When one has leftover blueberries in their fridge, what’s the best way to utilize them? Well, there are probably quite a few good ideas out there, but this time around they turned into a batch of blueberry muffins!
These are some of my favorites. In fact, my family raves about them. I’m not sure I was allowed over for family gatherings for a while if I didn’t bring any with me.
Normally, I’d make these with spelt flour, but this time around I decided to be creative and make a gluten-free version.
Now before I give you the ingredient list, I need to ask, “Does everyone know how to make oat flour?” If you thought that going to the store and buying it was your only option, you’ve been misled…and you’re paying way too much.
Here’s what you do: Put a cup or so of rolled oats into your food processor. Pulse about 10-15 times, and voila! – OAT FLOUR!!! Repeat this process until you have the amount of flour you need. If you want a more finely ground flour, pulse it some more. I decided to leave mine a bit more coarse, and I really liked the outcome. Think about what a container of rolled oats costs. Now think about what a bag of oat flour costs. I think you all see my point.
Do you see those rolled oats in the second container of my header image? Yup…those became oat flour, and now reside in these muffins!
Now that you all know how to make oat flour without spending an arm and a leg, here’s what you’ll need:
3 ripe bananas
1 egg, beaten (you could also use 1 Tbsp. ground flax, beaten in 1 Tbsp. water)
1/2 c. honey
1 1/2 c. oat flour
1 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gum (don’t add this if you decide to use spelt flour rather than oat flour)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. olive oil (you could also use 1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce)
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
Mash banans in a large bowl. Add egg (or flax) and honey and stir until combined completely.
In a separate bowl, combine oat flour, guar gum (or xanthan gum), baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to banana mixture, alternating with olive oil (or applesauce) and mix well. Add pecans and blueberries. I generally use pecans in my baking, because my mom is allergic to walnuts. If you’re more of a walnut fan, those would work just as well!
Don’t you just want to stop there and eat the batter when it looks like that? If you made it without eggs, go for it. However, you’ll be missing out on the muffin goodness that awaits you!
Grease a muffin pan and bake at 375ยบ for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Yes, you can use those paper muffin cups, but I hate those things!!! They end up stealing too much of my muffin in the peeling off process.
You can kind of see that I left my oat flour a little more on the “chunky” side if you look at the above photo real closely. I’m glad I did. They turned out awesome!
If you have leftover batter, you could either fill your muffin cups a bit more (which is what I should have done), or use your grandma’s mini muffin pan to make those cute itty-bitty ones (which is what I actually did).
When they’re done, let them cool in the muffin pan for about 10 minutes before removing them. (I just use a butter knife to pry them out, and then place them on a cooling rack.) Cool them completely before storing.
Warning: If you bring these to any family gathering, you may be obligated to bring them to ALL family gatherings in the future. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You could also empower your family members to make their own batch by sending them the link to this post!
(Give them a blueberry muffin, and they eat for a minute. Teach them to make blueberry muffins, and…oh, now you get it!)
The Clean Creative 