Three months ago, my friend Brittany shared the story behind her latest half-marathon running race, including how she carbo-loaded on healthy options the day before. When I scrolled down to the first photo in her blog post, I nearly closed my laptop and dashed straight out to Trader Joe’s.
The whole grain mixed berry muffin sitting on her plate, with juicy red raspberries poking out of every inch of the pastry, completely tempted me for a taste!
Later that afternoon, once I scribbled down a grocery list as a guise, I headed across town to check out the TJ’s bakery. I picked up my usual six bananas and Brussels sprouts to avoid appearing too suspicious, then slowly wandered over to the shelves in the back of the store.
Prominently displayed front and center, and the perfect eye level, sat those muffins. I reached for the four-pack, staring at those bright berries, and then glanced at the price tag. Ohmygosh… That much for four muffins??
I always love supporting TJ’s, but as a blogger, I feel intense baker’s guilt bringing home store-bought pastries instead of making them myself. (But six-layer chocolate cake slices are an entirely different story!)
So I carefully put the muffins back on the shelf, but I completely forgot to add “mixed berry muffins” to my baking list when I arrived back at home… Oops!
When I stopped by TJ’s last week in search of tortillas, I spotted those muffins again, practically smacked my forehead in the middle of the store, and strode straight over to the frozen aisle to pick up a bag of their mixed berries.
A few hours later, these Maple Mixed Berry Muffins sat cooling on my countertop! Soft, tender, and full of juicy fruit, these healthy pastries are still a sweet way to start your day. Unlike other low-calorie muffins, these don’t taste a thing like cardboard, so it can be our little secret that they’re low fat and completely clean-eating friendly!
Just like with my recent brownies and coffee cake, I decided to branch out and try incorporating gluten-free flour into these skinny muffins. I created my own blend with four different types: brown rice, millet, almond, and tapioca. Since gluten-free flours almost never have the same texture as all-purpose or whole wheat, it’s much better to combine multiple varieties to come closer to imitating that same flavor and mouth-feel.
Because any type of berry breakfast reminds me of my childhood weekends where Mom made herself blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup (my brother and I demanded plain with the artificial stuff), I wanted to sweeten these with that same natural flavor. You’ll just detect a hint of that warm taste: not enough to overpower the berries, but the perfect amount to trigger those tender memories of the maple scent wafting through the house as you devoured hot pancakes fresh off the griddle at the kitchen table.
When it comes to baking with berries, I prefer to use frozen and save the fresh for snacking. I picked TJ’s Fancy Berry Medley, a mix of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. However, the latter two were ginormous compared to the blueberries, so I chopped them into smaller pieces before folding them into the batter.
Frozen berries generally release a little more moisture as they bake compared to their fresh counterparts, so I left my muffins in the oven for a full 30 minutes. When they’re finished, the tops should look golden and feel fairly firm when you gently tap your finger in the center. If you’re using fresh berries, start checking for doneness about 5 minutes early just to be on the safe side. Nobody likes burnt, dry muffins!
As soon as I popped these healthy Maple Mixed Berry Muffins from the tin, I sliced one in half and stuck a sliver of butter on each half, watching as it slowly melted into the cracks before I took my first bite… Pure breakfast bliss!
But if you manage to save a few and seal them up overnight, they develop that soft sugary coating on their tops that banana bread usually does. It’s absolutely irresistible! I’ve already gone through five muffins in one day…
I might need to bake more tomorrow!
If you like this recipe, be sure to follow my Healthy Baking board on Pinterest!
With their soft and tender texture, these sweet muffins practically taste like cupcakes! Feel free to substitute your favorite fruit in place of the mixed berries. Store any leftover muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and lightly coat a 12 standard-sized muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut oil or unsalted butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup and yogurt, thoroughly mixing until no large lumps remain. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk, stirring just until incorporated, beginning and ending with the flour. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts and the milk in 2 equal parts.) Gently fold in the berries.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups, and bake at 350°F for 29-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (If using fresh berries, check for doneness about 5 minutes early.) Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. (The berries will still be extremely hot, so don’t burn yourself!)
Notes: For the gluten-free flour, I used as follows: ¾ cup (90g) brown rice flour, ¾ cup (90g) millet flour, ¼ cup (28g) almond flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, and 2 teaspoons (6g) xanthan gum.
You may also substitute all-purpose or regular whole wheat flour in place of the whole wheat pastry flour.
