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Healthy blueberry muffins, made with applesauce, yogurt, oats and big, beautiful fresh (or frozen!) blueberries, and no added fat or refined sugars. All the taste and texture, none of the guilt!
“These muffins were so moist and chewy. I will be making these over and over. I’m will try with apples, bananas and other fruits as well!”
my take
Nicole's Recipe Notes
- Hearty and satisfying: Made with applesauce and plain Greek yogurt, no added vegetable oil or butter, and tons of whole grain oats or oat flour.
- Naturally sweet: Without much sugar at all (and no refined sugar), they're only lightly sweet and packed with the goodness of blueberries.
- Freeze well: They're delicious right out of the oven (warm berries!), but they also freeze and defrost perfectly.
- No special ingredients: You probably have all of the ingredients in your pantry and refrigerator, since these naturally gluten free muffins are made without a special blend of flours.
- Easy to make dairy-free: Just swap out the yogurt for a nondairy plain Greek-style yogurt or dairy free sour cream.
what's in it
Recipe Ingredients
- Old fashioned rolled oats/oat flour – We use oats to form the base for these healthy muffins by grinding them into oat flour first. You can also just begin with an equal amount, by weight, finely sifted oat flour.
- Coconut palm sugar – This unrefined granulated sugar has a similar flavor to brown sugar, but is much grittier, and doesn't dissolve that well in baking. So be sure to blend it with the oats into a powder. You can use light brown sugar instead.
- Baking powder and baking soda – These chemical leaveners react with the liquid and acid in these muffins to give the muffins most of their rise. Make sure yours are fresh!
- Salt – Salt brings out all the flavors and balances the sweet sugar and blueberries.
- Applesauce – Smooth, processed applesauce adds moisture and a tiny bit of structure, from the pectin. Be sure not to use chunky applesauce, or your muffins will be dry and uneven.
- Plain, Greek-style yogurt – Although you can use fat free Greek-style yogurt, you really need the bit of fat in 2% lowfat or 4% whole milk yogurt to help tenderize the crumb. You can replace the plain yogurt with an equal amount of sour cream.
- Eggs – Eggs provide structure and help them rise. The yolks also add a bit of fat, which they're otherwise really low in.
- Pure vanilla extract – Vanilla adds depth of flavor.
- Blueberries – Blueberries add moisture when they bake in the oven and lots of flavor.
- Cornstarch – Coating your blueberries in a tiny bit of starch helps suspend them in the batter so they don't sink to the bottom of each muffin as it bakes.
How to make healthy blueberry muffins
- In a blender or food processor, process the oats and coconut sugar into a powder, and place them in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and whisk to combine.
- Add the applesauce, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla, and mix just until combined.
- Toss the blueberries with a bit of cornstarch to prevent them from sinking right to the bottom of the batter.
- Add the berries to the batter, and mix gently until just combined.
- Divide the batter among the wells of the muffin tin. In my standard muffin tin, the wells are almost completely full of batter.
- You can add a few more berries to the very top of the batter in each well so they're visible.
- Bake at 375°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325°F for about another 15 minutes. The muffins are done when the muffin springs back after you press a fingertip gently in the center.
- Allow the muffins to cool first in the tin, then on a wire rack.
My Pro Tip
Expert tips
Use room temperature ingredients
Make sure that your eggs, yogurt, and applesauce are at room temperature before you combine them. That way, they'll combine evenly and won't create clumps that prevent a smooth batter. Your blueberries will be cold if they're frozen, but that's the last thing you're adding to the prepared batter, so it won't harm anything.
Don't defrost frozen blueberries
As with any blueberry muffin, feel free to use either fresh or frozen blueberries for delicious results. If you do the latter, do not defrost frozen blueberries, and keep in mind that they will likely bleed into the batter and turn it a bit purple.
Using frozen berries won’t affect the taste one bit, though. You can have truly nutritious blueberry muffins all year long!
Coat your blueberries in starch
Coating your blueberries in a bit of starch before mixing them into the batter helps them cling to the batter a bit, and helps keep them from sinking to the bottom of the batter, during baking.
