Apple and Oat Bran Muffins

APPLE AND OAT BRAN MUFFINS

As I start off 2015, I promised myself that one of my new year's resolutions would be to eat healthier. And I'm sure this is a similar goal for a lot of people around the world. Of course this is easier said than done, am I right? Let's face it, in today's world we are surround by delicious foods that aren't too good for our health. They may be tasty, I'll give you that. So what I search for are tasty recipes that are both delicious and good for my health.

As many people would say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, as a student I find it very difficult to eat something at 6 am in the morning. So what I usually do is wrap my hot breakfast up and have it later. But this also poses a struggle for me. By the time I come around and want to eat my breakfast, it's cold! To conquer this task, I've researched multiple muffin recipes I can take with me instead. This particular muffin recipe I found in New Dieter's Cook Book.

I'll tell you, I'm a sucker for apple products. I think baked apples are absolutely scrumptious. When I found this apple and oat bran muffin recipe, I just had to try it. It contains bran, a good source of fiber I need in my daily routine; thus it fulfills my desire for healthier eating in 2015. Now I did add a few spices from the original recipe, but that's because I love playing with different spices. And instead of buttermilk in the original recipe, I used skim milk. So here we go:


Ingredients

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat bran
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon  ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon all-spice
1/8 teaspoon pumpkin spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup skim milk
2 egg whites
*2 tablespoons cooking oil
3/4 cup shredded, peeled apple

*If you don't want to use cooking oil, you can substitute the oil for applesauce. Just be aware that baking with applesauce as a substitute reduces the baking time by about 3-5 minutes.


Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degree.

2. Peel apple, and then using a grater shred the apple. Afterwards, set the shredded apple aside in the bowl for later.

3. Together in a bowl, mix together flour, oat bran, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and all the spices.

4. Then in a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: milk, egg whites, and cooking oil.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. After just combined, take the shredded apple you put aside and fold it into the batter.

6. Spray muffin tins with nonstick coating spray, or put cupcake liners in the tin. Then spoon 1/4 cup of the batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

 

For me, when I prepare to bake I like to get everything out and organized so I don't have to frantically search for the next ingredients if I'm on a time line. Following the direction, I added the dry ingredients to a bigger bowl and stirred them together. For the wet ingredients, I just added them to the measuring cup so I wouldn't dirty another bowl.  

 

 

I slowly added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in a gradual manner. And then folded the apple shreds in.

 

 

I'm the kind of person that hates cleaning the pans after baking, to avoid this mess I added paper liners so the muffins will come out clean.

 

 

As you can see, the muffins do rise quite a bit. When they are risen like this and you can cleanly pull out a toothpick from the muffins, you know the muffins are done. Take them out of the oven, and let them rest for 7 minutes or so. And then ENJOY!

 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. If you have any comments you want to leave, or suggestions to improve this recipe, please tell me. I hope you have a great rest of your week. Until next time guys!



- Tina

Out of the Pot, and into the Fire

Too often, people assume baking only produces the pastries, the cakes, and the cookies: basically everything sweet. Maybe they are too naïve to understand what baking truly entails, or maybe people just have a sweet tooth and want to associate baking with that. But whether it be either options, or any variation in between, I'm here to tell you baking is about all the culinary experiences, not just the sweets.

I will admit, it took me awhile to get the full jests of baking. A former sweet tooth myself, I used to solely make and bake fancy cookies and cakes. But after a few professional cooking classes and multiple baking attempts, my mind opened up to the wonderful possibilities and opportunities baking ensues. I found out I can use pots and pans for baking purposes, I can use Dutch ovens, the broiler, roasting racks, and various other cooking utensils I never would have thought to use for baking. Bread, soufflés, pies, chicken, roasted vegetables, casseroles are only some of these dishes I can now make with my new cooking tools. But never fear, sweets are still on my list of favorites to bake and will post numerous sweet segments on my blog.  

As this is my first post, I want to generally describe to you how my blog will work. Each week, I will be posting one to two blogs about a certain recipe I will have tried out. It will be a step by step post, with plenty of pictures to go along with the recipe. Some of my posts may include a little excerpt about where and how I first stumbled upon that certain recipe. And some of my posts will not be so much about the certain recipe, but about some baking utensils and advice that I've accumulated while working with utensils paired with that recipe.

Depending on the month, there may be a common theme among the posts due to a holiday or celebration coming up. For example, March will have a Spring theme; October will have a Halloween or Fall theme; and December will have a winter wonderland theme for the holiday season. All the recipes I will post will have general ingredients you can buy at the supermarket easily, and are in season ingredients. Maybe once in a while I will throw in some specialty recipes like some Gluten-Free recipes, but other than that ingredients I use can be easily found.

If any of you have any suggestions or questions about my recipes, please comment and ask. I will try to answer any questions you guys have. And please, share other recipes or spin-off recipes with me. I love trying out anything new and giving my friends something new to try. Until next time guys!


Tina