Bran muffins are usually made with wheat bran. It’s relatively low in fat and calories, while being very high in fiber. It also has a decent amount of protein. All these make it a good choice for a filling and healthy muffin. The only problem is that wheat bran isn’t exactly the most flavorful ingredient out there, so bran muffins aren’t always the breakfast of choice for muffin-fans. In place of wheat bran, you can use oat bran. It is higher in fat and calories than wheat bran (approx. double each amount, although still not a particularly a high-fat or high-calorie food), but much higher in protein. I find that it is just as filling, if not moreso, and gives me a better energy boost than wheat bran – plus, it simply has a more interesting flavor. Oat bran has a finer texture than wheat bran and tastes just like regular rolled oatmeal.
So, I used oat bran in this batch of bran muffins and ended up with a finished product that was fairly healthy (compared to the cupcake-type of muffins), filling and tasted almost exactly like a chewy oatmeal raising cookie. I added ground flaxseed to mine and ended up using a non-dairy rice milk for this batch, though any milk can be used. Overall, the muffins had a good texture – sturdy, but not tough – and were good both plain and with butter. The moisture in the muffins comes both from applesauce and from honey, although the oatmeal cookie-inspired spices dominate the flavor of the muffin. Feel free to cut back on the sugar a little bit if you have a preference for not-very-sweet-muffins for breakfast.
As is the case with most bran muffins, they get more moist when stored overnight in an airtight container. I like to make these in the afternoon or evening, then cool them and put them away for breakfast the next day.
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In their ceasing quest for culinary excellence, the cooks in America’s Test kitchen will test every ingredient, every pan and every recipe they come across. I recently read one of their pieces that really struck a chord with me. It was a taste test of vanilla – extract, imitation and whole beans – and since vanilla is such a vital flavor in baking, I found their conclusion that imitation vanilla is just as good in most applications to be very surprising!
Vanilla beans have a wonderfully subtle and complex flavor and, when you taste a custard or something very simple (like vanilla sugar) made with real vanilla beans it is easy to see why vanilla is not a “vanilla” flavor. The test kitchen agrees and heartily recommends going with the real thing – choosing plump, moist beans – when making something very simple where the flavor of the beans really stands out, such as Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. But in cakes, cookies and other dishes that have multiple layers of flavor and a much longer ingredient list, it turns out that the complexity of the vanilla bean (in this case, in the form of vanilla extract) is mostly lost unless a great quantity is used. Imitation vanilla, which has a definite, plain vanilla flavor, came through in the finished product just as well as the real thing – and tasters had a hard time telling the two apart.
Their most recent update to the taste test included a look at “double-strength” vanilla extract, an ingredient often sold from specialty catalogs to appeal to vanilla-loving bakers. The tasters didn’t really care for it compared to regular vanilla. Many found it had an overly alcoholic taste and, while they did have a stronger vanilla flavor, it wasn’t necessarily preferred over ordinary vanilla. And because it retails for 2-3 times the price of regular vanilla, it’s not really worth the expense even if you only use half the amount when you bake with it.
So, while you can never go wrong with real vanilla extract, imitation vanilla can be a good thing to have on the shelf for the average batch of cookies and such. Use the savings to splurge on high-quality vanilla beans to use when flavor really counts in ice cream, a custard or a vanilla bean pound cake.
It’s almost the end of April, which means that Mother’s Day is just around the corner. The holiday falls on May 11th this year (just under two weeks away) and it’s time to get serious about shopping for something special for Mom. Last year I made up a little gift guide to provide some inspiration and decided to add a few new things to the list.
- At the top of my list this year is jewelry from Amyville. I’ve mentioned her amazing food-themed earrings, which come in a variety of flavors from pie to donuts, but she also makes adorable necklaces and charm bracelets, as well. My favorites are the cupcake necklaces – and I’m not saying that just because I happen to have one!
- When it comes to making baked goods instead of wearing them, you can’t go wrong with a new pan of some kind. I really like the fact that manufacturers now make more pans with matching lids that make it easy to store and transport your goodies. This Bake and Store Brownie Pan is a good one because the see-though lid snaps into place and help keeps things fresh.
- As far as gadgets go, my picks of the moment are the side swipe stand mixer blade, which eliminates the need to scrape down the sides of the bowl while you’re working, and the Chef’s Quad Timer. The timer was one of my pick’s around the holidays, too, but timers are one thing you can never have too many of in the kitchen – especially when you’re baking and don’t want to be tied to the oven.
- Every home cook is going to appreciate some home-grown herbs or veggies, but not everyone has the space to have a full garden. This Grown Your Own Marinara kit is cute and quite useful. The kit includes seeds for tomatoes, oregano and basil – and each plant can be grown directly in the bag it comes in, provided you find a nice sunny place for it. You can also opt for just an organic heirloom tomato plant for the countertop, as well.
- Finally, while I’m always an advocate of baking up homemade treats for gift-giving (or general celebration), I think that ordering treats can be a good idea in some situations. Mostly situations in which you can’t get your own package in the mail fast enough and what you’re getting is too good to resist. Eleni NYC‘s Mother’s Day Cookies (pictured above right) fit the bill perfectly. They won’t last quite as long as a bouquet of flowers, but the “I love mom” message is one that definitely won’t fade.
I had such success with my slow cooker french dip the other week, I couldn’t wait until I had the opportunity to break out my slow cooker again for another dish. My trip to Dallas put me in the mood for some barbecue and I decided to try and adapt one of my favorite recipes to the slow cooker: pulled pork. Pulled pork is traditionally cooked by smoking the meat (usually a pork shoulder or pork butt) for hours at a low temperature, infusing the meat with a nice, smoky bbq flavor and creating a super tender texture where the meat simply falls apart at the touch of a fork. You don’t really get the smoky flavor with a slow cooker, but you can easily replicate the long, low-heat cooking process with excellent results.
I picked up a nice big pork shoulder at Whole Foods and put it into my slow cooker with some homemade barbecue sauce. I noticed, when I was researching various different pulled pork recipes, that most don’t call to use that much cooking liquid/bbq sauce in with the meat. I’ve always found that things in my slow cooker work best when there is quite a bit of liquid and so I ended up making a really big batch of sauce. I put half into the slow cooker to infuse the meat and reserved half, pouring it onto the finished pulled pork when I served it on top of my homemade yogurt sandwich rolls. More barbecue sauce is generally a good thing in my book, especially with a tangy one like this.
The pork turned out to be incredibly moist and tender. It’s hard to find good barbecue out here in So. Cal., so I would even venture to say that it is the best I’ve had in a while – high praise, considering that the meat wasn’t smoked and the recipe took virtually no “active” work time! I’ll make this again and again and it’s definitely something I would break out to serve at a big, casual party. You can use a different bbq sauce if you have a favorite, although tangy sauces are pretty standard for pulled pork.
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