Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Beautiful Bran

So, I've been having a craving lately...

Call me crazy, but I've really been craving bran muffins recently. And I figure since this is "Salsa Night" (as in to trade salsa recipes) maybe somebody here has a good bran muffin recipe. Tonight I tried a recipe that I found on the internet, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I mean, I did eat 1/4 of the pan in one sitting, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. So, anyone have a good recipe? The only thing I ask is that the recipe doesn't include beets (Erin, I'm looking in your direction).

Morgan


2 comments:

JennyW said...

I'm not a bran muffin expert, but here are two recipes from a site that I generally have good luck with (epicurious.com). These were the recipes with the highest rating--I have no idea if it has anything to do with the figs ... but a lot of the reviewers substituted things for the figs, like raisens or dates or other dried/frozen fruit. The consensus among the reviewers seemed to be to serve the first recipe with honey drizzled on top and to add a teaspoon of cinnamon or a bit of nutmeg to the second.

I, too, am waiting for Erin's recipe ... mmmm, Erin food ...

WHOLE WHEAT BRAN MUFFINS WITH FIGS AND PECANS

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (packed) diced dried Black Mission figs (about 6 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups reduced-fat (2%) buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 14 muffin cups with paper liners. Spray liners with nonstick spray. Whisk next 7 ingredients in bowl. Stir in figs and pecans. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl. Whisk in eggs, then buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon peel. Mix in dry ingredients. Divide batter among cups.
Bake muffins until browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Cool on rack.

Makes 14.
Bon Appétit
Every-Night Cooking
February 2005
__________________________________________________

HONEY BRAN MUFFINS WITH FIGS

A light texture and a sweet honey flavor make these bran muffins irresistible.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups toasted wheat bran (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup chopped dried figs
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 24 muffin cups with muffin papers. Stir flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl to blend. Combine bran and figs in another bowl; mix in 1 cup boiling water.
Beat butter in large bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in sugar, then honey. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in buttermilk alternately with flour mixture in 3 additions each. Mix in bran mixture. Divide batter among lined muffin cups.
Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Turn muffins out onto racks and cool completely.

Makes 24.
Bon Appétit
January 1998

Erin Teichert Barbuto said...

Very funny Morgan. I really don't remember the beet muffin episode...but while I was in Romania I was part of a committee** that perfected a muffin recipe which had everything good for you in it--in fact, when you eat these, they're so healthy that if it takes a half hour to eat them, it's the same as running for a half hour. No kidding. We called these muffins Presidinte Nastase muffines. Nastase (as close as I could figure) was running for president once again and there was a bilboard by our bloc with Nastase and a slogan that was the Romanian equivalent of "Vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true."

Presidinte Nastase Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup bran
1/3 cup sugar
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped apples
handfulls of anything else that sounds like it might be nice in there
1 t vanilla (to shake things up a little, try using maple or almond extract instead...in fact, no harm in using all of them)

Topping:
flour
sugar
cinnamon
salt
butter
oats
(some of each)

Mix ingredients. Put in greased and floured muffin tin. Sprinkle topping mixture generously on top. Bake at 300-350 until done (no gooey hole on top).



**I really wasn't supposed to tell about this committee--it was kind of a national secret, so if we could just keep it in our little circle of trust here, that'd be great.