Green Tea Muffins with Blueberries and Pomegranates

These Green Tea Muffins are soft and not overly sweet. They’re flavored with matcha green tea with blueberries and pomegranates mixed in. They’re a fun treat to make for breakfast, brunch, or snacks.

One of the food blogs I follow regularly is Serious Eats. One of their weekly columns is Weekend Cook and Tell, which challenges readers to take on a cooking project over the weekend. This weekend’s challenge was to cook using superfoods.

When I think of superfoods, the ones that pop into my mind immediately are matcha powder, blueberries, pomegranates, raspberries, blackberries, and goji berries. I’ve baked quite a bit with some of these ingredients, especially matcha. But most of my recipes aren’t very “healthy” since there is so much sugar and butter.

Looking through my recipes, there’s only a handful that I would feel comfortable categorizing as a healthy superfood recipe: matcha latte and mini green tea yogurt cakes.

Reading the Weekend Challenge made me want to create a healthy recipe that incorporates some superfoods. I decided to try making green tea muffins with blueberries and pomegranates. Three doses of superfoods!

Also, I wanted to make the muffin recipe as healthy as possible. Muffins are supposed to be healthier than other baked goods and are often eaten for breakfast. While I love muffins, I feel that most muffins offered these days are basically the same as cakes since the sugar content is so high. A lot of recipes even interchange the words “muffins” and “cupcakes.”

Getting back to basics, I chose to find a muffin base that didn’t have much sugar or butter. I probably could have made it even healthier by using whole wheat flour instead of regular flour, but it’s something I haven’t baked with before, so I didn’t want to experiment with it now.

I found this green tea muffin batter with almost no sugar and very little butter from Fresh from the Oven. I used this as my base, with some modifications. For instance, I upped the amount of green tea. And I added blueberries and pomegranate seeds.

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Granulated sugar
• Large egg
• Milk
• Melted butter
• Matcha powder
• Blueberries
• Pomegranate seeds

Granulated sugar: To keep these less sweet, I only add two tablespoons of sugar. If you prefer sweeter muffins, you can increase this amount.

Milk: To keep these lighter, I use fat-free milk but any kind of milk will work, including dairy-free milk.

Matcha powder: I always use ceremonial grade matcha green tea powder for baking. The color is vibrant and doesn’t fade when you bake the muffins. You can learn more about this in my post about how to bake with matcha powder.

Blueberries: I prefer fresh blueberries for this recipe, but you can use frozen blueberries if you prefer.

Recipe Steps

Line the muffin pan with muffin liners and preheat the oven to 375°F.

Whisk the flour, matcha powder, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Add the egg, milk, and melted butter to the dry ingredients. Mix just until the flour mixture is absorbed, and then fold in the blueberries and pomegranates.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Fill each muffin mold about 2/3 full.

Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, and then let them cool for a few minutes in the pan before serving.

Store leftover matcha muffins in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep for a few days. Or you can freeze them for a couple of months.

Recipe Notes

I loved how my muffins came out. They were soft and moist. And while the batter wasn’t sweet, I still liked it. It reminded me of biscuits, bread, or corn muffins. And because the batter isn’t sweet, the fruit came out really sweet. Usually, when I bake with blueberries and pomegranates, they taste sour because of all the sugar in the dough.

I loved the colors too. The dark blue blueberries looked so pretty with the pale green matcha batter. These muffins were so easy to whip up. And I felt like I was eating something fairly healthy.

I fed these to Boyfriend with the warning that these were supposed to be healthy muffins and wouldn’t be very sweet. He did not like them at all. So, it’s not for everyone. He does, however, love my green tea yogurt cakes, which I think are fairly healthy with the use of yogurt and green tea.

More Healthy Recipes

• Healthy Oat Bread
• Healthy No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
• 3 Ingredient Healthy Brownies
• Healthy Fudge Recipe

Green Tea Muffins with Blueberries and Pomegranates

Servings: 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

These muffins are light on the sugar and butter and get their sweetness from fresh blueberries and pomegranate seeds. They’re also flavored with match green tea which gives the muffins their pretty green color.

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Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar If you want sweeter muffins, you can increase the sugar amount
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1 cup fat free milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp matcha powder
• 2/3 cup blueberries
• 2/3 cup pomegranate seeds

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line muffin pans. Mix the flour, matcha powder, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
• Add the egg, milk, and butter, stirring only enough to dampen the flour; the batter should not be smooth. Fold in the blueberries and pomegranates.
• Spoon into the muffin pans, filling each cup about two-thirds full. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes each or until the cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffin, Calories: 148kcal, Carbohydrates: 22g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 146mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 5g, NET CARBS: 21

The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.

Did you make this recipe?I'd love to see it! Mention @KirbieCravings and tag #kirbiecravings!