Blueberry and Orange Muffins
As I said in the post of the Cherry Kale Red Tea Smoothie, one of my problems when I go to Costco is that I tend to buy very large quantities of fruit. In my defense, it is impossible to resist when you find a kilo of blueberries with the same price as 250 grams at the regular supermarket. For that reason, for the past week, I have been adding cherries and blueberries to almost everything I eat. 
Probably my favorite muffin when I was younger, was the blueberry muffin. I loved the small moist pieces of berries inside the bread. In the past, I didn’t care about the ingredients on the food I ate. I’m pretty sure that my favorite brand of blueberry muffins was packed with chemicals, artificial ingredients and sweeteners. I remember they were individually wrap and they were huge! 
Throughout the years I think I have discovered better muffin flavors, some with more sophisticated ingredients. But this time I wanted to prepare some blueberry muffins to remember my childhood tastes. I made some modifications that maybe myself at age 8, would not have approved: I used soy milk, whole wheat flour and instead of vanilla flavor I chose orange. 
I was impressed with the amount of recipes of blueberry muffins that I found on food blogs. It seems that everyone has their own recipe. It is as if there was a kind of secret law that says that in order to have a food blog you need to have a blueberry muffin recipe. Well then, with this recipe I join the club! 
I found a recipe in a book that caught my attention because instead of using all-purpose flour, used bread flour. Usually my muffins end up with a flat top, not with a perfectly elevated top like in an ad. So I decided to use some bread flour to see the result. I think it works. The muffin tops rise much more and gives them that perfectly muffin look. I will continue experimenting with bread flour on other muffins. 
I’m not sure if at 8 years old, I would have approved these muffins, but 20 years later, I loved them! They have the perfect moist balance, the orange flavor accentuates as they get older, the bread flour gives them a very good looking top and the streusel gives a hint of cinnamon … yum! A must try!
- 1 seedless orange
- ⅔ cup canola oil
- ½ cup + 1 Tablespoon soymilk
- 2 eggs
- 142 gr (5 oz) bread flour
- 142 gr (5 oz) whole-wheat flour
- 160 gr (5.64 oz) brown sugar
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup blueberries
- 6 Tablespoon flour
- 2 Tablespoon brown sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 38 gr (1.34 oz) softened butter
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease with baking spray 12 silicon muffin molds or line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- Grate the orange and squeeze its juice. You only need ⅓ cup juice.
- In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients for the streusel until well combined and crumbly. Reserve.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the orange zest, orange juice, oil, soymilk and eggs.
- In another medium bowl, mix together the bread flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Fill muffin molds, almost to the top of its capacity. Sprinkle evenly with the streusel.
- Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Enjoy!
I love blueberry muffins too! (Although I don’t think I have a recipe on my blog, so obviously I’m kicked out of the club. 😉 ) I agree that homemade are healthier and better than the store-bought ones–and your orange variation sounds delicious!
Hi Elizabeth! Thanks for stopping by!
Homemade always wins.