Raspberry-Blueberry Spelt Muffins

I ask you: what is it you do with your leftover spelt flour and blueberries from the blueberry pancakes you made yesterday?



Of course. You make muffins.

I found this recipe for Blueberry Spelt Muffins from a blog by Whole Foods Market. Seeing as how I have a whole bag of this stuff, it seemed like a good opportunity to use the flour for something else. Oh, and then I'd have something to write about today. Good, let's kill two birds (turkeys?) with one stone.

There is a muffin place not too far from me that makes the best muffins I have ever had. Yes, including the ones I make myself. I love this muffin place, and their muffins are gigantic. Like, big-as-your-head gigantic. Their pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting are, of course, my favorite, but I love their blueberry raspberry ones too. I had made my own version of them a few years back, complete with a crumble topping, and loved them. When I saw this recipe for Blueberry Spelt Muffins, I decided to take a cue from these other muffins and make them with raspberries as well.





Let's just say that I didn't read things as closely as I should have. Because again, my butter's frozen solid and I didn't have a chance to defrost like I wanted to, I used oil instead. Imagine my horror when I realized I had read the recipe wrong and had not put in 4 tablespoons, as instructed, but rather 4 ounces, or a half cup of oil. Whoops.



It made for a very moist muffin.

But over-softness aside, I really liked them. It had lemon juice and rind in it which added more tartness that was really good. It's true that the spelt really does make things taste just a little different, because I could taste the spelt in last night's pancakes. That doesn't mean that they're bad, not by any stretch. But you can tell a difference between that and something made with regular flour.



The muffins were really tasty though, and I was very happy. Even if I did accidentally add too much oil. Keep in mind that if you make these, use 4 TABLESPOONS. or a half stick of butter. Not a half cup. (I'm an idiot sometimes. It happens. It could be worse-they could have turned out like rocks!).

Raspberry-Blueberry Spelt Muffins (original recipe: Blueberry Spelt Muffins, by the good people over at Whole Foods Market)-my changes and additions are in parentheses...

* 4 tbsp (1/2 stick) softened butter or canola oil
* 2/3 c. sugar
* 1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 c. orange juice (I used lemon juice instead)
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 c spelt flour
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp grated orange zest (again, used grated lemon zest instead)
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 cups fresh blueberries (I used one cup blueberries and one cup raspberries, and wound up having just a bit extra in each package, so just added a little bit more)


Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin pan with paper muffin liners (you will likely need two pans-I wound up needing to go to a mini loaf pan because I didn't have extra muffin tins). In a large bowl, stir together butter or oil and sugar until creamy-use a hand mixer if you have one, you'll save yourself a lot of time. Stir in applesauce, eggs, citrus juice (whichever you use) and vanilla.

In a second large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, zest and salt. Stir flour mixture into wet mixture until just combined. Gently stir in fruit. Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!