Recipe of the Week: Lemony Chia Seed Muffins

1 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 tablespoons chia seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup honey
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and spray muffin tins with non-stick spray.

Combine the flour, chia seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and lemon zest in a large bowl.

In a separate large bowl, combine the oil and honey. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in the milk, lemon juice, vinegar, and lemon extract.

Pour into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Pour into the prepared muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

Notes:

• If you don’t have bread crumbs, use whole wheat flour. I’m making bread crumbs with my food processor rather than throwing stale bread away these days so I always have a container of bread crumbs in the refrigerator. Replacing 1/3 the flour with bread crumbs makes for a slightly chewy muffin.
• The chia seeds will almost totally dissolve as the muffins cook. I had originally thought these would have the look of lemon poppy seed muffins but they don’t. They are very moist with the extra oil from the chia seeds. I enjoyed these muffins without butter or cream cheese. Next time I make them I'll probably reduce the olive oil to 1/4 cup.
• I made my own lemon zest by cutting off the skin of lemon is was going to use for the juice and processing it into small bits in the food processor (see blog on making orange zest).
• I used a fancy form pan to make mini-muffins. They were about two bites each.