Quality ingredients make muffins healthy, but not lowfat
I once worked in a newsroom where we were treated to pastries and doughnuts whenever we met a really grueling deadline. The publisher traveled across the city to grab doughnuts that had just come from the deep fryer, and we broke out the advertising department’s much newer and cleaner coffee pot to make an improved version of the sludge that passed as newsroom coffee. As my co-workers dropped powdered sugar on their shirt fronts and wiped off the jelly spurting from fat jelly doughnuts, I virtuously nibbled on a whole-grain muffin, trying, as someone who writes about food and health, to set a good example for all.
The trouble is, I was wrong. The cranberry-orange muffin I felt so smug about had 480 calories, many of them from fat, while the chocolate glazed doughnuts the reporters loved were a mere 290 calories, with less fat. True, I was a little ahead in the vitamin and fiber department, but not by much.
As shocking as this news was to me, I was able to put it to good use when my already painfully skinny children went through amazing growth spurts at the same time they decided to become cross-country runners for their high school teams. Their legs in their nylon shorts reminded me of the python who swallowed a pig, their knees appearing even larger because their legs were so thin. It was a matter of great concern to me that they chronically overslept, forgetting breakfast and running directly from their beds to the bus stop or into the disreputable looking cars of fellow students old enough to drive.
That’s when I invested in a couple of jumbo muffin pans and set about trying to cram every bit of cereal, whole grains, nuts and fruits into the six giant muffins I made every morning for Jesse and Grace to grab as they ran out the door. It was fun because, unlike cooking for adults, calories were no problem. Extra honey and butter, oatmeal, eggs, vegetable oil, coconut, walnuts, fruit, jam, even chocolate went into those muffins, and by night time all of them were gone, which was good because most adults have no business eating anything that delivers 600 calories in a few bites. I felt good knowing I’d at least made an honest attempt at filling the amazing calorie demands of anyone who runs eight miles a day and grows an inch every month.
When the kids were grown and gone, I experimented with making lower-calorie muffins, removing fat, replacing butter with healthier fat, adding berries and using artificial sweetener. Low-fat muffins are just not the same: the outside gets crusty and the inside tastes dry. For years, I tried to avoid them, but they remained my favorite breakfast.
Recently, I talked to my sister and we both agreed that muffins seem to keep us full until lunch, something not true of dry cereal with milk. Barb pointed out that it was the fat itself – along with the fiber and protein from whole grains and nuts – that make muffins slower to digest, something I certainly should have realized. These days, I just make smaller muffins, try to make them as healthy as possible, and just enjoy them as perfect little packages of fiber, grain, and fruit, a breakfast to look forward to rather than simply endure.
Barb and I both love the bran, blueberry and molasses muffins our mother used to make, from a recipe that was given her by a dear friend. Two recipes follow for bran muffins, and both are delicious and cost pennies to make.
Quick muffin pointers:
Generally, the thinner the batter, the more cake-like and delicate the muffins will be; and a really thick batter will be dense and moist.
Although recipes are full of dire warnings about over-filling muffin cups, I don’t worry about it. I fill the pans to the top. Muffins look better when they’re plump and rounded.
Stir the wet into the dry ingredients for muffins well, or you’ll have little pockets of flour or baking powder, just don’t overdo it. Don’t use an electric mixer, since beating the batter will make it tough.
Sometimes muffin recipes will have you mix dried milk with the dry ingredients and use water instead of milk for the liquid. Buttermilk adds flavor and moistness to muffins, and you can also use powdered buttermilk in the same way. Usually, recipes calling for buttermilk will use baking soda.
I’ve tried muffin pans with paper liners and well-greased muffin pans and really prefer the pans without the liners, as muffins tend to get a little soggy as they sit in the cups. Spray-on oil works fine, or you can save butter wrappers to grease your muffin pans.
There are a lot of theories about how to get a perfectly shaped muffin, including leaving the top half of the cup ungreased, making it easier for the batter to climb higher. In my experience, really thick batters end up looking better because their thickness prevents them from spreading out over the top of the pan too much.
If you end up with too little batter for the number of cups in your pan, put a little water in the cups to keep the greased surfaces from scorching in the oven.
Muffins with lots of grains and fruits keep very well. Wholegrain muffins freeze well and can be defrosted (carefully) in the microwave.
If you can’t find bran, process some all-bran cereal into the food processor until it reaches the consistency of dry oatmeal.
Barbara Heisey’s bran and blueberry muffins
3 cups natural bran
2 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup canola oil
½ cup molasses
12 oz bag frozen blueberries
Preheat oven to 375 and grease enough muffin pans to make 24 muffins.
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs slightly, adding remaining ingredients except blueberries. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Fold in frozen blueberries and divide among muffin pans.
Bake approximately 20 minutes. These freeze very well after cooling.
Bran, blueberry and dried cherry muffins
Remember to start these the night before.
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup light brown sugar plus 2 tablespoons, tightly packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk (or 2 cups lowfat milk with 1 teaspoon vinegar)
2 cups wheat bran (or 2 cups 100 % bran cereal, processed in food processor until the consistency of oatmeal)
1/2 cup dried cherries (or use raisins, dried cranberries or dates)
1 cup frozen blueberries
Whisk first five ingredients together in a bowl; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk oil, honey, molasses, brown sugar and vanilla together. Whisk in eggs, then buttermilk and bran. Let bran soften for 20 minutes before continuing.
Whisk dry ingredients into wet mixture to partially blend. Continue mixing batter so ingredients at the bottom are well incorporated into the batter. Fold in cherries and blueberries.Cover batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate, preferably overnight.
Heat oven to 400 degrees and put rack in the middle. Grease 2 12-cup muffin pans or 2 6-cup jumbo muffin pans. Fill to the top of the cups. Bake until muffin tops brown 20-30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees if muffins take longer than 20 minutes to bake. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. These keep well and freeze very well.
