Healthy Blueberry Muffins: Homemade Recipe with Applesauce, Whole Wheat, & Oatmeal

Learn how to make these from scratch healthy blueberry muffins with oats, applesauce, whole wheat AND a crumb topping! Using frozen blueberries also makes these super easy and affordable!

Have you noticed how we (in America, at least) tend to eat treats for breakfast? I don’t know what it is about breakfast foods– specifically baked breakfast foods– being loaded with sugar and empty calories (think donuts, muffins, pancakes, etc.), but for some reason we’ve gotten used to the idea that dessert for breakfast is a great way to start our day.

And, while I can’t say that I completely disagree with that sentiment, haha, I want to do better health-wise for myself and my family.

So when I make typical breakfast foods, like muffins, I usually try to healthify (which is totally a word 😉) the recipes. It’s why I came up with my healthy blueberry pancakes, and how this healthy blueberry muffins recipe I’m about to share with you came about.

Growing up, my family always had bags of blueberries in our freezer. My Nana had several blueberry bushes (shrubs? Idk…) so we had an essentially endless supply of blueberries.

So naturally, if we ever made muffins, they were always blueberry muffins. To this day, blueberry muffins seem like the iconic muffin to me.

And with good reason! Blueberries are great in muffins! They’re just the right size to add some flavorful juicy bits throughout the muffin without making anything soggy.

I was wanting to make some muffins the other day and thought I’d try out a new recipe. So I found this healthy one from Martha Stewart and gave it go. It was a big hit with everyone in my family and we went through the first batch super fast!

So I decided to make some more, but after I’d already started dumping things in the mixing bowl, I realized that I was completely out of several of the required ingredients… Whoops.

Well, after some modifying and substituting, I did manage to get a new batch of healthy blueberry muffins made. And it ended up being BETTER than the original recipe!

Yay for happy accidents!

So here’s the healthy blueberry muffins recipe that I ended up with. 😊

How to Make Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Make the Muffin Batter

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Then mix all of the dry ingredients (3/4 cup whole wheat flour, ¾ cup all-purpose flour, ½ cup quick oats, 2/3 cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar) in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center for the wet ingredients.

Add in 2 eggs, ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, ½ teaspoon of almond extract,  and ¾ cup of milk. Stir until just combined. Don’t worry about getting all the lumps out.

Stir in 1 ½ cups of blueberries (I use frozen).

Lightly spray the bottoms of a muffin tin. I recommend using Baker’s Joy spray— I love that stuff.

I did make them with paper liners at first, but I’ve since realized that these healthy blueberry muffins really work best without liners.

Divide the batter evenly among 12 muffin cups.

Make the Crumb Topping

Mix together 1 ½ teaspoons of softened butter, 1 tablespoon of white sugar, 2 tablespoons of quick oats, and a dash of cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the muffin batter in the tin.

Bake ’em!

Now bake the muffins for about 18 minutes.

And enjoy your healthy blueberry muffins!

So what is the quintessential muffin to you? Let me know in the comments!