Blueberry Almond-Oat Muffins

What do you do when you wake up in the morning and have a craving for blueberry muffins and you don't want to go to the grocery store?  Well, you raid your pantry and fridge and come up with a crazy concoction of flours, nuts, grains and oils to make your muffins.  I was a little worried at first about the outcome, but surprisingly they turned out really great and now my husband and I are stuffed.  You don't need to use two different flours and two different kinds of fat for your muffins, but this is all that I had in my pantry.  You can make your muffins using just whole wheat pastry flour and Earth Balance Buttery Sticks instead.   Either way they are going to come out delicious!

Almond-Oat Topping:

2 tbsp finely minced raw almonds
2 tbsp unrefined, organic, fair-trade granulated sugar
2 tbsp rolled oats (not instant)

Muffin Ingredients:

2 cups whole grain spelt flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup finely ground raw almonds
3/4 cup rolled oats (not instant)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
3 tbsp ground flax seed, plus 6 tbsp filtered water
3/4 cup agave syrup
1 cup almond milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
8 tbsp or 1 stick Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, melted and cooled
3 tbsp organic canola oil
2 cups organic fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried well on paper towels

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees and position oven rack in the center of the oven.
• Lightly spray a 6 cup muffin tin with canola spray and set aside.
• In a small bowl, prepare almond-oat topping and set aside.
• In a medium size bowl combine flours, ground almonds, oats, baking powder, salt and lemon zest and stir well to combine.
• In a food processor or blender, add ground flax and water and blend until creamy.  With motor running, add agave syrup, almond milk, vanilla extract, melted Earth Balance and canola oil and blend until combined.
• Pour mixture into a large bowl and stir in flour mixture until just combined. You may still see a little flour visible and then gently fold in blueberries.
• With a large spoon, scoop batter into muffin tin, filling almost to the top and sprinkle with a tbsp of the almond-oat topping.
• Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, turning half way through the cooking process.  Also, when you get to the half way point, turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees.
• The muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the edges of the muffins are golden brown.
• Remove tray from the oven and place on a cooling rack and cool for about 10 minutes.  Run a pairing knife around the edge of the muffins before removing from the tray.
• Makes six large muffins.