Monday, July 14, 2014

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins

Blueberries and roasted beets are sweetened with honey in a multigrain muffin

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins | Farm Fresh Feasts

Blueberry muffins are one of the most iconic types of muffins.  [You won't find any icons on this blog, other than my teeny tiny social media icons next to the print button at the bottom of this post.] I was shocked to realize that of the 26 muffin recipes I've posted on this blog, only one of them contains blueberries.
It also contains beets, and it's a pretty sweet muffin what with the white chocolate chips and all (Red, White and Blue Muffins recipe here). I wanted to share a less 'treat' muffin.
Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins | Farm Fresh Feasts

 I've got beets from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, and adding some roasted beets to the party in the blender [not to be confused with this party in a blender] accentuates the color of the blueberries without overwhelming the flavor.

Why do I use a blender? My son is not a big "whole blueberries in baked goods" fan, so for these muffins, just like these Sweet Corn and Blueberry Waffles, I use my blender.  We all get the goodness of blueberries without anyone biting into an undesired big fat berry.

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins | Farm Fresh Feasts

I'm glad to announce my 27th muffin recipe, and second beet+blueberry muffin in a row, Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins.  I use honey, not sugar, in this recipe, which makes me think about how "real sugar" is now a valued item in soft drinks, yet perversely still taboo in "healthy" recipes. Whatever. While they are lightly sweet on their own, these muffins also taste delicious served warm with lemon curd.
These soaked oatmeal muffins require at least an hour long pre-preparation soak, but you can always prep a container of oatmeal and buttermilk days ahead and store in your fridge like I've shown here.

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins | Farm Fresh Feasts

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins

1 cup rolled oats (old fashioned is how I roll, but it doesn't make a difference)
1 cup buttermilk
⅔ cup roasted beets
⅔ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 egg
¼ cup honey
¼ cup cooking oil (I use vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 ounces (1 cup) whole wheat flour
2⅛ ounces (½ cup) unbleached all purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
optional--lemon curd for serving

In a large bowl (or, save dishes and use your blender--I used my Vitamix) combine oats and buttermilk.  Let soak for an hour. Add beets and blueberries to the blender and blend to an even consistency.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a muffin tin with vegetable oil or line with paper muffin cups. Dump contents of blender into a large bowl and add egg, honey, oil and vanilla.  Mix well. Dump dry ingredients (I weigh my flour for consistency) on top, then stir until just combined. Scoop** muffin batter into prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes, then cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning onto a rack to finish cooling. Serve warm or at room temperature. Good with lemon curd.

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins | Farm Fresh Feasts

**My scoop holds 3 Tablespoons (1 ½ ounces) by volume, though the muffin batter is mounded in the scoop so I'm pretty sure I'm putting a good 3 ½ Tablespoons into each muffin well.  The muffin wells in my regular muffin pans each hold 3 ounces by volume.

This post is shared with Hot Fun in the Summertime What's Cookin' WednesdayFresh Foods WednesdayClever Chicks Blog HopTasty Tuesdays

9 comments:

  1. I'm going to give these a try. It'll be a nice change from drinking my beets, and since I have six of them in the fridge right now because I swapped last week's lettuce for beets (who am I?), I should have plenty. So, that being said, how do I go about roasting them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Third time's a charm--for some reason trying to reply on my son's sticky iPad failed. Repeatedly. Meghan!
      I'm glad you asked about roasting because that's dumb that I didn't include it. I roast and freeze my beets when I think I'm going to be overwhelmed with beets, so I'm just pulling out a beet and thawing/mashing it it and not thinking about 'how did it get here'. Good question.

      I wash the beets and put like sizes together on a double thickness of foil, drizzle with olive oil, seal, and then stick them in a hot (375 to 425 degrees Fahrenheit) oven for 25-75 minutes. I'll know they are done when my Ove-gloved hand squeezes the packet and the beets feel tender. When cool, the skins slip right off and they are ready to use.

      Yes, this is technically not ROASTING, at least not in the way that I roast tomatoes, potatoes, or a chicken. But when I tried to do the beets that way they shriveled up and were . . . chewy . . . which was not a good look for them.

      Thanks!

      Delete
    2. Thank you. This is exactly what I needed. The muffins are in the oven as I type.

      Delete
  2. Oooh these look amazing! Will definitely be giving them a go with my next blueberry purchase.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'm delighted that I can stroll, saunter, or even perambulate down to my local farmer's market and get blueberries this year, and I'm stocking up for winter now that the fruit and veg freezer has been defrosted.

      Delete
  3. Kirsten!

    I've been blueberry pureeing the crap outta my kitchen today to make blueberry butter which is the ONLY thing I can think of that would make these better. I never would have thought to puree the berries in the muffin - but now I will for next time. That being said, I might break for a bit from the puree situation because now that I've done over 24 cups of the stuff, there is berry sauce in places I can't say in a Google comment form ;)

    PS. I think we need to get over our sugar phobia as healthy food bloggers. I do the same thing all the time and use honey instead out of fear of retribution - in fact, I wrote a whole post about that a while back. I try not to use white sugar 98% of the time unless I'm out having coffee or something, but today I dumped in 3 C of cane sugar into my blueberry butter and I am not apologizing! xo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kristy,
      Man, oh man the thought of blueberry butter sounds amazing to me! I made some a while ago--must have been last year when the new crop of blueberries was coming and I was thinking about the couple of bags still left in the freezer. I need to check the jam jars and see if there's any blueberry butter in there! Duh--how could I forget? Now I want lemon pancakes with blueberry butter, topped with the blueberry lemon syrup (that I know I still have, because I see the jar on the door of the fridge).
      I'm happy to use white sugar (most of my muffins do call for it, though in ¼ to ⅓ cup amounts) but yeah, it's kinda crazy how we can spin ourselves up about it.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  4. Thanks for sharing! I love beets and they grow so easily, but the rest of my family does not like them so I'm always looking for ways to "hide" them in something else :) My family loves muffins, so I think this one will work. I'm pinning it to try later.

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