Back to Basics

I haven't posted in a while a year and a half.
What can I say? I was really really busy? I was thinking about other things? Those are both true, but still, it's been way (way, way) too long. I'm hoping to get back into the habit of posting recipes, and please forgive my long absence. And what better way to start than by going back to what this blog is all about: muffins!
These bran muffins are so good. Also, you can eat them for breakfast and not feel weird about it, because they're pretty wholesome, which is to say, not just cake in disguise.

Apple Bran Muffins
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, via food.com because I actually don't have an ATK membership.

2 1/4 cups All Bran twigs cereal (I might start buying it in bulk)
1 cup rasins + 1 Tbsp water
1 small-medium apple, peeled + chopped
1 3/4 cups AP flour (I ran out of whole wheat, but the recipe actually calls for 1 1/4 c AP + 1/2 c WW)
2 tsp baking soda (not powder!!)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2/3 cup apple sauce (unsweetened)
3 Tbsp molasses
1 swipe orange zest (does that make sense? Anyway, just a little.)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp coconut oil (or another 2 Tbsp canola oil)
1 Tbsp flax seed meal
2 Tbsp what germ
1 3/4 cups soy milk mixed with 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)
2/3 cup turbinado sugar (or brown sugar, or dehydrated can juice, or whatever dry sweetener you're into. I'm sure you could use agave, but don't ask me how much.)

1) Preheat your oven to 400 F, and grease one standard muffin pan with a little bit of spray oil.
2)In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the raisins and water, and microwave on high for about 40 seconds. You want the raisins to absorb some of the water and plump up. Don't skip this step! If you don't have a microwave, just pour a little bit of boiling water over the raisins, cover them, and let them sit for about 5 minutes.
3) Grind half of the bran cereal in the food processor until it reaches a sandy texture. You can then add it back in with the rest of the cereal.
4)In a large bowl, combine the sugar, molasses, and oils, and whisk until combined. Add in the apple sauce, extracts, zest, wheat germ, and flax meal, and beat for a minute or two. Add in the soy milk- vinegar mixture. Now stir in all of the cereal until moistened, and allow to sit for 15 minutes. You want to allow the bran cereal to absorb as much moisture as it can from the other ingredients.
5) Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the flour(s), baking soda, and salt. Whisk everything to combine really well, so that you won't end up with any really salty bites.
6) Once the 15 minutes are up, you can add your dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and stir until everything is moistened. Now fold in your raisins and apples.
7) Drop about 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup. You can really pile the muffins high and overfill the cups, as they don't spread very much in the oven.
8) Bake for about 16 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs (but no wet batter.)
9) Allow the muffins to cool before removing from the pan, because they're a little delicate when warm. I think you should allow them to cool before you eat them, but my husband says that's BS. Just don't blame me if you burn your mouth!

Cran-apple crumb muffins

I know I haven't posted an recipes in a while, so I thought I'd write up this muffin recipe even though I don't have any photos for you. Sorry! My camera is broken. The white whole wheat flour I use in this recipe is available at lots of places, but the cheapest place to get it seems to be Trader Joe's.

Note: I edited the original post to include an agave-sweetened variation at the end.

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup minus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cardammom
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar*
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
1 smallish apple, peeled and chopped into itsy bitsy pieces
1/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

crumb topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 sprinkle cinnamon
3 Tbsp margarine, melted

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Oil a 12-cup muffin pan, or line with paper liners.

2.Combine the flours, oats, spices, salt, and baking powder & soda in a medium bowl. Break up any lumps of soda/ baking powder with your fingers and whisk until it's evenly mixed.

3. In a large bowl, combine apple sauce, sugar, oil, and milk. Stir well. Add chopped apple.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir until just combined--a few lumps are ok! Add walnuts and cranberries. Let the batter rest for about 15 minutes.

5. While the batter is resting, make the crumb topping by mixing the flour, cinnamon  and brown sugar with your fingers, breaking up any stubborn brown sugar clumps. (You can use the bowl from the dry ingredients to save yourself some washing.) Drizzle in the melted margarine and work the mixture into coarse crumbs.

