You can feel great making this Healthy Blueberry Muffin recipe for your family. Lower in fat and sugar, but still full of great taste, these are the perfect snack!
My wonderful kids are always on the hunt for snacks. They are so predictable in their snacking, that when a fight breaks out at 9:50 a.m., we know it is time to deal with their blood sugar issues.
We do our best to give them healthy snacks. We know it’s better for their bodies, but it also makes more sense too. If they only eat carbs or sugary snacks, they are just going to crash again.
They are carb lovers for sure though, so these healthy blueberry muffins are the perfect compromise. They get to eat their carbs, and we get to feel great about the lower sugar and fat content.
These were the best healthy muffins I’ve made! And they were the best looking, too! I followed the recipe exactly.
What Makes These Muffins Healthy
To be clear, I would not call these muffins a health food. That said, if you are going to give your family blueberry muffins, you can feel great about these. There are a few things that help make these blueberry muffins much healthier than what you would buy in a bakery.
- Less Oil: These muffins have no vegetable oil, where most other recipes has a cup or more. While these muffins still have a little bit of olive oil in them, we replace the rest of it with apple sauce.
- Less Sugar: This recipe replaces the granulated sugar with honey. You can get more bang for your buck by using honey. You can use less honey than sugar and still have a sweet muffin.
- No Crumble: While bakery muffins have a crumble topping, that little bit extra adds a lot of fat, sugar, and calories. These are delicious in spite of no crumble.
How to Make Healthy Blueberry Muffins
These amazing muffins come together in one bowl. this is a brief overview of how to make them. But you can find the full recipe at the bottom of the post.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Stir in the wet ingredients. To the dry ingredients add the apple sauce, oil, honey, milk, egg, and vanilla extract. Then stir in the blueberries.
- Bake the muffins. To achieve the high tops of the muffins, bake them for 13 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Then lower the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes. Do not open your oven during the baking.
Your Muffin Pan Matters
In my experience different muffin tins result in different muffins. You need to find a muffin tin that works well for you. I still use parchment paper liners, but the muffin used will still greatly impact how the bottom of my muffins turn out. These are the muffin liners that I like. And this is the muffin tin that I like using the most.
Storing
These healthy muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to one week. To lengthen the shelf life of these muffins, they can be frozen after cooled. Freeze them in a single layer and then transfer them to an airtight container in the freezer. Store for up to three months and allow about an hour to thaw when ready to eat.
Other Great Muffins
If your kids are muffin lovers like mine, try some of these recipes:
If you make this blueberry muffin recipe or any of my other recipes leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (180 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup apple sauce (63.75 grams)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 cup honey (84 grams)
- 1/3 cup milk (75.7 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup frozen blueberries see note 1 (150 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line your muffin tin with paper liners in 6 spots. Fill the rest of the muffin holes with a small amount of water.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Add in the apple sauce, oil, honey, milk, egg, and vanilla extract. Only stir until there are no streaks of flour left. The batter will be very thick.1/4 cup apple sauce, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 cup honey, 1/3 cup milk, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Gently fold in the frozen blueberries.1 cup frozen blueberries
- Fill 6 muffin cups all the way to the rim of the muffin liners.
- Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 13 minutes, do not open your oven (see note 2). Reduce the heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 12 to 14 more minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs. (It is okay to check on your muffins about 6 minutes after you turn the temperature down to 325 degrees.)
Recipe Video
Notes
- Frozen blueberries should not be thawed first. If you use fresh blueberries, your muffins will cook faster. Be sure to start checking on them after about 7 minutes of turning down the oven to 325 degrees.
- By starting the muffins out at a high temperature and then reducing the temperature, we are able to get the high muffin tops you see in the photos. It creates a quick high rise, and then the lower temperature finishes off the inside of the muffin. For it to work though, you must keep your oven closed.
- I have had readers add both cinnamon and lemon zest to this recipe and really enjoy it. If you add cinnamon I would add about 1 teaspoon in step two and if you add lemon zest I would add 2 teaspoons in step three.
Jennie Lynn Ervin says
I tried these muffins today – made some with fresh blueberries and some with cranberries since I have a blueberry allergy. They’re very good – only thing different was I had to bake them much longer – like 40 minutes total. Definitely a keeper recipe. Thank you 😁
I’m so glad you enjoyed these, Jennie!
Kathleen Serianni says
I did make these muffins, the only thing with them I cooked them according to the oven temperature 375 and time. But they didn’t brown on top. I did turn the oven off and let set 8 mins longer.
Mari says
These were really great. My family loved them. Could you give the nutritional information. It did not appear with the recipe. Thank you for this recipe.
Hi Mari! If you go to the bottom of the recipe card it says “Nutritional Information” and there is a little down carrot. If you click that it will bring up the nutritional information. I’m so glad you liked them!
Renee says
Watching these bake up and rise so niceley was wonderful! Great flavor, I added a dash of cinnamon this time, will consider graded lemon next time. Great recipe!!
I’m so glad you liked them!
Brenda Archer says
I love the flavor. Not too sweet. But, for some reason, my liners stuck to the bottom of the muffins, so I had to cut a portion of the bottom off. 💁
Well that’s a bummer! I wonder if a quick spray of the liners would fix that.
Patricia Walker says
Not tasted yet but look how nice these turned out!
nikolina krajinovic says
This is a great recipe they are delicious. ❤️❤️
I’m so glad you like it!
Mary says
I tried the recipe step by step, and I’m not sure where I went wrong :(. The muffins came out very dense and dry. I did use a mini muffin tray instead of a full size since I’m making them for my toddler. And the recipe did actually make 24 full mini size muffins . I thought it would only make 12 since the original recipe made 6 full size muffins. So maybe that was the issue. Definitely want to try again and maybe half the recipe to see how that works out.
I’m wondering if there was too much flour. Did you scoop the flour with a spoon and then level it off in a dry measuring cup?
Chris says
Can I use replace the honey with applesauce?
(then I would be adding a total of 1/2 cup of applesauce)
Thank you.
Hi Chris! I haven’t tested this recipe with that swap. My concern would be that they wouldn’t be as good, though the recipe itself would likely work.
Jennifer says
These were the best healthy muffins I’ve made! And they were the best looking, too! Lol. I followed the recipe exactly. (Serving size 1X)
I’m so glad you liked these!