Blueberry Oat Breakfast Muffins (gluten free, vegan, refined sugar free)
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Recipe type: gluten-free, vegan, refined sugar free
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Cook time: 
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Serves: makes about 9 muffins
 
These are not your typical sugary cake muffins -- they are lightly sweetened, moist, and packed with fiber and protein to keep you full till lunch. I like to make a batch (or double batch) on the weekends, and have breakfasts ready all week long!
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups (10 oz) gluten-free or regular rolled oats, plus extra for sprinkling on top
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • ¼ tsp. baking soda
  • ¼ tsp. fine grain sea salt
  • ½ cup dairy-free milk (whatever kind you like, or you can use cows milk if you're okay with it)
  • 1 TBSP chia seeds
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • ¼ cup plus 1 TBSP pure maple syrup (preferably grade B or dark amber)
  • 1 TBSP coconut oil, melted (plus more for greasing the pan)
  • 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
  • ¾ cup frozen wild blueberries*
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., and grease a non-stick muffin tin (or line it with paper liners). I grease mine using melted coconut oil, but you can use a baking spray if you prefer.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and chia seeds. Let sit for at least 5-10 minutes while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
  3. In your blender or food processor, add 2 cups (8oz) of the oats. Blend until finely ground and almost flour-like in consistency. Add the remaining oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and pulse once or twice to combine.
  4. In a large bowl, stir together the apple sauce, maple syrup, coconut oil, and lemon juice. (Be sure to stir well as you add the coconut oil, so that it doesn't solidify into a solid chunk if your other ingredients are cold.) Add the chia/milk mixture and stir well, making sure there are no clumps of chia seeds.
  5. Add the dry ingredients from the food processor to the bowl, and mix to combine. At the very end, add the blueberries and fold them into the batter, stirring as little as possible to avoid staining the batter purple (streaks of purple are fine, but if the whole batter gets tinted they will look grey once baked -- still delicious, just not as pretty).
  6. Scoop the batter into your prepared muffin tin. I like to use an ice cream scoop, which does a perfect job evenly dividing the batter, and also gives the muffins a nice rounded top.
  7. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with a pinch more oats, then bake on the center rack for 20-25 minutes, or until the muffins are set and the oats on top have started to toast. If your oven heats unevenly, rotate the pan once during baking.
  8. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Once completely cooled, muffins can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or frozen for up to a month. (You can thaw them at room temperature, or pop them, frozen, into the microwave for a few seconds. Just be careful if you do, as the blueberries can turn from icy nuggets to bombs of lava surprisingly quickly.)
Notes
*I really like using wild blueberries in these muffins, as they're smaller and a bit sweeter than regular blueberries. Their tiny size means they distribute really well throughout the muffins, and though little, they have a really intense blueberry flavor. If you can't find wild blueberries, you can still make these with regular berries -- they'll still be delicious!

Recipe adapted from my tried and true Banana Oat Breakfast Muffins -- if you like these and want to mix things up, definitely give the banana version a try!
Recipe by Will Cook For Friends at https://www.willcookforfriends.com/2017/01/blueberry-oat-breakfast-muffins.html