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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 Chocolate is a staple in any baker’s kitchen. Chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, white chocolate - and from the standard baking fare, it is not a big leap to move onto other chocolate candies. I’ve used chocolate malt balls, peanut butter cups and chocolate covered toffees before, amongst other things. While you can cook with a lot of different types of candies, some are always overlooked for baking purposes. Perhaps they’re simply meant to be enjoyed as they are. Perhaps they just haven’t had the right opportunity.

I took a recent opportunity to do a little baking with some Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs, embedding them right in the center of a muffin. It seemed like a fun Easter baking experiment to use the eggs as a filling in one of my basic muffin recipes. I opted for muffins, rather than cupcakes, because muffin batter is thicker and I wanted something that would support the weight of the Creme Egg. Also, since the eggs have a very sweet fondant filling, I figured that a sweet cupcake with a sweet frosting would be too much to pair with the egg. The mini eggs are about 1/4 the size of a typical Cadbury Creme Egg, with a fairly thick chocolate shell and not too much filling. They are the perfect size to fit into a muffin tin and be covered with batter.

I was surprised with how well the muffins turned out, and even more impressed with how good the center looked after baking. The eggs held their shape very well and the sugary fondant inside cooked to a firmer consistency than it had when it went into the oven. This meant that I didn’t get the oozing I anticipated when I cut into a muffin, but it did make the whole thing much easier to eat. The muffin itself is tender and moist, with a good vanilla flavor. It is sweet, but not so sweet that it would be mistaken for a cupcake. The egg center is like a prize - a sweet, chocolaty, edible prize - inside of the muffin, since you don’t expect it until you bite right into it.

Overall? I wouldn’t trot these out at just any Sunday brunch, but they’re definitely a fun way to celebrate Easter. And also not a bad way to prevent yourself from eating a whole batch of Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs in one go, since you’ll have to eat through each muffin to get to them first.

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Sugar is - and probably always will be - my go-to sweetener for anything I bake. Call me traditional, but sugar plays a big role in the chemistry of baking and for most things (since I, very fortunately, do not have any dietary restrictions that force me to look elsewhere) I am more than happy to use it. But just because I love sugar doesn’t mean that I’m not going to get out there and use other sweeteners. Honey and maple syrup, for instance, are always good in my book and after being on a bit of an agave syrup kick recently, I’m adding it to my list of approved sweeteners.

I opted to bake some muffins, as I generally like how liquid sweeteners retain moisture and keep muffins moist for a few days after baking. Agave syrup did not let me down in this regard. The muffins became more moist overnight (stored in an airtight container) and the flavors in the muffins - including the overall sweetness - increase! This is a great feature to have in a muffin if you want to bake up a batch the night before you serve them to save time.

Overall, the muffins were not earth-shattering, but were simply very good. In terms of consistency and crumb, they were a little bit more like your typical quick bread than a cake. This texture worked out well because the muffins were very good when spread with butter or cream cheese (yes, they were tasty plain, as well). The candied ginger gave them some zing and added a little something extra to the flavor overall.

Because agave syrup has an exceptionally low glycemic index, these muffins are quite healthy and should be a much better choice than your average muffin for someone who is concerned about sugar in their diet. I know that I felt pretty good about eating them, though I will warn you that knowing that they’re relatively low in fat and sugar could tempt you - as it did me - to eat an extra muffin or two for breakfast!

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Banana bread is such a classic that it seems unnecessary to come up with “twists” to put on it. But it is also such a classic that it’s possible to get bored making it the same way time after time, so I give in every once in a while and make something like banana gingerbread, or stir in some chocolate and nuts. For this variation, I opted to keep the classic combination of banana, cinnamon and vanilla that I love to have in my banana bread and make muffins, adding in some whole grain barley flour to give them a little something extra.

The barley flour turned out to be a good call because these are some of the best banana muffins I’ve ever had. Not too sweet, they had a good banana flavor, thanks to a generous amount of mashed banana, but were wonderfully light in comparison to some muffins I’ve had. The low-gluten barley flour held in moisture but minimized the denseness of the muffins’ crumb. The almost fluffy texture turned out to be amazing for catching little bits of butter when I spread some on the still-warm muffins.

Lest you think that these are only good hot from the oven, let me put your mind at ease. They were delicious warm, but kept both their flavor and texture for several days when stored in an airtight container (yes, they were carefully safeguarded or they would have disappeared a lot sooner).

I like the cinnamon-banana flavor combination and so I used cinnamon in the batter and added a cinnamon-sugar sprinkle to the tops of the muffins. Feel free to omit the cinnamon and go with plain sugar if you prefer. Also, you can add in about 1/2 cup chopped nuts of your choice to the recipe if banana nut is more your cup of tea.

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I love it when a recipe is versatile and can be easily altered for a whole new flavor combination. It gives you a lot more baking options when you don’t constantly have to grope around for a new recipe, but can just make a change or two to a tried-and-true favorite and come out with something completely different. The easiest and most straighforward way to do this is to change the “add-in” in a recipe. For instance, you could switch from chocolate chips to white chocolate chips in a batch of cookies, or you might switch the fruit in a bread or shortcake recipe.

In this case, I started with the very tasty Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins that I made a few weeks ago and turned them into PB & J Muffins. The change was an easy one to make. I simply left out the chocolate chips from my batter and, as I was filling up the muffin cups, added a heaping teaspoon of jam to the center of each muffin. The batter is thick and, in this case, the easiest way to get the jam in is to fill the muffin cup halfway with batter, top with jam and then cover with another layer of batter.

There isn’t a whole lot of jam in each muffin, but there is enough to give the muffin a distinct “peant butter and jelly” flavor and to bring back memories of school lunches long past. And speaking of which, these muffins are great as snacks or at lunch time because they have a slightly savory taste to them from the peanut butter. They’re still good for breakfast, of course, but it’s nice to have a few excuses to tuck a few more into your bag before a busy day.

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The approach of Halloween is the perfect excuse to indulge my love of pumpkin baked goods with some seasonally appropriate treats. These pumpkin muffins aren’t nearly decadent enough to satisfy any costumed kids looking for a treat (since they probably have candy in mind), but they do make a nice addition to breakfast on a cool fall morning.

The muffins start with a simple pumpkin base, to which I added a little bit of wheat bran for texture and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds for fun. They were moist and hearty, but not too heavy. The seeds were from Trader Joe’s and come in lovely fall colors (a mix of orange, green, brown and yellow) that made it seem as if they were just begging to be worked into a fall recipe. They made a good addition in this case because they weren’t overwhelming; the seeds were small and the amounts of chocolate and candy coating were, as well, so their flavor didn’t come close to competing with the lovely pumpkin flavor of the muffin overall.

I did run into one problem with these muffins, which was that there were a couple of sunflower seeds that seemed quite bitter when I bit into them. I don’t blame the muffins for that as it was clearly a fault of the package of chocolate covered sunflower seeds (there were only a couple of off ones in the box) , but I suspect that it might be a hazard when dealing with large quantities of sunflower seeds.

If you want to use something else, try other chocolate-covered candies, (mini) chocolate chips or, like Peabody did a few weeks back, chocolate-covered raisins.
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