Berry Cream Muffins

Today we have our second installment of Cooking Through Stacy’s Stash. I’m tackling muffins today. Why? Because muffins are just delicious. And why should you have to give up muffins just because you want to eat healthy? Well, you shouldn’t.

I agree with Bill Cosby – muffins are just a way to eat cake for breakfast without feeling guilty. Amen brother, amen.

It’s easy to healthify your muffins (ps – healthify is NOT a word. Bummer.). Today I’ll show you how and give you a fabulous recipe to boot. It’s your lucky day. I hope you have butter on hand. And if you don’t…well, you need an intervention.

Our cookbook this week is the Taste of Home Cookbook. I might just have an obsession with Taste of Home. For real. I kept every single magazine I had from them until I moved. It was HUGE amount. I could have been on Taste of Home Magazine Hoarders. But when we moved, I had a hard time justifying the space in our storage unit when I could easily get the recipes online.

I would spend hours looking through those magazines – over and over. Hours. HOURS I SAID! Until now I didn’t realize how attached I was to those little boogers. And I sold them at a yard sale. Pity. I’m having strange heart palpitations right now, so I better move on.

Anyway, I really love this cookbook. The recipes are fabulous. The pictures are awesome. The recipes are fabulous (did I say that?). Man – I miss those stinkin’ magazines.

I chose this recipe for Berry Cream Muffins…because I have this thing for muffins. And apparently muffin tops since that’s what I would have if I ate as many as I wanted. I guess that’s why I took the leftovers to mom’s house. Out of sight out of mind…except for those stinkin’ magazines. Bummer.

This recipe called for all-purpose flour, white sugar, and canola oil…all of which I do not use. It was also a recipe for 24 muffins. Why yes, I would enjoy eating 24 muffins, I would also enjoy fitting into my pants. Ahem. So, I scaled it back to 14 and worked with the baking powder amount. Yeah, I know 14 is a weird muffin amount – but I’m weird so it fits.

I used white wheat flour (hard white wheat, ground), sucanat, and melted butter in place of the other stuff. And man, it’s a winner – a winner indeed.

I used raspberries because I had some in the freezer on the verge of freezer burn. But you can use whatever berries you like…well, there are some exceptions to that rule. Don’t use holly berries, for example.

This recipe reminded me that I don’t like raspberries – they have all those little seeds and they stick in my teeth. *Shudder* Regardless, I didn’t have a hard time wolfing down these puppies.

The melted butter instead of canola oil worked great! We don’t use canola oil, but instead we use healthy fats like butter, coconut oil, and palm shortening. We all need more butter in our life. Shew – that was spiritual right there.