Sometimes I make Harry Potter-themed vegan food (which incidentally is just British food). Of the assortment of breakfast food Mrs. Weasley offers a confused, worried and angsty Harry at Grimmauld Place before his hearing at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix, blueberry muffins are the ones he chooses (but does not manage to eat). I think we’ve all been there and blueberry muffins from 7/11 might have been our choice, too.
These muffins are delicious made with the standard all purpose flour or, as I did, with this all purpose gluten free mix. It has literally never failed me. They are my perfect blueberry muffin; not too sweet with an amazing crumb. My eighth grade Home Economics teacher told us never to mix a muffin batter more than thirteen times and I never have. If you’d like to add a tablespoon of hemp seeds or oatmeal to the streusel topping, that might be a nice extra bit of fibre. My husband is allergic to both, so I’ve opted not to.
Makes 8 large muffins
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (Gluten-Free)
1 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 tablespoon boxed egg replacer + 1/4 cup water, mixed well (sub one cooled flax egg)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup non-dairy vanilla milk
1 1/4 cups fresh blueberries
Streusel Topping
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon non-dairy margarine, softened
Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease or line muffin tins. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients until well combined. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, egg replacer of your choice, lemon juice, and non-dairy milk. Add to dry ingredients and fold six times, using large, sweeping motions. I mean it: six. Add the blueberries and fold six more times. The batter should not show any signs of unmixed flour. If it does, carefully fold one or two additional times. Fill each muffin liner, right up to the top and then a little more, so that a small mountain of batter is formed.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, add all stresuel topping ingredients and mash with a fork, until the mixture starts to resemble wet sand. Top each muffin with about a tablespoonful or enough so that all the batter is covered to some degree. Bake for around 25 minutes, until a nice golden colour has formed and the muffins springs back at your light touch. Cool on a baking rack until you can carefully remove each muffin. Delicious warmed, especially the following days for breakfast.