Blueberry Cream Muffins

     Salutations, viewers.

     Today was not a day for "travels" and epic adventures; instead, I made muffins.  A nice alternative, what?

     Speaking of alternatives, I used the recipe found in Rocco Dispirito's cookbook:  Now Eat This! Diet.  I did not use all of his alternative ingredients, so I adapted the recipe with what I had on hand. 

Here's my adaptation --

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 egg whites
• 4 ounces reduced fat Neufchatel cheese (this is basically the same thing as cream cheese), cut into small chunks
• 1 cup frozen blueberries

     Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper baking cups, and lightly coat the cups with cooking spray.

     In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

     In a medium bowl, stir together the wet ingredients until well incorporated, then add the mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.  Fold in the cream cheese and blueberries.

     Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.

 

     These muffins are not especially sweet, which suited me fine.  Like scones, or crumpets, not-so-sweet muffins go excellently with tea, which, as you see, I experienced myself.  I had a cup of blueberry tea, to go with my blueberry muffin.

 

     If you want these muffins to be sweeter, you can change the amount of sugar to 2/3 cup, or change the amount of agave to 1/4 cup.  Rocco DiSpirito's recipe called for 4 packets (about 4 grams) of powdered stevia, and 1/4 cup of agave.