Super Lemon Blueberry Muffins – Vegan

Friends, if you like lemon, you’re going going to love these Lemon Blueberry Muffins. First, we’re going to make a lemony buttermilk. Then we combine the buttermilk with our dry ingredients. The reaction between the lemon and the baking soda creates beautiful, tall and fluffy muffins. We’re going to use simple ingredients, most of you will have these things on hand, with the exception of one secret ingredient: Lemon extract. For the true lemon lovers out there, lemon extract is a great thing to keep in the pantry. Just a touch adds so much lemony loveliness. If you don’t have it, no stress. You can sub in vanilla extract, or just leave it out completely.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins:  Nutrient-dense, One bowl 

I love cake for breakfast, don’t get me wrong. But I also like for my muffins to pack some nutritional punch. I am, after all, feeding them to my growing kiddo. Rather than use all whole wheat, which would make a super-dense muffin, we’re using 60% whole wheat, 40% white. Feel free to play with these ratios. We’re also going relatively light on the sugar and oil (compared to most muffin recipes) and big on the berries.

If you, like me, don’t care about your blueberries “bleeding,” toss frozen blueberries right on into the batter. If this offends your sensibilities, either use fresh berries or lightly coat your frozen blueberries with flour before adding them.

To minimize dishes, we’ll be combining all the wet ingredients in a liquid measuring cup, then pouring them into the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

Finally, a quick note on convection

Does your oven have a convection setting? If so, let’s use it! It’s going to bake the muffins more quickly, and help them to develop a lightly crispy exterior. If you don’t have convection, no worries, just bake at 350. On with the recipe!

Super Lemony Blueberry Muffins 

Yield:  12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1.25 cups unsweetened soy milk
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup canola oil (5Tbsp)
• 1 cup brown sugar – not packed
• 1 tsp lemon extract (optional) – can omit or sub vanilla
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups frozen or fresh blueberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Use the convection setting if you have it. Lightly oil muffin tins – we’re making 12.
2. Into a liquid measuring cup, measure 1.25 cups soy milk. Now add the lemon juice, bringing the total up to 1.5 cups. Add 5 Tbsp canola oil and 1 tsp lemon extract.
3. Using a dry measuring cup, measure one scant cup brown sugar – not packed. Add this to the liquid ingredients. Stir and set aside while you prepare the dry ingredients.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until well incorporated, then fold in the blueberries.
6. Divide the batter between the muffin tins and get them in the oven!
   1. Convection: Bake for approximately 18 minutes, until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
   2. Conventional (without convection): Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pan for a few minutes, then move to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Store leftovers in an airtight container for up 3 to 4 days, if they last that long 🙂