I used coconut oil instead of canola and 1/2 cup of Xylitol and 1/4 tsp stevia powder for the sugar. Substituted 1 1/2 cups of oat bran for the oats and mixed it with the applesauce to absorb some of the moisture. Added 1 tsp vanilla and 1 cup chopped walnuts and these came out wonderful and look great. Beets are one of the most healthful vegetables because of their high mineral content--even better than carrots. THANK YOU for this recipe!!
A fantastic way to get your kids to eat beets! I shy away from using oil and refined sugar in my baking when I can so I used 1/2C of honey instead of the canola oil & white sugar - worked out great! I took them to the daycare my son goes to and all the kids ate (and loved!) them:)
I'm reviewing this because it was the inspiration for the way I made these moist delicious muffins! I used 1 1/4 cup sorghum flour and 1 1/4 cup rye flour instead of the wheat flour I added an extra cup of oatmeal omitted the soda and salt and changed the sugar to honey. Next time I will cut amount of honey to 1/2 cup because they were very sweet! I loved having beets in these muffins that is a fantastic idea!
January 9 2012: Thank you Blue Clements. These were delicious. I have to admit I was skeptical as I was grating beets and mixing the ingredients. I kept thinking "this seems too healthy to be good." I didn't have fresh blueberries so I used defrosted blueberries and saved the juice as part of the 1/2 c of water. I also used whole wheat pastry flour to make it a little lighter. These are so light fluffy have a gorgeous golden color and a slightly sweet taste. No one was able to tell that there were shredded raw beets in the batter. These are definitely a hit with the family including my 23-month old toddlers. Thank you for creating (and sharing) a healthy and delicious blueberry muffin recipe. UPDATE (9 months later): We love these so much that we make them at least once every other month. We ran out of whole wheat pastry flour we used whole wheat flour and it was still light and delicious. We just made these with vanilla Greek yogurt instead of oil still very moist. UPDATE December 11 2012- Almost a year later and still a favorite. We sometimes substitute two very ripe bananas for half the applesauce. We continue to use Vanilla Greek Yogurt instead of the oil.
Awesome! I did replace the white sugar with cups of agave nectar. I also had to cut cup off all wet ingredients to make up for the substitution.
Flavourful and moist - absolutely delicious!
I was looking for a somewhat healthy muffin for my family and happened to have all the ingredients for this one. For texture I only put in 2 cups of whole wheat flour & substituted 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour. I actually used frozen blueberries and it turned out just fine. I also used canned beets & shredding was cumbersome. I just threw the canned beets into a quick chopper (it turned out as more of a chunky puree). This turned out just perfectly and gave the entire muffine a nice red coloring. Love this recipe!! Yum!
These were delicious and the beets were well disguised (as I have kiddos who "don't like" beets yet scarfed these muffins down)! I did have to make some changes. I used King Arthur Gluten Free Flour mix (the best tasting GF in my opinion ) 2 tsp Xanthum Gum 2 1/2 TBS King Arthur Gluten Free Cake Enhanser (increases shelf life & makes things lighter/moister) and Ener G brand Egg Replacer. I also used 1 cup Agave light colored sweetener and reduced the water by 1/4 cup per others' comments. The results were very moist and the color was just "fun" for my boys to make! I have some extra shredded beats in my freezer and will be making these again!
I can't believe I loved it! This was totally a guilt menu item from realizing I don't eat veggies but they were SO GOOD! I did cheat by switching in about 1/3 of the flour to white and adding a strusel topping (1 Tbs flour 4 Tbs sugar 2 tsp oil) but my husband was amazed at how much he liked them. We played a guessing game on "guess the secret ingredient" and I won.:)
I really wanted to like this recipe because of the use of the fruit vegetables whole grains etc..... but just did not. There was a really earthly soil like flavor that came from these muffins that was just not appetizing. (This flavor was much more pronounced when they were warm.) Although they looked appetizing the texture was too spongy & the spices too mild. I will be tossing these in the trash.:-(
