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Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

May 22, 2017 · Natalie 62 Comments

Coffee cake gets a summer berry makeover with these Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins–a perfect vegan and gluten-free breakfast or streusel-topped snack!
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Oh how I wanted to deliver this streusel-messy blueberry muffin madness to you last week.

Muffins are one of those foods that just scream SHARE ME! Virtually or real life rip-it-in-half-and-take-the-bigger-half sharing.

I will muffins, I will. But I must edit/video/write about you first.

So last week. It was a very kitchen-productive week around here. I was video-ing everything from popsicles to pancakes by day, and editing photos like a crazy lady by ~~night~~ late afternoon. Because while food bloggers may think they work for themselves, it is actually natural light that controls us all.

I was feeling like a hustling little hedgehog up through about Wednesday. And then productivity took a significant down turn. And I realized I had a LOT of video footage to sort through and make into mini recipe movies. And I also realized that I really wanted a nap.

So I did a little bit of both. And not enough of either.

But my brain was not in the mood to write anything at that point, so the muffin-ing was postponed.

My apologies if your weekend was sadly lacking in streusel, but luckily there is another one of those just 4 1/2 days away and the perfect muffin recipe at the end of this post to make up for it.

These muffins taste like the epitome of a bakery. Just all the cinnamon and sweetness and streusel and fluffy-softness.

Yes fluffy-softness is a taste–sweet, salty, fluffy-soft, bitter, and umami. See.

Not a single date was used in the making of these muffins *GASP* It seems like everything I’ve made in the past couple of ~~years~~ ~~months~~ weeks has been filled with dates, so it was time for a break.

Combining the best parts of this blueberry muffin recipe from a loooooong time ago and this coffee cake, I created what just might be my favorite muffin recipe around here yet. Do I say that every time?

They are made with oat flour for that subtle breakfast-y flavor. Coconut sugar + applesauce takes the place of dates for sweetness and moisture. GOBS of fresh or frozen blueberries for a minimum of two jammy purple pockets per bite. And all made with zero bowls or arm strength required–thanks blender! Just like with any blender cake/bread/oat-y baked thing, don’t over-blend unless “make gummy muffins” is one of your life goals.

I am pretty sure my muffin pan wanted to be one of those jumbo muffin pans but someone squashed it’s dreams early on in life so it resigned itself to just making regular sized muffins. But also sorta not regular sized. Regular sized gone greedy.

But who doesn’t finish a blueberry muffin and not want it to be over yet though? So it’s kind of a gift really.

When it starts to feel like less of a gift is when I am scooping out the batter and only end up with 5 muffins. I am all about filling the muffin tins 3/4 of the way or more, which does not help. So you might get 5 muffins. You might get 8 muffins. Maybe you get 12 because you like the short someone-sat-on-them muffin look.

You do you. As long as “you” doesn’t involve skimping on the streusel, because that I am not okay with. Don’t even joke about that.

If I had a dollar for every time I proclaimed my love for streusel then I could build a streusel castle with streusel walls and streusel towers and a streusel dragon to guard it. So much streusel love. If you could make an entire muffin out of nothing but the streusel I would. Hmm maybe I should sell the castle and invest in R&D on that idea…?

Or (most likely scenario) I would use all those dollars to buy almond flour to make more streusel because that stuff ain’t cheap! But it does make for the BEST oil-free streusel my tummy has ever known. A.k.a. worth it.

Proof of my streusel obsession → Here and here and here and in 5 years this list will probably wrap around the earth 3 times with all the streusel-topped goodness my mind can dream up. At least I hope so.

Is it weird that I liked them almost better cold from the fridge three days later?

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

★★★★★ 4.9 from 10 reviews

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 6 muffins 1x

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Description

Coffee cake gets a summer berry makeover with these Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins–a perfect vegan and gluten-free breakfast or streusel-topped snack!

Ingredients

Scale

1 3/4 cup oat flour
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsps lemon juice ((or apple cider vinegar))
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsps baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Streusel

1 cup almond flour
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients. Mix with a fork until sticky and clumpy. Set aside.
In a blender or mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients for the muffins. (If using a blender, be sure to add the wet ingredients first!)
Blend/mix until just combined. Do not over mix or it will make the muffins gummy.
Line or grease a muffin pan. Divide the batter into the muffin tins, filling each 3/4 of the way. You will get anywhere from 6-9 muffins depending on your pan.
Top each liberally with streusel. Press it in lightly.
Bake for about 25 minutes at 350F, or until the streusel is golden brown and the tops are firm to the touch.
Remove from the oven and cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
Enjoy! Keep leftovers in the fridge (they are really yummy cold too!)