Use muffin liners but grease them
Place greaseproof muffin liners in your muffin tin before adding the batter to make cleanup really easy—and to help give your muffin batter some support as it rises up during baking. Spray the liners with a light coating of cooking oil spray, too. Lowfat muffins like these tend to stick to their liners.
Don't overmix the batter
Be careful not to overblend the batter. Oat flour has a tendency to get tough if you overmix or overblend it before baking.
For fluffier muffins, add starch
Try replacing about 25 grams of the oat flour with 25 grams of cornstarch for a more stable muffin with a more tender crumb.
substitutions
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
In place of regular Greek-style yogurt, you can definitely use a nondairy plain yogurt or sour cream substitute. If you use plain yogurt, be sure to drain it until it’s of a similar consistency to Greek-style yogurt, and then measure the ingredient by weight.
Egg free
Since this recipe contains 2 eggs, you should be able to replace them with some success using your favorite egg substitute. My favorite is one “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel) per standard egg. Flax eggs should work, but they will add more unwanted flavor.
Applesauce
The applesauce in this recipe provides structure, sweetness, and tenderness to the muffins. The muffins don’t taste at all like applesauce. If you’d prefer to use bananas, try my recipe for banana oatmeal muffins.
Oat free
Since they're ground into a fine powder for use in this recipe, you can substitute for oats with quinoa flakes. I've tried this recipe with that substitution, by weight, and although the muffins were a bit more fragile, overall it worked great.
Blueberries
In place of blueberries, I think these muffins would be great with an equal amount, by weight, of chopped strawberries or raspberries. You can also try frozen mixed berries as long as they're all relatively small in size (nothing larger than a raspberry). And remember not to defrost frozen berries first!
Sugar free
If you prefer to use unrefined sugars, go with the coconut palm sugar. It does have a coarse grain, though, so be sure to blend it along with the oats into a fine powder.
You can use an equal amount by weight of light brown sugar (which is what I use in the video). You could probably also use a brown sugar alternative, like Truvia brown sugar replacement. One reader successfully used Splenda brown sugar.
Healthy Blueberry Muffins Recipe
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (225 g) old fashioned rolled oats, (gluten free if necessary) (See Recipe Notes)
- ½ cup (80 g) granulated coconut palm sugar, (or light brown sugar)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (240 g) smooth applesauce, at room temperature
- ½ cup (114 g) plain Greek-style yogurt, (1%, 2%, or even 0% fat—but I prefer 2%), at room temperature
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 ounces fresh (or frozen) blueberries, plus more for on top (optional)
- 2 teaspoons (6 g) cornstarch, (or arrowroot)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line the wells of a standard 12-cup muffin tin.
- Spray the liners with a light coating of cooking oil spray to prevent the liners from sticking to these lowfat muffins. Set the prepared pan aside.
- In a blender (or food processor fitted with the steel blade), place the oats and process into a fine powder. If you’re using coconut palm sugar, place that in the blender, too, and process it too.
- Place the oat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl, and create a well in the center.
- Add the applesauce, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla, and mix until just combined.
- Place the blueberries in a small bowl and toss them in the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.
- Add the blueberries with the added cornstarch to the muffin batter, and fold the blueberries gently into the batter until they're evenly distributed throughout. The batter will be thick but very soft.
- Allow the batter to sit briefly after mixing. This will allow it to thicken a bit and make transferring it to the muffin tin a bit easier.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared wells of the muffin tin. Shake the tin back and forth to evenly distribute the batter in the wells.
- Add a few (optional) fresh or frozen whole blueberries to the batter in the tops of the wells. You can use up to 1 additional ounce of berries total. Press gently to help the berries sink a bit into the batter.
- Place the tin in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and continue to bake until the tops of the muffins are nicely domed, and they spring back when pressed gently with a finger. This usually takes another 13 to 15 minutes.
- Remove the muffin tin from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Make ahead/leftovers
Storage Instructions
For short term storage, these muffins will stay fresh for about 2 days on the kitchen counter if they're wrapped individually with plastic wrap or in a sealed container.
