Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Fruity Honey Bran Muffins - PPM 150 Compliant!

I have found lately that I have not been eating enough fiber, and as my friend Andrew would say, fiber is your friend.  I recall stumbling across this recipe when I was living up North, it is quite moist and has a nice fruit flavor from the addition of the banana, apple and raisins.

The thing I love about making muffins and quick breads is the fact that they are extremely fast to make.  I looked up the recipe at about 12:00 and I took them out of the oven at 12:55.  Another thing that I love about these is that the cleanup is easy.  I think I used 2 bowls and a few tools, so it's nice and easy to clean up!

Soooo, lets get started!

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups bran cereal ( I have used all Bran Flakes and All Bran Original)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 apple, shredded or chopped
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 1/2 cup honey



Directions

Okay, before we get started I want to point something out. This is one of those things that I never thought about too much in the past, but I came to this realization not long ago.  You see how we have Baking Soda in the recipe?  Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) is something we use as a rising agent in baking, but is also a base (alkaline). In order for the baking soda to become activated and do it's thing, it has to come in contact with an acid.  In this case, it is the apple.  The juices from the apple are acidic and react with the baking soda to produce Carbon Dioxide (don't worry, bakeries aren't destroying the ozone through muffins) which causes your product to rise.  If you DON'T have an acid in your recipe, you are going to use baking powder instead.  Baking Powder is a combination of baking soda and an acid salt, sometimes cream of tartar. So if you ever decide to eliminate something from your recipe, you may have to think about how it affects the overall balance.

Anywho, now that that's outta the way...Set your oven to 400F!

1. Pour the Milk into a large measuring bowl, and stir in the egg.  Add the 1.5 cups of Bran Cereal and let it soak in the milk until it is nice and moist.

2. In a Big bowl, add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon.  Mix them together with a whisk to make sure that the ingredients are well mixed.  The last think you want is a chunk of baking soda :p

3. Here is a trick I learned while working in Chinese food.  In a half cup measuring cup, add your 2 tbsp of oil. Swirl the oil around the edge to coat the whole cup.  Add the oil to the Big bowl, but leave a little in the cup.  Now measure out your half cup of honey and add it to the big bowl.  This makes it much easier to get the honey out of the measuring cup! 

4. Add the banana, apple and raisins to the Big bowl along with the milk/egg/cereal mixture.  Mix everything together and make sure ALL of the flour is mixed in.



5. You are going to need 1 muffin tin.  If you are using paper cups, you can add the batter in no problem.  If you are not using cups, use spray oil such as PAM to coat each cup, and then sprinkle with flour.  Scoop out the batter and spread it evenly among 12 muffins cups.








6. Bake the muffins at 400F for 15-20 minutes.

7.  Cool and enjoy!



Nutritional Information:





As usual, leave your questions, concerns of suggestions in the comment section below ↓


No comments:

Post a Comment