Ingredients

For The Struesel:
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • ⅔ cup packed brown sugar (light or dark will work)
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅓ cup salted butter, melted
For The Muffins:
  • 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 4 tablespoons avocado or vegetable oil
  • 4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup packed brown sugar (light or dark will work)
  • 1 ¼ cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not thaw if using frozen)

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How to make it

1. If you need to rinse your blueberries, do so ahead of time and let them dry completely, so no extra liquid is added. I like to use organic and not bother rinsing them.

2. Preheat your oven to 350F/175C. Line 1 ½ muffin pans with liners (this recipe makes about 16 muffins).

3. First, make the streusel topping. Whisk the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add the butter and mix with a fork until roughly pea-sized or slightly larger crumbles form. Set aside.

4. Next, make the muffin batter. Melt the butter and set aside. Don’t let it cool enough to solidify, but do let it cool somewhat before using.

5. Using a large fine mesh sieve, sift then whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

6. In a large bowl, whisk together the applesauce, vanilla, eggs, and oil until very well combined. Slowly stream in the melted butter while whisking quickly (this prevents scrambling the eggs).

7. Add the sugar and brown sugar to the wet ingredients and whisk for about 1 minute, until the sugar looks partially dissolved. You can whisk it by hand or, if using a stand or hand mixer, mix on medium.

8. Add the flour mixture and stir gently until mostly combined. It should be somewhat lumpy and still have somes streaks of flour, which will get stirred in during the next step.

9. Gently fold in the blueberries. (If you’re unsure what folding means, you basically run a rubber spatula along the edge an entire turn around the bowl the pull the spatula toward the middle once you’ve come fully around the bowl, “folding” the batter on the edge into the middle part.)

10. Fill each muffin tin about ¾ full with batter. Top with crumble topping, covering it until no batter is visible. Don’t be stingy with the crumble topping!

11. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the crumble looks golden and the tops of each muffin have rounded and a toothpick inserted in one of the middle muffins comes out with some moist crumbs. Check early so they don’t over bake–each oven is different. Let cool in pan at least 10 minutes. Remove and let cool about 30 minutes.