Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup evaporated cane juice, or other unrefined granulated sugar (or 1/2 cup for sweeter muffins, see NOTE above)
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp low-fat buttermilk, well shaken
1 large egg, preferably organic
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 pint fresh blueberries, preferably organic, washed and dried
1/4 cup neufchatel (1/3-less-fat cream cheese), at room temperature
1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp turbinado sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with muffin cups.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, evaporated cane juice, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, oil, and vanilla extract.
Toss the blueberries with the flour mixture. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until incorporated.
In a small bowl, stir together the neufchatel and maple syrup.
Divide the batter evenly amongst the prepared muffin cups. Make a small well in the center of each batter-filled muffin cup. Fill each well with 1 tsp of the sweetened neufchatel. Sprinkle each filled cup with a bit of the turbinado sugar.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean (cream cheese sticking to the toothpick is fine, but no raw batter), about 15 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.
