Blackberries are one of my favorite fruits, but it seems like they often take backseat to strawberries and blueberries. I don't see why! They are fantastic! Really, I love the whole berry family, in general, especially when it comes to breakfast and dessert recipes, but blackberries take the cake in my book, followed closely by blueberries and raspberries.
So yummy...
Here is what you will need to make these scrumptious muffins:
For the berries:
-15 oz fresh blackberries
-2 tbsp Truvia (or Splenda will work, too, just trying to lower calories!)
For the wet ingredients:
-1 stick softened butter
-1 8 oz package reduced-fat cream cheese
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup Truvia
-Zest of one lemon
-Juice of 1/2 a lemon
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
For the dry ingredients:
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-3/4 cup whole wheat flour
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1/4 tsp. salt
For mixing:
-1/3 cup buttermilk
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line 24 muffin tins and set aside. You can also use 6 jumbo muffin tins, as the original recipe suggests.
Mix together the blackberries and the Truvia in a medium bowl and set aside.
Next, in a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese, butter, Truvia, and sugar using a hand mixer. Add in the lemon zest and lemon juice and mix until well-combined. Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients until well-combined.
Start adding the dry ingredient mix slowly into the cream cheese mixture, alternating batches of dry ingredients with splashes of buttermilk, until all of the dry ingredients and buttermilk have been well-incorporated into the cream cheese mixture and everything is well-combined and relatively smooth.
Divide the batter evenly amongst your prepared muffin tins, filling about 3/4 full. After each muffin tin has batter, press two to three blackberries into the top of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 15-18 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.
If you wish, you can add a sweet berry drizzle on top of each muffin by reserving the blackberry juice that was left in the bowl the berries were mixed in. Simply add about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tsp. milk to the remaining juice and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the top of each cooled muffin.
You can use all regular sugar if you would like in place of the Truvia, I was simply attempting to make this recipe more calorie-friendly. Same goes with the cream cheese and the buttermilk, which were both low-fat substitutions from the regular recipe. It's all your choice, but either way the result will be great!
These muffins are really moist and delicious. The cream cheese really adds a smooth element to the overall consistency and compliments the blackberries well, while the lemon adds a subtle splash of brightness. These have been a perfect start to my morning two days in a row now, and I enjoy them so much I will probably have them again tomorrow!
Fresh flowers from my man and fresh muffins = Great day!
Oh, and by the way, the kids liked them, too! Even with a "strange, new fruit" inside! Brooklyn couldn't get enough of the blackberries! This time, the purple mess on her face is NOT Crayola! Score 1 for the parents in our house!!!
Yay for blackberries!
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