I sort of had one of those days.
I needed to make bran muffins, but I actually felt like experimenting with making a whole new recipe today, something that I’ve been a little timid about doing with baking because of the balanced chemistry.
But my four year old son has been “organizing” my pantry. Which is to say, I really can’t find anything at all. I couldn’t find my coconut palm sugar, or my brown sugar, or my raisins, and I realized too late that my husband absconded with the last banana. Suddenly it changed from experimenting with what I could make to make a delicious high fiber bran muffin to what can I find to finish this recipe??
My well-intentioned attempt to start playing in the kitchen with healthy stuff turned a little… decadent. Especially after I asked my son what I should put in them, and he rooted through the drawer to find the chocolate chips. In case you haven’t figured out already, I live in a house with two chocolate fiends.
In spite of the comedy of errors, it did turn out tasty!
I even calculated the approximate nutritional info for you. I felt kind of bad about a 200 calorie bran muffin, but only until I saw the caloric content of most of the fast-food and coffee house chocolate chip muffins. According to the calculator I used, one muffin supposedly has got about 18% of your daily recommended Iron. Who knew? Talk about eating your wheaties.
- 1 1/2 cups wheat bran
- 1 cup soy milk (or regular)
- 1/3 cup light olive oil
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup golden sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 2 tbsp cold-milled flax seed
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
Soak wheat bran in milk for 10 minutes.
Mix together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla; stir into the wheat bran.
Mix all the dry ingredients together, stir into the wheat bran until just mixed. Fold in the chocolate chips, and spoon into twelve (12) paper-cup lined muffin tins. The paper cups will be about 90% full.
Bake at 375F for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until your test toothpick comes out clean.
Approximate nutritional info, per muffin: 208 calories; 8.5 g fat (1.2g saturated, .6g polyunsaturated, 3.8g monounsaturated); 18mg cholesterol, 348mg sodium, 73mg potassium, 28.8g carbohydrates (5g fiber, 15g sugar); 4.1g protein