueberries gently. Portion into 12 paper-lined muffin cups. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Combine butter and lemon juice for the topping. While the muffins are still warm, dip the tops in the butter and lemon juice, then dip in sugar.

Makes 12 muffins. Each muffin provides:
160 calories
3.7 g fat
29.8 g carbohydrate
1.2 g fiber
2.8 g protein