(and Egg Accidents)
I ate the last of the banana muffins for breakfast today. And I need breakfast tomorrow. Bran muffins it is.
This recipe isn’t even on Pinterest, because it’s on the back of the Quaker Oat Bran box…at least that’s where it starts.
But that’s just the foundation. It gets a lot more interesting when you add some of these:
I’ve never tried using espresso powder in a bran muffin before, but why not? The muffins are very bland otherwise. I know that because I once tried making them while simultaneously watching Midnight In Paris and answering a bunch of emails, and I forgot to put in any of the spices. The muffins were completely devoid of spice and character, much like Carson Daly.
But I love these bran muffins when they’re done right.
I mixed the dry ingredients mentioned on the box (just 1/4 cup of brown sugar across 12 muffins, but still so good!), and then improvised a little, throwing in cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger, and some espresso powder.
They got whisked together, and then I grabbed a separate bowl for the wet ingredients. The recipe includes two egg whites, slightly beaten, and I thought it made sense to do those first, so I wouldn’t have to wash yet another bowl afterwards. I have this perfect little egg separator that makes it very easy to separate the yolks, it’s a miraculous little $2 piece of plastic.
The separating is easy. I cracked the first egg and the white slid into the bowl. But I was preoccupied, so instead of carefully carrying the separator with the yolk in it to the sink, I just sort of swung my arm around without thinking about what I was holding. That explains this:
Yeah.
Just…yeah.
I moved the bowl next to the sink for the second one. Wish I’d thought of that one egg earlier.
I cleaned myself up, and added the rest of the wet ingredients. I also used my mother’s tip: spray the cup with cooking spray before measuring the molasses. Adding the two tablespoons of canola oil at the end made it all look sort of gross:
But once I whisked it all together, it took on the proper color.
And then I put both mixtures together, and folded more than anything else, just enough to make sure everything was incorporated.
I know, it does look a little barfy. But it smelled good, a mix of molasses and spice. The texture is just gloppy at this point, so filling the muffin cups is mostly about pouring, and trying not to spill it all over the tray.
The recipe says to preheat the oven to 450, but I pre-heated to 475, put the muffins in, and then reduced the temperature to 450. Baked for 15 minutes, and they were done. I ate one tonight just to make sure the espresso powder wasn’t too weird, and it wasn’t. Delicious! I’m thinking I’d like to try swapping out the oil for yogurt, or some portion of it (small as it is). But I love these muffins as they are, and they’re very healthy, and wholesome, and reassuring in their bran muffin-y way. They taste good, they’re low fat, only three Weight Watchers points plus, and they’re full of oat bran and spicy goodness. It’s a great, quick recipe that always comes through. It’s nice to have something you can rely on in this unpredictable world, even if it comes with egg yolk on your sock.
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