Egg-Free Blueberry Muffins

This week my youngest sister, "Jules", came home for a visit with her family to spend some quality time with us. Having all 10 grandkids together is always a treat ... and loud! Her youngest, my nephew "S", is only 2 1/2 years old and has severe allergies to peanuts and egg. I'm used to peanut allergies because of my oldest but baking without eggs is fairly new territory for Aunt Laurie.

I'm tired of making Rice Krispie squares and no bake cookies for the kids just because they're an easy egg-free option. Truth be told, I think no bake cookies are kind of gross in texture, I've never been a huge fan of Rice Krispie squares and I wanted to BAKE something. I was looking for a treat that was more filling than a Rice Krispie square (and less sugary). Something for the kids to munch on after an afternoon of swimming in Nanny & Papa's pool. With a little ingenuity and finger crossing I came up with this recipe.

You'll notice that I use sour cream as well as cottage cheese for these muffins. Normally, I'd just use sour cream but alas I didn't have enough in my fridge. I scoured my kitchen for a substitute because I really wanted to bake something (and didn't have the forethought to actually double check that I had all the ingredients I needed!). Then I spied a container of cottage cheese. *light bulb moment* I knew that if the kids saw chunks of in amongst the blueberries that it would NOT go over well and they might revolt. But I also knew that the cottage cheese would give the added moisture and a bit of tang. To solve my problem of the chunks'o'cheese I popped all the wet ingredients in my trust 30 year old blender and voila! Presto chango I had a sour cream substitute!

These muffins are light, flavourful and moist. Plus the cinnamon sugar topping is always a hit! The best thing? I couldn't tell they were egg-less! Score one for Aunt Laurie! I'm looking forward to using this recipe as a base and trying different fruit, chocolate chip options for the future. Enjoy!

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Topping
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Sift flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.

Place melted butter, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese and vanilla into a blender. Blend until smooth.

Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and gently mix just until combined. Gently fold in blueberries. Don't overmix or you'll get dense muffins!!!

Using a large melon baller or ice cream scoop, divide batter equally between 12 muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are golden brown.

Topping
Combine white sugar and cinnamon. Dip or brush each warm muffin with melted butter and then dip into cinnamon sugar. Allow muffins to cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Note: You can use 1 cup of sour cream in place of the 1/2 cup of sour cream & 1/2 cup cottage cheese.

From: The Baking Bookworm

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