Finding "The Muffin Recipe" Part II


Last night I was thinking about all the flour sealed away on the top shelf of my fridge, and I figured it was about time to try my muffin recipe again. When I woke up this morning, I laid out all my ingredients, and was excited to find I had fresh lemons, which I had said I wanted to try using back in July, as well as dried orange peel. I still had to run to the store for buttermilk, but that gave me the opportunity to buy cranberries!

I made a batch of the Triple Berry muffins first. The last time I made them, I ran out of sprouted wheat flour, so I could only get about 1/2 cup. This time I split the flour content more evenly - 1 cup sprouted wheat flour, 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour - and I added about half a lemon's worth of zest when I added the berries. Unfortunately, I was impatient to eat and I didn't defrost the berries enough. Then I didn't hear the timer go off. So now I have burnt, under-cooked berry muffins (flavor is still good though!). I ate a few this morning, but I'll probably throw them away. Lesson learned. 

Since I wanted to use up the buttermilk, and try a new flavor of muffins, I also made cranberry orange muffins while I was waiting for the berry ones to cook. I was afraid there wouldn't be enough moisture, but when I tried them the texture is perfect, not too dry at all. I had some almond flour lying around, which can replace about 1/4 of the flour in a recipe, and adds some healthy fats. Even after I was full, and I tried these out of the oven, they tasted great, so I am super excited about this new variation!

Cranberry Orange Almond Flax Muffins

Ingredients
1 cup sprouted wheat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cups flax seed, milled
3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried orange peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or plain (not Greek) yogurt
2/3 cup craisins, sweetened
1/2 fresh lemon's zest
Sparkling sugar, pourable brown sugar, or cinnamon sugar; optional

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease muffin tins. Whisk together all the dry ingredients and set side. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, vegetable oil, and buttermilk (or yogurt). Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring just to combine, then fold in the craisins and lemon zest. Spoon the batter in to the prepared muffin tin, filling them nearly full. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sparkling sugar, cinnamon sugar, or pourable brown sugar, if desired. Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, them transfer them to the rack to finish cooling. Makes ~14 muffins. Store any remaining muffins at room temperature.

Allergens: wheat, milk, nuts
Nutrition (1/14 recipe): 185 calories, 8 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 1 mg cholesterol, 239 mg sodium, 92 mg potassium, 30 g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, 15 g sugar, 3 g protein, 1% vitamin C, 0% vitamin A, 6% iron, 8% calcium, 10% vitamin E, 5% phosphorous 
Cost: $8.43 per recipe

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