From Denny: Here are five tasty muffin recipes to tantalize your taste buds, changing up your morning routine. They also come with calorie counts, ranging from 171 to 283 calories for each muffin. That sure beats the usual coffee shop muffins that often weigh in at a whopping 700 calories each!
All-Bran: Our Best Bran Muffins
Yield: Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups regular all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups Kellogg's All-Bran cereal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/3 cup soft shortening or vegetable oil
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Set aside.
Measure All-Bran cereal and milk into a mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Let stand 1 to 2 minutes or until cereal is softened. Add egg and shortening. Beat well.
Add dry ingredients to cereal mixture, stirring only until combined. Portion batter evenly into 12 greased 21/2-inch muffin-pan cups.
Bake about 25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
Per muffin: 171 calories, 4 grams protein, 8 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 25 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams fiber, 20 milligrams cholesterol, 223 milligrams sodium
Applesauce-Oatmeal Muffins
Yield: Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
MUFFINS:
1 1/2 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg white, lightly beaten
TOPPING:
1/4 cup Quaker Oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked)
1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon margarine or butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 medium muffin cups with paper baking cups or spray bottoms only with cooking spray.
For the muffins: Combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in a large bowl; mix well. In a medium bowl, combine applesauce, milk, sugar, oil and egg white; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix. For the topping: combine all ingredients in a small bowl; mix well. Set aside.
Fill muffin cups almost full with batter. Sprinkle with reserved topping, patting gently. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool muffins in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan and serve warm, if possible.
Per muffin: 180 calories, 6 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 0 milligrams cholesterol, 140 milligrams sodium, 31 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams fiber, 4 grams protein - Nutritional analysis from quakeroatmeal.com
Basic Muffin Recipe
From: Shirley Coleman, Baltimore International College, published in the Baltimore Sun
Yield: Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter or salad oil
2 eggs (slightly beaten)
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla (or another extract)
added flavoring: 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Directions:
Place all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.Combine all liquids in a separate bowl. Mix the liquids into the dry ingredients. Add the blueberries. Mix until just combined; do not over mix. Batter will be lumpy. Fill greased or paper-lined cupcake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. Serve warm.
Per serving: 213 calories; 4 grams protein; 9 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 30 grams carbohydrate; 1 gram fiber; 56 milligrams cholesterol; 272 milligrams sodium
Blueberry-Yogurt Streusel Muffins
From: Anne Byrn, published in the Baltimore Sun
Yield: Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
MUFFINS:
vegetable oil spray (see note)
1 package (18.9 ounces) blueberry muffin mix
1 container (6 ounces; 3/4 cup) yogurt of choice
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry
TOPPING:
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
Directions:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mist the bottoms of 12 muffin cups with vegetable oil spray. Set pans aside.
Prepare the muffin batter: Remove the package of blueberries from the muffin mix and set it aside. Place the muffin mix in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center. Place the yogurt, eggs and vanilla in a small mixing bowl and stir with a fork. Combine and break up the egg yolks.
Pour the yogurt mixture into the well of the muffin mix. Stir the wet and dry ingredients together with a wooden spoon until just combined, 20 strokes. Pour the reserve blueberries into a strainer, rinse them under cold, running water and drain well.
Fold these blueberries into the batter along with the fresh blueberries. Stir another 10 strokes just to combine. The batter still will be a little lumpy. Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each prepared muffin cup, filling it three-quarters of the way full. Set the pan aside.
Prepare the topping: Place the brown sugar and flour in a small bowl and stir together. Add the butter, mashing it with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. With your hands, sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of this topping onto each muffin. Place the pan in the oven.
Bake until muffins are lightly golden and just spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 20 to 23 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for minutes.
Run a dinner knife around the edges of the muffins, lift them up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips, taking care not to disturb the streusel. Place the muffins on a wire rack to cool 15 minutes. The muffins are ready to serve.
Note: Anne Byrn recommends using a vegetable oil mister (an empty pump that can be filled with fresh vegetable oil) rather than commercial vegetable oil sprays.
Per serving: 221 calories; 4 grams protein; 6 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 36 grams carbohydrate; 1 gram fiber; 46 milligrams cholesterol; 230 milligrams sodium
Bran Muffins
Yield: Makes 9 large or 12 medium muffins
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Post Grape-Nuts cereal
1 cup sour milk
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 large egg, well beaten
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Directions:
Soak Grape-Nuts in milk until soggy. Add, sugar, egg, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix thoroughly. Add flour and mix only enough to moisten flour. Fill greased large or medium muffin pans about 2/3 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes to 30 minutes for medium muffins, or until golden-brown.
Per serving (large muffin): 283 calories; 5 grams protein; 1 gram fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 63 grams carbohydrate; 1 gram fiber; 26 milligrams cholesterol; 316 milligrams sodium
Tester Laura Reiley's comments: "These are sweet, dense, deeply nutty flavored muffins. It's the cereal that adds the hearty taste of bran. You wouldn't know it's Grape-Nuts, but those little nuggets add to the texture, giving the finished muffins a denseness that's very appealing. "You needn't sour the milk, but if you want to, add a few drops of lemon juice to a cup of milk and allow it to sit at room temperature for an hour. Like lots of bran-muffin batter, the batter can be kept, tightly covered and refrigerated, for up to a week."
*** Photo of bran muffin with tangelo fig compote topping by norwichnuts @ flickr
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