These tasty little muffins are quick to mix up and air fry in about 15 minutes. The muffins are loaded with good fruit but minus the refined sugar that feature in many store-bought and homemade muffins. Greek yogurt, oat flour (make it by grinding oatmeal in your food processor), bananas, and blueberries give the muffins substantial nutrition, as does the date paste. The date paste (make it by mashing some dates with hot water) also provides a boost to the sweetness of the muffins and helps keep them moist. The date paste also tastes good. These are not "decadent" blueberry muffins or cupcakes. They are good, not-too-sweet muffins that are great with breakfast, as a snack with tea or coffee, and even as a dessert. I like the muffins best alongside my morning fruit and yogurt as a treat but one that won't give me the "sugar shakes" by mid-morning. Enjoy!
Low Sugar, Diabetic Friendly Blueberry Oat Muffins -- Makes 12
1/3 cup of plain Greek yogurt (fat free is fine)
1/4 cup of date paste/puree (see below)
1 large egg
1 mashed medium mashed banana
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of oat flour
1/4 cup of quick oats
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of frozen blueberries
Slivered almonds, optional but good
In a large bowl whisk together well the yogurt, date puree, egg, mashed banana, canola oil, and vanilla. Stir in the oat flour, quick oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until everything is combined. Fold in the blueberries. Spritz 12 regular size muffin liners with non-stick cooking spray. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin liners. Sprinkle the top of the batter with slivered almonds, if you'd like, spritzing the top of the batter/almonds with a little non-stick cooking spray to keep the almonds in place/prevent them from burning. If you want more uniformly shaped muffins, put the filled liners in small ramekins to air fry the batter. Place 2-4 filled ramekins/filled liners in your air fryer basket (depending on the size of your air fryer) and air fry the muffin batter at 320 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown. Remove the muffins from the basket to cool and repeat the cooking process with the remaining batter.
How to Make Date Paste/Puree
Date paste or puree is available commercially, but I make my own because it's cheaper and really easy. If you want a large batch of puree (date puree is good to make a variety of baked goods and as a "healthier" sugar substitute because of the fiber, vitamins, and minerals in dates), simply cover about 24 ounces of dried dates with 2 cups of boiling water and let the mixture sit until it cools and the dates are fairly soft (you can let the mixture cool and refrigerate it overnight, if you want). Put the dates/water (the dates will absorb a lot/most of the water) in a food processor or blender and process them/puree them for a few minutes. You should have a thick, dark caramel-colored paste. You can add a little more water to the paste, if it's too thick for your liking. If you refrigerate the paste, it should keep indefinitely. If you want just enough puree for this recipe, cover a 3-4 dates with boiling water and let them sit for about 10 minutes or until soft. Pour off the water and mash the dates well with a fork or puree them in a mini-chopper (I go the fork route, because I don't want to wash the chopper).