A healthier muffin?

I do love a good muffin. Probably too much, hence my quest for a good recipe that incorporates whole wheat. After a bit of searching, I decided I’d need to make a hybrid of several recipes and ideas. Things I was mulling over . . .

• The basic muffin recipe: I was intrigued by a New York Times article about the quest for the perfect whole wheat muffin and have made that recipe several times. I agree that whole wheat pastry flour is great and helps the muffins seem not so heavy, and adding the fruit puree does keep it moist.
• The sweetener: I like it when the muffins aren’t too sweet and I was really taken with the sweetness in my muffin recipe for Rhubarb Cardamom muffins from a previous post that uses maple sugar for the sweetener.
• The fat: Hearing more and more about the healthy aspects of coconut oil, I’ve been itching to try it as a substitute for butter in a muffin recipe. I bought a container today (ouch–that’s expensive! ~$18 for a Crisco size jar at my natural food co-op!) Doing some research about using coconut oils, I found a recommendation on the great website 101 Cookbooks that you should reduce the butter amount called for in the recipe by 25%, which is a good to know going forward in my world of coconut oil cooking.

The result: I tinkered with that NYT muffin recipe just a bit to find a perfect combination of flavor and healthy muffin components, or at least healthier! I think I’ve found a good base with which to work! I think they had the perfect amount of sweetness, especially with the slightly sour raspberries. In the interest of full-disclosure, these aren’t super light and fluffy, but more dense, but not deadly dense, if you know what I mean. If you’re looking for that muffin, consider trying a flour mix of half whole wheat, half all-purpose, or skip your quest all together.

My pint-size taste testers also gave them the thumbs up, which thrills me as I often struggle with snack ideas and these should do well coming from the freezer. Like most whole wheat muffins I’ve made, these are best still warm from the oven. We did enjoy a couple today while out and about at room temperature and thought they were pretty edible. If reheating–do it gently, preferably in the oven to avoid the tops from getting too “wet’.

I can see lots of ways to mix future renditions of this up with the fruit and/or spice combinations. I will also continue to do more experiments with coconut oil and will keep you posted on that!

My recipe — printable PDF

Whole Wheat Banana-Berry Muffins

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 T of coconut oil, melted and cooled

1 cup mashed/puree of fruit–today I used about 3/4 c. banana + 1/4 c. applesauce, put other ideas–pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/2 cup plain, low-fat yogurt (you could also use 1/2 c. buttermilk)

1 cup frozen berries, if desired (I used a mix of raspberries and blueberries)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter/grease muffin tins.

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl–flour through salt. In a small bowl combine coconut oil, banana puree, syrup, egg and yogurt or buttermilk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just incorporated. Add berries if using. Scoop into muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until top are firm and golden brown. Makes 12 good sized muffins.

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