Berry Muffins

Apolinaras and I spontaneously headed to the grocery store a few weeks ago around 11pm to satisfy my sweet tooth, which is really rare for us. I usually just have a few chocolate chips if there are no treats in the house and I’m craving dessert, but that just didn’t do the trick this time because I really wanted to sink my spoon into some Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream! The outing reminded me of when my girlfriends and I used to stock up on goodies in the middle of the night to fuel our study sessions in college. But unlike my junk food filled college days, I was immediately excited when I noticed that blueberries were buy one pint get two free – yay! I scooped up three containers and began happily brainstorming about how to use them. And when I saw our huge tub of strawberries from Costco sitting in the fridge when we got home, I decided to combine the two types of berries to make a purple very berry muffin!

Ok, you can see they turned out a little more brown than purple, but they definitely delivered on the berry flavor because I packed 5 cups of berries into 12 muffins! I blended 3 cups of berries into a puree that went into the muffins after being reduced to half a cup of liquid on the stove and then I folded the remaining 2 cups right into the batter. The muffins disappeared quickly and were pretty healthy too.

p.s. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win 4 bottles of Girard’s salad dressing!

Berry Muffins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
3 cups strawberries, hulled
2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cups. Place 2 cups strawberries and 1 cup blueberries in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Place berry puree in a small nonstick pan and cook over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until reduced to 1/2 cup, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Mix cooled puree, sugar, oil, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Coarsely chop remaining 1 cup strawberries and fold chopped strawberries and remaining 1 cup blueberries into the muffin batter.

Scoop muffin batter evenly into the 12 prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350˚F for 24 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

Nutrition: 169 calories, 5.3g fat, 1.9g fiber, 2.4g protein per muffin
Cost: $0.57 per muffin