I prefer a mixed berry blend with raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Sometimes the raspberries and blackberries are much larger than the blueberries; if that’s the case, chop them into halves or quarters to ensure there’s a more even distribution throughout your muffins.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
I made these and they didn’t taste very sweet- quite bitter!!! I think it was the fruit??? I used, frozen raspberries, blackberries, black currents and red currents. What did I do wrong!????:(
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Alice! Let’s figure out what happened. 🙂 What brand of mixed frozen fruit did you use? Not all brands of frozen fruit are as sweet as the Trader Joe’s blend I used! Currents can often be not quite as sweet as other berries, so that could be another potential cause. Lastly, did you use the full ½ cup of maple syrup? Or did you make any modifications to the recipe besides substituting other frozen fruit? We’ll get this sorted out so your next batch turns out much better!
Hey! Thanks for replying! I used Tesco s own brand of frozen fruits! I substituted maple syrup for golden syrup as this was all I could find. !
It’s my pleasure, Alice! Since I’m based in the US, I don’t know that brand of frozen fruit… So it could very well be that’s the issue! Was it the fruit that tasted bitter, or was it the muffin part? Golden syrup should be fine to substitute — and just to confirm, you used the full ½ cup? 🙂
Can I use almond milk? Possibly no egg? Maple syrup or any syrup?
Yes to almond milk! I’m not quite sure what you mean about maple syrup or any syrup. Is there a particular sweetener you’d rather use in place of the maple syrup? As for the egg, Ener-G is my favorite substitute. Ener-G is a shelf-stable powder that keeps for ages. It works perfectly as an egg replacer in nearly all of my recipes, including this one! For my recipes, use 1 ½ teaspoons Ener-G + 2 tablespoons warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need an additional ½ tablespoon of butter or coconut oil {or Earth Balance, if you’re vegan!} for each egg yolk. I can’t wait to hear what you think of these muffins, Jocelyn! 🙂
Could I use buttermilk instead of egg? Or sweetened applesauce?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe! With either of those substitutions, the muffins will turn out denser and may collapse while cooling. This is because the egg provides a lot of protein (aka structure!) to the muffins, and both buttermilk and applesauce lack that component. (However, they’ll still taste delicious!)
My brother is actually allergic to eggs, and Ener-G is my favorite substitute. Ener-G is a shelf-stable powder that keeps for ages. It works perfectly as an egg replacer in nearly all of my recipes, including this one! For my recipes, use 1 ½ teaspoons Ener-G + 2 tablespoons warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need an additional ½ tablespoon of butter or coconut oil {or Earth Balance, if you’re vegan!} for each egg yolk.
I’d love to hear what you think of these muffins if you try making them! 🙂
Thanks for the response. It was more because I ran out of eggs. But now that I just bought eggs I’m excited to try this recipe out. Thank you for answering and the substitution. Maybe I’ll stock it so I can use it next time I run out. 😀
Hi!
Is there a substitute for yogurt I can use? I’m trying to make this recipe vegan and I’m all out of vegan yogurt also ? lol
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Courtney! Unfortunately, vegan yogurt is the best vegan substitution for the Greek yogurt. You can try applesauce or mashed banana, but the muffins will definitely have a fruity flavor from either of those, and they’ll turn out somewhat denser as well. But they’ll still be delicious! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try them!
I love your blog and your entry today, hits home because I am always trying to make healthy versions of treats I find out and about!! I love all of your recipes, thank you!
You’re so sweet — that means the world to me Julie! I’m so glad you’re enjoying my recipes!! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these muffins — or any other recipes of mine you decide to try!
These are great muffins! I like the amounts of berries, which I use fresh. I thought the texture was more dense, but I’ve been eating muffins made with almond flour so the texture was different. I wonder If anyone has tried almond flour with this recipe and how it worked.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Kari! Thanks for taking the time to let me know! 🙂 Which flour option did you use in these muffins, the whole wheat pastry flour or the gluten-free flour blend that I recommended in the Notes section? (Or something else?)
I used unbleached whole wheat flour, which is what I had on hand.
Thanks for sharing Kari! Did you make any other modifications to the recipe, besides the flour? 🙂 These muffins aren’t meant to be as light and airy as angel food cake, but they’re not supposed to be dense like brownies either. Is that how dense your muffins were with the whole wheat flour?