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Healthy Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting

May 16, 2017 · Natalie 71 Comments

This 5-ingredient party-perfect vanilla cake recipe is healthy disguised as decadent underneath a luscious layer of sugar-free chocolate fudge frosting!

Do you remember these?

I didn’t think so. I even forget they exist sometimes.

They are the perfect example of how sometimes my favorite recipes get lost in the recipe archives and no one ever sees them or makes them or falls in love with their softfluffyvanilla goodness. Tra-gic.

But now that I am writing about those cupcakes, I actually remember making them quite well…

I remember standing on my kitchen island trying to get an overhead shot because that’s back when I actually thought you could make AND photograph food in the kitchen. HA! Now I know you must take the food to the light instead of the other way around. And the kitchen appliances. And the vacuum cleaner. And a roll of paper towels. And if there was a way to install a small sink by the window, that’d be great too.

I remember the tricky task of cleaning that purple frosting out of the blender trying not to let the blades and my fingers bump into one another. I also now know that the food processor is much better suited for making purple sweet potato frosting. Or vanilla sweet potato frosting. Or any color of sweet potato frosting.

I remember being amazed at how fluffy and delightfully dome-topped they turned out for being made of like 43% fruit.

Despite all those good times I never made a video for them. So that’s been on my to-do list for approximately forever.

But I get the question quite often “How can I turn these {insert flavor here} cupcakes into a full-sized cake?” in regards to my various date-sweetened cupcakes. So for birthday purposes and I-don’t-have-a-cupcake-pan purposes, we are transforming that easy vanilla cupcake recipe from small and round to square and sliceable. And sprinkled-topped, because why not?

Cupcakes → cake

It’s not a tricky transition, but there are a few important things I must tell you so you don’t end up with a crater in the center of your cake. A.k.a. failure of the cake-catastrophic kind.

Pan size. An 8-inch (round or square) pan works best for this cake. Anything smaller and it will be too thick -> not cook through in the center. Anything larger and it will be too thin -> look weird.

Multiply by 1 1/2. The original cupcake recipe just makes a half dozen, so in order to fill up a cake pan you need to do some ingredient multiplication. Don’t worry I broke out the calculator and took care of it for both of us.

Baking time. It does require a little more oven time than the cupcakes–about 30-35 minutes at 350F. Lightly touch the center of the cake and when it feels firm and not squishy/batter-y at all, it’s done.

No non-dairy milk. The original cupcake recipe uses 1/4 cup non-dairy milk, but you will not need that in this version. Which cuts the ingredient list down to a mere FIVE!

Don’t over-blend. Actually I feel like it’s more appropriate to say DON’T OVER-BLEND! After you add the oat flour, just blend for the briefest of blitzes. If there is some flour left on the sides just stir it in by hand. Over-blending will make for gummy slices of sadness, not cake.

Sprinkles. Okay this doesn’t actually affect the cake structure at all, but I just felt like they deserved a spot on this list. I used these. Feel free to make and use these. Or top it with fresh berries or fruit!

The Frosting

While I love purple foods a lot, I love chocolate frosting A LOT. So I overhauled my favorite fruity chocolate fudge frosting to make it thicker and creamier and just give it more…oomph! The result is so fudgy you could put it on top of anything and it would instantly become dessert. Oatmeal. Smoothie bowls. Muffins. Celery. Anything.

Sticking with the simple and made-in-the-blender theme here, the frosting happens with 4 ingredients + a high-speed blender + 30 seconds. Medjool dates for sweetness and thickness. Water because otherwise nothing is going to move (or you could use non-dairy milk, but it’s not necessary). Cacao (or cocoa) powder because chocolate. And the newcomer to this frosting party: almond butter. Stepping up the richness game of date-based frosting since right now.

You could use cashew butter instead, I was out *sniffle*. Or even peanut butter if you want it to taste like someone plastered the top of your cake with peanut butter cups. And why wouldn’t you?

The frosting will become firmer in the refrigerator, but still spreadable. Although I find if you put it in a jar and pop it in the fridge overnight it tends to decrease in volume and increase in spoon marks by morning.

Happy sprinkle-topped, chocolate-spread, slice-and-(maybe)-share cake making to you!