The Best Healthy Muffin Recipe

Can the best healthy muffin recipe have a lower cholesterol version and still taste good?

My family has a long love affair with butter. When I was a child, I stole cookies from the kitchen cabinet when mom wasn’t looking. My younger sister would steal quarters of butter from the refrigerator. My mother would find the empty butter wrappers by following the trail of greasy fingerprints down the hallway. I always thought that was funny and perhaps a bit odd and never gave it much thought.

But then I had children. My middle daughter Lulu has problems digesting the fat in milk. She drinks fat free milk, but full fat milk and butter give her a stomach ache. Things have been much improved since she started taking a probiotic, but she still loves butter. Right from the stick. Just like my sister. But Lulu stopped her butter habit when she realized it made her tummy hurt.

Admittedly, we don’t use a lot of butter in our healthy diet plan. We spread our toast with fruit spread, and use olive oil in our cooking. But when I occasionally bake, I rush past my olive oil and use real butter. I’ve never liked margarine, because many margarines contain transfat. But I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter has eliminated all the transfat in their products, so we gave it a try.

Aside from Lulu and her butter-loving ways, I get questions from readers who have to watch their cholesterol. They don’t want to give up butter, but they need a lower cholesterol choice. So is I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter really a viable option?

The Taste Test

We first tried I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (ICBINB) original spread on toast. In the interest of an objective test, I made Toast A with butter and Toast B with ICBINB. All three of my testers picked the butter, which was the more familiar taste. They thought the ICBINB was more salty tasting, even though both products have the same about of sodium.

I think ICBINB is an acquired taste, and it would be fine to eat if you needed it for cholesterol or milk tolerance reasons.

But onto the cooking test. I decided to use the family favorite best healthy muffin recipe, using ICBINB instead of real butter. Since baking is chemistry to me, I’d rather bake than cook. I have several fast muffin recipes, so I went to the standby blueberry muffins.

At first, I didn’t tell the kids they were eating ICBINB muffins. Not surprisingly, the muffins flew off the plate. In the spirit of full disclosure, I told the children they had eaten the best healthy muffins with ICBINB, which reduced the cholesterol in the recipe by 30%. They STILL decided they liked the muffins, and that cooking with ICBINB was OK with them.

We also tried our best healthy muffin recipe with cranberries, raisins, and walnuts. Those muffins also received three thumbs up. Since then, I’ve used ICBINB in pancakes and received the thumbs up from the panel.

If you are watching your cholesterol or dairy product consumption, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is worth a try.

Best Healthy Muffin Recipe with Blueberries

Notes: For the best healthy muffin recipe, I use frozen blueberries with no sugar added, which are much less expensive than fresh. Thaw the blueberries using the defrost setting on the microwave. Drain the blueberries in a colander before using them in this recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour (this recipe was tested with wheat flour)
½ cup ground flax meal
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup fat free milk
1/3 cup I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) blueberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, flax meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl. Add milk, melted butter and vanilla, and whisk until moistened.
4. Add egg mixture all at once to dry ingredients and stir until moistened.
5. Gently fold in thawed blueberries.
6. Spoon batter into muffin pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Fill cups 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve warm.

Best Healthy Muffin Recipe with cranberries, raisins, and walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, flax meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl. Add milk, melted butter and vanilla, and whisk until moistened.
4. Add egg mixture all at once to dry ingredients and stir until moistened.
5. Gently fold in cranberries, raisins, and walnuts.
6. Spoon batter into muffin pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Fill cups 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve warm.

What Do You Think About Butter Substitues?

Do you have any thoughts on using a butter substitute? Any great recipes for those watching their cholesterol intake? Share it!

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