Spelt Flour Blueberry Muffins are made with spelt, an ancient grain with a flavor often described as "nutty. A decade ago I was seeing spelt in a lot of recipes where it was touted as a more digestive-friendly substitute for wheat flour. But spelt is not gluten-free, so I'm wondering if it took a backseat to the more modern gluten-free rice flour blends? In any case, it's a fun flour to bake with and has an interesting flavor.
Spelt Tastes Good
Spelt tastes good. Nutty is one descriptor, but what kind of nuts? Hazelnuts? To me it tastes more like whole wheat but with less bitterness. In any case, it goes really well with blueberries and lemon. One bite of these muffins and you'll agree they are flavors that are meant to be together.
Spelt Flour Blueberry Muffins
This recipe is adapted from the book Mother Grains and makes 8 standard size muffins. I tried to fit all of the batter into 6 slightly larger silicone muffin cups, but should have followed the directions and gone with 8 because the batter rises outward rather than up. The result of overfilling was big flat rims. Another reason not to overfill is that spelt produces a very tender crumbs, so the muffins aren't super sturdy. You'll want to use muffin papers or really grease the muffin tin well. That being said, the muffins were excellent and I can't wait to make them again.
Where to Buy Spelt Flour
Unfortunately most mainstream grocery stores don't sell spelt flour. If you'd like to try it, you can order it or seek it out at a local health food store. Bob's Red Mill makes a good spelt flour, but there are a lot of different brands out there.
Update: July 2024
I'm still making these! I tried reducing the dark brown sugar just slightly to ½ cup rather than ⅔ cup and the muffins were just as good -- probably because I also doubled the blueberries using 1 cup rather than ½ cup. Unfortunately all I'm using my spelt flour for is blueberry muffins. I need to get more creative with it, but every time I eat something with spelt I feel like I'm back in a coffee shop in 2010 eating the vegan baked good du jour.
Recipe
Blueberry Spelt Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups spelt flour (195 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar (135 grams)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ⅓ cup buttermilk or homemade buttermilk made with lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest, not packed
- 1 cup blueberries, can be fresh or frozen (you can use less)
Topping:
- 3 tablespoons spelt flour
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoons dark brown sugar
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons slightly soft butter, chopped into ½ inch pieces (28 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 8 to 10 cavities of a standard muffin pan.
- Stir the spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl.
- Make a well in the center and add the brown sugar, oil, egg, buttermilk and lemon zest. Mix the ingredients together in the well, then stir everything together to make a batter. Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Divide the mixture among the prepared muffin cups.
- In a bowl ( use the same bowl I used for the batter) mix together the 3 tablespoons of spelt flour with both sugars and cinnamon. Add the pieces of butter and mash it into the flour mixture with a heavy duty scraper to make a crumbly streusel topping. Sprinkle this over the muffins.
- Bake the muffins for 24 to 27 minutes or until set and golden brown all over top. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove from pan and let cool completely.
Sue says
I’ve never used spelt flour. The muffins look great! Next time I’m at our local food coop I’ll see if they have it.