Bran Muffins
This recipe is adapted from the muffin recipes in the book
Professional Cooking,
fifth edition by Wayne Gisslen.
These are not the greasy, sugary, sticky things you get at the local bakery, these are healthy and hearty and about half the calories, less fat and no cholesterol. I have made dozens of batches of these and played with the ingredients to get them as healthy and lean as possible and still have a great taste.
Dry ingredients:
16 oz Bran Flour
12 oz Pastry Flour
12 oz Bread Flour
2.5 oz Baking Powder
0.5 oz Salt
Wet ingredients:
4 oz Molasses
12 oz Egg substitute (no fat/cholesterol)
32 oz Soy Milk
12 oz Olive Oil
8 oz Brown sugar
4 oz Wheat Berries
Optional (added to the wet ingredients):
16-20oz of dried fruit, can be one or a mixture of the following:
- Raisins
- Craisins (dried cranberries)
- Diced Mangos (julienned)
- Cherries (chopped)
- Blueberries
Place the wheat berries in about 2 cups of water and boil for an hour. Add more water if necessary.
Mix and thoroughly blend dry ingredients in a bowl large enough to hold everything.
Mix and through blend wet ingredients in a 3-quart mixing bowl. I add the sugar into the wet ingredients. This allows it to thoroughly mix and not have little lumps in the muffins (you can add the sugar to the dry ingredients if you use white sugar).
I also put the fruit in the wet ingredients since the wetting action does not leave little pockets of flour in the raisins and the sliced fruits do not stick together so easily.
When the wheat berries are done, drain the water and let them cool. Add them to the dry ingredients mix them up thoroughly, pour in the freshly mixed wet ingredients and mix to an even consistency.
Fill greased muffin pans close to the top. As you can see from the picture on the left,
I use two sizes of pans and I get 12-3" and 24-2.5" muffins.
Pre-heat the oven to 350° F and cook the muffins for about 20 minutes. If using a
convection oven start
checking at 18 minutes. A tooth pick should be able to be pulled out with no dough
and the center of the muffin should be about 180° F.
The muffins keep and freeze well. Sealed in a plastic bag they will keep on the counter for two weeks. They will keep in a freezer for well over two months as long as they do not get freezer burnt.
The site www.nutritiondata.com is a wealth of information on foods. They provide the ability to add a recipe into their system and create a host of data about that recipe. Below is a copy of those results for this recipe.
This data was generated using 2 cups of raisins
The Good
This food is very low in Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a very good source of Manganese.
The Bad
None mentioned.
Click for larger image