Lower-Sugar Blueberry Corn Muffins

I'm not normally a Splenda fan, but I had a bag of the Splenda for Baking left over from a special brownie order. After looking at the Splenda website, www.splenda.com, they had a great recipe for blueberry corn muffins. My last batch turned out a bit cakey and I really wanted something softer, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The Splenda recipe on the website uses 3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener, but I used 6 Tablespoons of the Splenda Baking mix instead. They turned out perfectly and taste great! This might just be the start to more Splenda recipes in the future...who knows!

If the recipe is prepared using Splenda for Baking, each muffin has 1/3 less sugar than if using regular sugar. If using pure Splenda, each muffin has 2/3 less sugar than the "real deal" version. So while these aren't completely sugar-free, they can be altered easily to make a less-sugar version that tastes just as good.

Ingredients

• 1.75 cups flour
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1.25 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 T Splenda for Baking (or 3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup egg substitute (I whisked 2 eggs in a small bowl and measured out 1/3 cup. 2 eggs generally measures 1/2 cup, so there isn't much waste here)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk (we are lactose intolerant, so I made faux buttermilk by adding 1 tsp lemon juice to 1 cup Silk soy milk, and letting it curdle for 5 minutes)
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen -- no need to thaw if frozen)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Blend dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.

3. Blend butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg slowly. Scrape sides and continue to mix until butter forms small lumps. Add vanilla and buttermilk. Mix well. Add dry ingredients in three batches. Mix well and scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition. DO NOT OVERMIX. When the dry ingredients are about 80% mixed into the butter/egg mixture, gently fold the blueberries into the batter. This will help prevent over mixing.

4. Scoop batter into muffin cups, filling cups to the top. I used an ice cream scoop to portion them out so they bake more evenly. Makes 12 muffins.