6. Scoop about 1/3 cup of batter into each muffin cup (they'll be pretty full; these are fairly tall muffins.) Sprinkle the muffins liberally with crumb mixture, because it's everyone's favorite part. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. You don't have to let them cool down all the way before you eat them, but please don't burn yourself because the apples and berries get hot!

*Agave Variation
Replace the sugar in the batter with 1/2 cup agave nectar, and reduce the soy milk to 1/4 cup. The agave makes this brown more quickly, so check these after 18 minutes. You can replace the crumb topping with a little sprinkle of cinnamon sugar, or just leave it out.

Blueberry Banana Muffins

Do you ever put a banana in your bag for later, and then forget about it until much later? And it's all mushy and weird?
And you kind of don't want it anymore?Well, today I found yesterday's banana and decided to make some muffins.



A note about this recipe: you might think it's a really bad idea to put vinegar in your muffins, but you are wrong! It helps to leaven them (with the baking soda) and it makes them tender and lovely.





dry ingredients:1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg1/8 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. cardamom

wet ingredients:
1 large mushy ripe banana
1/3 c. canola oil
1/2 c. soy milk + 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 small container plain or vanilla soy yogurt (6 oz., or 1/2 c. plus 2 Tbsp.)
1/4 c. water or additional soy milk
1/2 c. frozen or fresh blueberries
Glaze: 1/4 c. granulated sugar dissolved in 1/3 c. warm soy milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a muffin pan, and line with paper liners if you like. (They're optional here: these muffins are sturdy enough that you can bake them right in the pan if you want to.)
2. In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
3. In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork.
4.In a small bowl, pour the cider vinegar into the soy milk and stir. Set aside for five minutes until the milk has curdled. This will look really really weird and gross, but it will be fine, trust me. After five minutes, add this all the remaining wet ingredients to the banana
and mix thoroughly.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Do not overmix, or the muffins will be tough. It's ok to have a few small lumps, I promise!
It still won't look delicious, but have some patience!

6. Stir in the blueberries. If they are frozen, don't thaw them first, or it will turn your batter purple. Better to just let them thaw in the oven!
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan and bake for 18 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

8. Spoon glaze over the muffins while they're still warm in the muffin pan. Once they've cooled down a bit, you can leave them on a cooling rack or plate to cool the rest of the way.
Enjoy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Just kidding, really you should only enjoy them for breakfast and lunch.)

Citrus-stachio muffins

I love citrus, and I love pistachios, and I love citrus with pistachios. And this is supposed to be a blog about muffins, right? So lets make some muffins!

1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. oil
zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange (wash those lil' guys before zesting, please!)
juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange, plus enough soy- or other milk to add up to 1 1/3 cups
1/2 cup VERY finely chopped pistachios
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
optional: coarsely chopped pistachios and coarse sugar for decoration

1.Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and spray with oil to prevent any stickage.

2. In a medium bowl, combine orange juice, lemon juice, and milk. The milk will probably start to curdle; don't freak out, you didn't do anything wrong! Once it has thickened a little, whisk in the sugar, apple sauce, and oil.

3. In a large bowl, sift or whisk flours, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk in the grated zest and the finely chopped pistachios.

4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until combined. (I like to do this with a rubber spatula.) A few lumps in the batter are ok, so don't over-mix!

5. Scoop the batter into the lined muffin tins, and sprinkle the tops with coarsely chopped pistachios and coarse sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. If you can't wait to devour them, I understand but they're tastier after they've cooled down to room temperature.

Ok, lets talk muffins

Today was a hard day (is) because I couldn't find the spray bottle of oil, so my muffins are sticking to their liners a bit. At the same time, it was glorious, because they baked up sooo tall! Seriously, all my life I've dreamed about baking a batch of muffins with glorious tops as tall as these.
The recipe was from Kris Holechek's The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes, which is a fantastic book and if you're like me you'll read right through it like a romance novel cover to cover scanning for the scandalous (i.e. lime coconut bars and pumpkin-cinnamon swirl cheesecake.)
Online, she can be found here.

While we're on the subject of me telling you what blogs I like, the most important thing is that you go read my friend Julia's blog right now don't even finish reading this sentence!

Have a nice day!