Ahh...bran muffins.
The “brussel sprout” of the muffin variety. On a normal day if someone gives
you the choice between a blueberry, banana chocolate, or bran muffin you would
definitely go for the former two before you settle with the latter.
Well be prepared to
GET FLOORED! (No, I'm not a floor-tile salesman, sorry.) These delicious
muffins are jam packed with nutrition and taste just like Heaven dropped a bit
of gold-brick-road dust into your mouth. Just make a huge batch of these, try
to not eat 4 or 5 of these immediately out of the oven, and stick them in the
freezer for an amazing heat-and-go breakfast muffin!
I originally found
the recipe here but tweaked it up a bit to get more
tastiness in each bite. Yes, there are vegetables in this muffin but trust
me...you are going to love my muffin. The first time I put these together I
made 3 batches for a freezer meal party since we had 3 families we were making
these for. Everyone was upset when their batch of bran muffins ran out! I don't
gloat over food I made but these are dang tasty and I NEED to share these with
you.
Jane's Breakfast Bran
Muffins
Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup flaxseed meal
- ¾ cup oat bran
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup Splenda (or regular sugar, if you prefer)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾ cup grated or finely chopped carrots (about 1 good-sized carrot)
- ¾ cup grated or finely chopped zucchini (about 1 good-sized zucchini, without the seed innards)
- 2 whole apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- 1/8 cup raisins
- 1/8 cup dried cranberries
- ¾ cups nuts (I used chopped walnuts)
- ¼ cup agave nectar
- ½ cup milk
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, flaxseed, oat bran, brown sugar, Splenda (or regular sugar), baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Use a wire whisk to mix until brown sugar clumps are smoothed out.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, flaxseed, oat bran, brown sugar, Splenda (or regular sugar), baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Use a wire whisk to mix until brown sugar clumps are smoothed out.
Mix in carrots,
zucchini, and apples. (Note: A julienne peeler or a spiralizer works great for
the carrots and zucchini. Just chop up the sliced pieces so they’re about ¼ to ½
inches long.)
Mix in raisins,
cranberries and nuts.
In a small bowl, mix
remaining ingredients together – agave nectar, milk, eggs and vanilla – and then
pour everything in the large bowl and mix well. Honestly, you can get away with
not mixing the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl but for those of you who like
to, you have the option either way.
Grease or line 24
muffin cups. (Since these muffins don't have any oil in them, I highly suggest not going with the liners and greasing the muffin tins. These stick to the paper liners pretty good.) Since these don’t really rise it's okay if it looks like there is too much in one cup. This recipe splits pretty evenly into 24 cups.
Bake 15-20 minutes at
350 F.
Store in the
refrigerator, OR…
If you are freezing,
let them cool completely. Use a gallon-sized freezer bag and fill so the
muffins are sitting flat, or stick them all on a baking sheet and cover them.
Freeze them flat for a few hours and then you can break them up and stick them
in a more convenient freezer place. If you’re like me, you have a tiny freezer
so giving one item so much space is not ideal. The bags work great for me but
do what you have room for!
