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I go into more detail about all of this on the OG of my muffins — the “Better” Blueberry Muffin recipe — but it bears repeating here: foods are neither intrinsically “good” nor “bad” — it’s all about context. That’s why I label all of my muffins as “better” muffins. These recipes are the results of taking a typical muffin recipe, swapping out a number of ingredients with some slightly “better” ones, and those small changes add up to a healthier option.

A typical raspberry white chocolate chip muffin can run anywhere from 400-500 calories, with 20 grams of fat, up to 50-60 grams of simple, fast-burning carbs (from all the added sugar and bleached flour), and very little protein. My “better” version comes in at 104 calories, 2.5 gram of fat, six grams of protein, 15 complex (slow-burning) carbs, and just seven grams of sugar. How is this accomplished? By replacing the all-purpose flour with a combination of oats, whole wheat flour and pea protein. Replacing the granulated sugar with maple syrup, and replacing the oil and butter with non-fat Greek yogurt and no-sugar added applesauce.

Would I call it a “healthy” muffin or classify it as a “good” food? No. There’s really no such thing. I hope you enjoy the taste and the texture, and that it is hunger-satisfying thanks to the protein. So in that regard, if you’re choosing between a regular raspberry white chocolate chip muffin and this version, hopefully you’ll agree that this one is, well… “better”… and give it a try!

Ingredients (Yields 19 muffins)

• 1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 scoops Naked Pea protein powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp tsp salt
• 6 tbsp mini white chocolate chips
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tsp raspberry extract
• 1/3 cup no-sugar added applesauce
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Equipment Check

Despite the relatively long list of ingredients, this is a simple and quick recipe to make. Before you start, you’ll want a pair of muffin pans (12 muffin capacity), a large mixing bowl and a medium mixing bowl. It would also be quite useful to have a whisk on hand, as well as a mixing spoon. That’s really it!

Start with the Dry Ingredients

To begin with, in your large mixing bowl, combine the oats, the whole wheat flour, the pea protein, salt, baking powder and soda. Mix until well combined.

Toss the raspberries and mini chips into the dry mix until they (primarily the raspberries) get a light coating of dry ingredients on them. This is prevent them all from sinking to the bottom of your muffins when baking. Once done, set the large bowl aside. You don’t have to attempted to chop the raspberries up, nor concern yourself with keeping them whole. Just make sure they get fully coated.

Next Up – Wet Ingredients

In your second bowl, combine the wet ingredients. First, whisk the two eggs until beaten. Next, whisk in the Greek yogurt until smooth. Then add the remaining wet ingredients – the almond milk, the raspberry extract, the applesauce and the maple syrup and whisk together until the entire mixture is smooth. It should have the appearance of a pancake batter. If you don’t have raspberry extract on hand, vanilla works fine. But a raspberry extract gives it an extra kick.

Batter Up!

Next, pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently stir together until completely combined. Make sure to get all the way to the bottom of the bowl so that there are no pockets of dry ingredients remaining. The batter should be sticky and loose but not runny if properly combined. If it feels too dry, add an additional splash of almond milk.

Let’s Bake!

You’ll want to cook in one (or two if you prefer) ovens preheated to 375 degrees. So get your ovens going before you start on the batter. As for preparing your muffin tins I’ve gone about this both ways. The first few times I made these, I used paper muffin cups. They’re obviously easier for clean up, but the downside is I found that occasionally the muffin would stick to the paper when trying to take it out. I finally decided to, instead, simply coat my muffin tins with cooking spray (using a paper towel to make sure it was evenly applied) at it worked quiet well.

One final note on this topic. In terms of order of operations, once I have my dry and wet ingredients prepared, that is the point at which I normally prep my pans. Once they are ready, then I combine wet and dry and proceed to baking. I don’t like to let the batter sit any longer than I have to before getting it in the oven.

Every time I’ve baked these I’ve ended up with 19 muffins. You easily could make each of the first 18 muffins a bit larger to get to a nice even number… but I like having that extra “tester” muffin that I can immediately tear into to check for taste and texture without breaking up the complete set. But that’s just how my brain works.

Timing-wise, the muffins tend to take around 13-15 minutes to cook. I normally rotate the pans after about 10 minutes, and start testing them around 12 minutes. When a cake tester comes out clean in the middle of the muffins, I pull them out.

Let the muffins rest for a minute or so that they will pull away from the tins, and then pop them out and let them cool. I tend to refrigerate my muffins (to extend their life a few more days) especially with fresh fruit in these.