Earlier this summer, Phee had two weeks of camp at the new school she will be attending this fall. At this school, she has to pack her lunch and snacks. That's quite a big change for us as she gets a hot lunch at her current daycare. She only took lunch at daycare when she started eating solid food and I was making her baby food.
So, faced with packing two snacks and a lunch every day, I decided some treats were in order. Phee and I love blueberry muffins. And we both need healthy snacks. I did a quick search and found this fantastic low fat blueberry bran muffin on Allrecipes (my favorite recipe site!).
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup wheat bran
- 1 cup nonfat milk
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup blueberries
- Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin cups or use paper muffin liners. Mix together wheat bran and milk, and let stand for 10 minutes. (It looks like damp sawdust at this point)
- In a large bowl, mix together applesauce, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat in bran mixture. Sift together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into bran mixture until just blended. Fold in blueberries. Scoop into muffin cups.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly tapped.
This is a pretty straightforward recipe. I didn't change any of the ingredients except for adding double the vanilla. And I didn't pack the brown sugar, I just did a loose 2/3 cup.
These muffins are quite moist. I used paper liners and they stuck to the muffins the first couple days. Next time, I'll either spray the liners or skip them altogether and just spray the muffin cups really well.
I suggest storing these in the refrigerator if you aren't going to finish off the batch in a couple days. Or, freeze them. I made them on Sunday afternoon and by Thursday evening, I had to throw the last four out because they started to get moldy. I'm all for moist muffins, but I'd rather eat them than toss them!
These were delicious as blueberry muffins. I can't wait to try them with some raspberries or blackberries. I really think the raspberry would be delicious. The basic bran muffin is quite serviceable and would likely be good with raisins, too, and a touch of cinnamon. Looks like I've got a good recipe to play with.
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