Blueberry Oat-Bran Muffins

Total Time: 40 minutes    Bake time:  22-28 minutes   Preheat Oven to:  350 F

12 disposable muffin cups (or cooking spray)
1 cup non-dairy milk
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup oat bran
1 1/8 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tbsp molasses*
2 Tbsp maple syrup**
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)



-Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan either with cooking spray or by lining it with disposable muffin cups.
-In a small bowl, combine the milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside to let curdle.
-In a medium bowl, mix the oat bran, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
-Add oil, applesauce, molasses, maple and vanilla to the WET ingredients.
-Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.  Mix together so that the dry ingredients are moistened.  Do not over-stir because this will make for tough, chewy muffins.
-Fold in the blueberries.
-Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins so that they're almost full. Make sure all of the cups have even batter.  If you have extra cups, put a small amount of water in them so that the empty metal cups won't become a hotspot for heat that would have otherwise gone towards baking your muffins.
-Bake in the oven for 22-28 minutes.  With frozen berries, I baked mine for 26 minutes.  Four minutes before I took them out, though, I switched them to the top rack of my oven to give them crusty tops.
-Let the muffins cool in their tray for ten minutes before attempting to remove them.

 *Tips and Tricks*

*I used black strap molasses because I love the strong flavour but if you're not a fan, you can use light molasses or stuff labeled for baking.

**Instead of using maple syrup which is quite price, you can use maple syrup extract which is essentially more concentrated than regular syrup.  In this case you can use about one tablespoon of the extract rather than two of the real stuff with the same flavour benefits.