I’ve typically found that using almond flour in place of wheat-based flour in my muffin recipes results in even denser muffins. This is because almond flour lacks gluten (a protein in wheat that helps baked goods both rise and maintain their shape while cooling!). Without it, the muffins may collapse some while cooling. You can add xanthan gum (see the Notes section for the amount!), which imitates gluten’s structural properties, to help minimize the collapsing and the denser texture that results. So as long as you don’t mind somewhat denser muffins, their flavor will remain the same if you use pure almond flour! Does all of that make sense?
I made these today. I really like them! I like that they feel filling, that they’re not overly sweet – they are exactly what I was looking for today! I’m trying to make more of my own snacks now that I’m working from home, and I really appreciate recipes like this that seem attainable and reasonable on many levels. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins, Chantelle! That really means a lot to me. Thank you for taking the time to let me know! 🙂
I made these muffins last year and they were amazing! They have just a hint of maple flavour (from using dark maple syrup) that pairs perfectly with the tart berries. I’m wondering if these can be made as mini muffins? Would you be able to recommend a bake time? Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins, Sabryn! Thank you for taking the time to let me know — that really means a lot to me! 🙂 As long as you dice the berries so they’re no larger than the size of chocolate chips (a little smaller would be even better!), then this recipe should work just fine as mini muffins. I’d recommend baking them at 350°F and starting to check on them after about 11 minutes. They’ll likely take a few minutes longer, especially if you’re using frozen berries, but it’s always easier to put underdone muffins back in the oven to continue baking than it is to salvage burnt muffins! 😉 They’ll be done when the centers feel firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached.
I’d love to hear how those mini muffins turn out if you try making them! 🙂
Made these with gluten free flour and they were really dense. I used frozen blueberries.
It means a lot that you tried my recipe, Lisa! That sounds disappointing and not like how these muffins are supposed to turn out, so I’d love to work with you to figure out why that happened. In order to do so, I have some questions for you!
Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups/spoons to measure all of the ingredients, especially the flour, maple syrup, and milk?
Did you use the exact gluten-free blend that I provided in the Notes section? If not, what did you use instead?
Did you make any other modifications to the recipe, besides using frozen blueberries in place of the frozen berry medley?
How were your muffins’ flavor?
How long did you bake your muffins? Were the centers raw or fully baked through?
Did they collapse while cooling?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but I’ll have a much better idea of what happened once I know your answers to all of them!
Hi Amy,
thank you for your reply. I did not used a scale, but did use measuring cup and spoons. I believe we may have used too much blueberries, and maybe that was the problem?
I used a gluten free flour blend I had bought at Home Goods, not sure what brand, since I threw the bag away.
Didn’t make any other modifications to the recipe other than using the frozen blueberries. (as mentioned above, I think we used too much blueberries – almost more blueberries than batter)
The flavor was good, and they were great right after baking.
I baked them according to recipe and centers were fully baked.
They seemed to collapse a bit after baking
thanks again
It’s my pleasure, Lisa! I’m happy to help. 🙂
How many cups of frozen blueberries did you use? Adding too many could contribute to the dense texture. They release moisture while baking (especially since they’re frozen and have more moisture to begin with compared to fresh blueberries!), so adding more would throw off the ratio of wet to dry ingredients, which would then impact the texture.
My other hunch is that the gluten-free flour blend you used might not have been the best for muffins. If you knew the name, I’d research it to find out so I’d have a better answer for you!
Not all store-bought gluten-free blends are created equal. It’s really important that they include something like xanthan gum, especially for baking recipes that rise. This is because gluten is the protein in wheat-based flours that helps baked goods rise and maintain their shape while cooling. Gluten-free flours obviously lack that, but xanthan gum imitates gluten’s structural properties. This is why it’s important that gluten-free flour blends include xanthan gum, so that when you substitute them for wheat-based flours OR my recommended homemade gluten-free blend in my recipes that rise (like cupcakes, cakes, muffins, quick breads, etc!), your baked goods won’t turn out denser or collapse while cooling.
Does that make sense?
Thank you again. Not sure how much blueberries we used, but probably a bit more than the recipe (my daughter measured the blueberries). I don;t believe that the gluten free flour blend I used had xantham gum, so that may have been the problem.
It’s my pleasure, Lisa! I’m glad we found the culprits (although I can completely understand having a generous hand with the berries — I love fruit too! 😉 ). I think if you use the same amount of berries the recipe calls for and a gluten-free blend that includes xanthan gum, your muffins should have a much better texture next time!