Freezing
For longer storage, place them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet until frozen, then pile them into a large ziptop bag until you're ready to enjoy them.
Defrosting/refreshing
You can allow these muffins to defrost at room temperature on the counter for about 30 minutes or microwave for about 25 seconds. To refresh and serve warm, sprinkle the defrosted muffin lightly with lukewarm water and place in the toaster oven on toast, or at 300°F for about 5 minutes.
FAQs
Yes! If you already have oat flour on hand, measure out 225 grams by weight of packaged oat flour. I like Gold Medal brand oat flour for its quality and availability.
I haven't tried that, but I think it would work well. Be sure to use mini muffin liners and grease them for best results and reduce the baking time. I would bake at 375°F for 3 minutes, then reduce to 325°F until done (about another 10 minutes).
I don't recommend trying to make this same batter as a loaf instead of muffins. It doesn't have the proper structure to support baking in a single standard loaf pan. Mini loaf pans might work, though!
No, more applesauce will make the batter too wet and not provide the structure and binding of eggs. For making these muffins egg-free, please see the substitutions section above.
You may be able to replace all or part of the applesauce with an equal amount, by weight, of mashed ripe bananas. Those substitutes often work well, so it's worth a try!
You can replace the Greek style plain yogurt with an equal amount, by weight, of sour cream (dairy or nondairy). If you only have plain yogurt that isn't Greek-style, strain it of liquid until it reaches the consistency of sour cream or Greek yogurt.
Yes! Just change the yield in the recipe below to make 24 muffins, or click the “2X” button to double all the ingredients. Bake in 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins as directed.
You might be able to replace the oat flour with conventional whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour. Unlike our classic gluten free blueberry muffins which are made with an all purpose gluten free flour, these are made with a single whole grain (oat flour) and a regular all purpose flour probably would not work.
I’ve been making these for my celiac and Type I diabetic husband for a while. I’ve substituted 1/4 c. Brown Sugar Splenda for the sugar and frozen saskatoons for the blueberries. They have turned out great and my husband loves them.
Hi, Wendy, I’m so glad he enjoys them so much, and thrilled to know that they work well with brown sugar Splenda. I had to look up “saskatoons” and they sound delicious. Thank you for sharing all of that!
These sound great but can you use the muffin tops baking sheet?
I’ve never tried this recipe in a muffin tops pan, Lynn, so I really can’t say for sure, but I assume it would work?
Hi I have a question. I already have good quality fine Oat Flour. Assume I can use 1 7/8 Cups of that ?
thanks,
Diane
Absolutely, Diane! Just like it says in the recipe notes. Your best bet is to measure by weight, though, at 225 grams.
These muffins were so moist and chewy. I will be making these over and over. I’m will try with apples, bananas and other fruits as well.
Can I use mashed RIPE bananas instead of applesauce, and omit the sugar?
Please let me know, thank you so much!!
No, you can’t omit the sugar and have the recipe turn out.
I substituted fresh cranberries for the blueberries and added orange zest and substituted orange juice for the vanilla they are very tasty.
In the written instructions, you do not mention adding the baking powder, baking soda and salt… Most of us know to add them into the dry ingredients before the wet ingredients but you might want to add that between steps 2 and 3 (would you put them in the blender or in the bowl? I added mine to the bowl before the applesauce. [By the way, I substituted banana for applesauce and they came out great].
Oh my gosh, Connie, thank you so much for pointing that out! I’ve added those ingredients to the instructions just where you said. Thank you again!
I made these for the second time–only this time i lost my mind and forgot to add yogurt. Surprisingly, they were still amazing!! Thank heavens as I just made a double batch!
Now that’s surprising, Karen! I mean, I like my recipes to be solid enough as to be relatively flexible, but that’s quite a difference!
Oh how I want some of these muffins! One question first, though: did you use sweetened or unsweetened applesauce, or does it matter?
I always use unsweetened smooth applesauce, Naomi! You can of course use sweetened, but there’s no need. :)