A Bakery Quality Vegan Blueberry Muffin

Most recipes recommend fresh blueberries when baking muffins. Drowning in a batter, fresh berries will keep their shape; frozen berries are more inclined to take the texture of melty goo when baked. Still, I can never bring myself to use fresh blueberries when making muffins. To me, opening a clamshell filled with the little blue morsels is a seasonal luxury. To eat them any other way than fresh and touched only by water is to miss that delicate sweetness and exploding texture.

For me, frozen blueberries are always acceptable for muffins. The juice is more inclined to run through the batter, tinting it a soft-grey color which resembles an icy sky, but the lemon yellow tint always comes through after baking. And though the burst is less explosive than fresh berries, the flavor is never lost.

I’ve often been frustrated by vegan blueberry muffin recipes. Some turned out too dry, others so moist the cream-colored cake left residue on my thumb. I remember a blueberry muffin I used to often get from Whole Foods’ bakery section. It was an oversized behemoth, suitable for two breakfasts. It was moist with a prominent muffin top, and blueberries evenly distributed.

There was no recipe to replicate this muffin, but I remember two of the ingredients listed: Vegan butter and applesauce. These two elements stuck in my head as the key to a perfect vegan blueberry muffin. Here, applesauce wasn’t replacing oil, but the eggs of a traditional muffin recipe. Applesauce binds ingredients in a similar fashion to eggs, creating pockets in the gluten that prevents a dense muffin. Unsatisfied with the online world of vegan muffin recipes, I decided to adapt my own from NYT’s Cooking section.

The final result was moist with a crispy top. To me, the best muffins include two distinct eating experiences. The top should feel like the corner of a brownie: crisp and sugary; while the bottom should feel pillowy with blueberry juices tunneling throughout. The muffin itself tastes almost like a yellow cake, though more subtly sweet. An ice cream scoop of batter per tin provided a perfectly sized breakfast treat. The adapted recipe is below.

Ingredients

• ½ cup vegan butter, softened
• 1 cups sugar
• ½ cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup non-dairy milk
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• Additional sugar for topping

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Mix in applesauce and vanilla.
4. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, and add to the butter mixture alternately with milk of choice.
5. In a separate bowl, dust berries in about 1 Tbsp. flour. This will help the berries fully incorporate with the batter. Fold berries into the main mixture.
6. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners, and fill with batter. Use a small spoon to sprinkle a bit of sugar over each muffin.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
8. Remove muffins from tin. Fresh out of the oven they will still be soft, allow to cool at least 20 minutes.