scrimpySnack of the Week!

UPDATE: I was kind of tripping out. I wrote this recipe excluding the crumb topping, but I just ate another one, and they're pretty damn good with the topping. I'm updating the recipe and the prices to include the crumb topping - but I reduced the butter because there was too much.

Good Sunday Morning, everyone! I'm here to share the scrimpySnack of the Week. I like to write these recipes on Sundays, because that's the day when I bake Mike's lunch snacks for the entire week. If I make a dozen, I'll usually freeze half, and have the second half ready for me when I don't have a chance to bake something, or we're starving and have no other decent snacks in the house.

This week's snack is Whole Wheat-ish Organic Blueberry Muffins. The recipe makes 8 muffins, and I don't see why you couldn't double it. This recipe is a compliment to Thursday's post about using frozen fruit and vegetables.

Whole Wheat-ish Organic Blueberry Muffins

makes 8

3/4 c. whole wheat flour ($.08 - stop and shop!)
3/4 c. white all purpose flour ($.11 - WF...a bit more expensive)
2/3 c. sugar ($.20)
2 t. baking powder ($.08 - please triple check this and don't use baking soda on accident!)
1/2 t. salt (<$.01) (excuse the formatting from here...I'm stuck with a messed up keyboard - trust me it's worse for me than it is for you)

1/3 c. canola oil or other vegetable oil ($.26)

1/2 c. milk or yogurt (organic - $.19)

1 egg (organic - $.29)

1 cup frozen blueberries (organic - TJs - $1.08)

1 T. flour ($.01, to toss blueberries in so that they don't sink in the batter)

2 T. sugar + 1 t. cinnamon + 1 T finely diced butter + 1 T. flour = crumb topping ($.20)

Total is $2.51/8 crumb topped muffins...$.31 each

1. Preheat oven to 400 and prepare muffin tins by greasing them or putting in muffin cups.


2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.


3. In a measuring cup, measure oil and add the egg. Then fill with yogurt or milk to make 1 cup. You should need about 1/2 c. That's how much I needed.


4. Add the oil mixture to the dry ingredients and stir slowly until JUST combined. If you over stir muffin batter, you will make your muffins tough. So, stir them as few times as absolutely necessary.


5. Toss the blueberries with the flour. This is done so that they don't sink. This batter is so thick that they won't sink, anyways...but I also do it to keep the blue color from bleeding too much (even though it still will a bit). Toss anything that you plan to put in a muffin in flour first so they don't sink.


6. Fold in the blueberries carefully and spoon the batter into cups.


7. Sprinkle with crumb topping, or just plain sanding sugar, or nothing, if you'd prefer.
   
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Mine took 25. The picture is of my muffins, with the too buttery topping. They are a little dull looking because of my camera and the wheat flour which makes them a bit brownish.

Anyways, these are awesome and delicious. Like, SO delicious.

scrimpyTips:

- You can use all white flour, I just used half and half to up the healthy quotient. You could also add 1/4 c. of ground flax.

- You could use a mixture of brown and white sugars.

- These can be frozen.

- You can use milk, soy milk, buttermilk, or yogurt. I used yogurt and they're really moist!

- These would obviously be even better with fresh blueberries. Those would be a hell of a lot more expensive though! Props to Trader Joe's for coming through with the 12 oz. bag of frozen organic blueberries for $2.69.