Cakey gingerbread muffins for breakfast? Yes!
All morning I was hemming and hawing about what to bake, and I had it narrowed down to four things:
1. Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread
2. Spiced Carrot Muffins
3. Chai Tea Muffins with Ginger
4. Orange Wheat Germ Muffins
I really was sure it was going to be one of those, and then suddenly I was standing in the kitchen looking at a gingerbread muffins recipe. How it happened, I don’t know exactly. I’m glad it did, though, because they are cakey and delicious and I feel happier when I bite into them than I did the moment before.
I made very few changes to this one, but started as always with the flour. Instead of all purpose, I used a combination of whole wheat white and wheat germ. I added baking soda, salt, cinnamon — 2 teaspoons instead of a paltry 3/4 — and ginger.
Separately, I mixed the rest of the ingredients: molasses, brown sugar, and 1% milk.
Finally, instead of adding applesauce, I threw in yogurt, and then whisked it all together thoroughly.
I poured the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture.
Splat!
I folded in the dry ingredients, just until the last traces of flour disappeared completely, then scooped the batter into muffin cups.
They were done in 15 minutes. The kitchen smelled like Christmas, without the shopping anxiety.
I confess it was then that I started feeling like this whole process was familiar. Not muffin-making, which of course is extremely familiar, but these particular muffins didn’t seem terribly new to me. So I had another look at the blog I found them on, and realized that that blogger had adapted them from someone else, and I’d made them myself just over a year ago. But I made some more changes this time, and got them to an even healthier place, and there had been some sugar confusion the last time, which I cleared up. There is breathing room in the world of healthy gingerbread muffins, it turns out. Phew.
And most important, they’re delicious. Fluffy, cakey, sweet, and spicy.
Also I did pick out the ideal muffin cups for these, don’t you think?
HEALTHY GINGERBREAD MUFFINS RECIPE (original)
My version of Healthy Gingerbread Muffins (adapted from Southern In-Law)
ingredients:
1 1/3 cups whole wheat white flour
2/3 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
1/3 cup cane sugar
1/4 cup molasses
directions:
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease or spray a 12-cup muffin tin, or line with muffin cups.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
In a second bowl, combine the milk, sugar, molasses, and yogurt. Stir well.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. It may take more vigor than your average muffin batter, as it gets a bit thick and sticky.
Using a large spoon, glop the batter into the muffin cups, distributing as evenly as possible.
Put the tray into the oven, and reduce the temperature to 350. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (Mine took 15.)
Give them five minutes in the pan, then move to a wire rack. Let cool, and enjoy. Don’t tell people they’re healthy until after they eat them! They’ll have no idea. They taste like cake. (If they’re still around after a few days, warm them up before eating them for extra deliciousness.)
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