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I wasn’t sure how things were going to go with these.  I got brave and decided to swap out some of the flour for wheat germ (as my current obsession dictates) and I added some vanilla, and what I ended up with, to my delight, was not only a light airy delicious peanut butter muffin that’s healthy, but something the kids liked too! The ultimate trifecta: delicious, healthy, and kid-approved.

The only thing that went wrong was that the camera was jimmy-jammed for the first part of the process and I ended up with some stages of the baking documented in a blur. I did what I could to sharpen things up but a blur is a blur is a blur and it stymied me until I put down the whisk and simply refused to move forward until it was fixed. From then on, things were much clearer. I’ll have to look for the metaphor in that one.

Oh and the other fascinating thing about this recipe is the description that accompanied it:

PEANUT BUTTER BRAN MUFFINS This recipe came from an estate sale. I obtained it when I purchased the family collection from the Hartford Estate in Mesquite Texas in 1991.

Intriguing. No?

All right, time for some blurry photos. I started with 2/3 cup of whole wheat white flour, 1/3 cup of wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar. Blurry!

I whisked, but I don’t think a blurry shot of it is going to be particularly helpful, and it will shame me.

In another bowl I combined a beaten with milk and oil, which is when things started to come into focus at last.

I added the bran, peanut butter, and honey, and threw in a half teaspoon of vanilla.

I stirred well, then (in a step actually missing from the directions, but overwhelmingly obvious), I poured that into the flour bowl and mixed just until incorporated, then let it sit for 5 minutes, as instructed.

I scooped the batter into muffins cups, and popped them into the oven without snapping a picture, because I forgot. Sorry.

I started checking them 15 minutes in, and they were done at 18. They smelled great.

After about five minutes in the pan, they were moved to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Juliet came by, drawn in by the smell. “Do those have peanut butter in them?” I chose not to mention the wheat germ or the bran, and said yes. “Can I have one?”

Knowing her history, I cut her a small piece of one, expecting (at best) that she’d at least pretend it was palatable. Instead she asked for the rest of the muffin, and Nathaniel came by and gobbled one up, and then I tried one, and we were all very, very happy. (Dave was busy elsewhere or he would have joined the peanut butter party.)

The next day, when I took them to the windowsill to get some better shots of them, Juliet asked to pose with them. She did a great job, too, reflecting her newfound love of something that’s actually good for her.

Woohoo! A gorgeous girl with delicious muffins. And behind her, the lush greenery supplied by a weekend full of non-stop rain. Worth it, I suppose. And so are the muffins. Light, airy, peanut buttery, and full of good healthy ingredients. A mere 4 P+ on Weight Watchers, which is amazing because most peanut butter muffins come in a lot higher. But most of all, these taste fantastic.

PEANUT BUTTER BRAN MUFFINS RECIPE (original)

My version of Peanut Butter Bran Muffins (adapted from Group Recipes)

(serves 12)

ingredients:

2/3 cup whole wheat white flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup (scant) brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup 1% milk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup wheat bran
1/3 cup Skippy Natural Creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees, which you will reduce later, and grease or line 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

In another bowl, whisk the egg with the milk and oil. Then add the bran, peanut butter, honey, and vanilla, and stir well.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and stir just until combined, then let stand for five minutes.

Once five minutes have passed, scoop the batter into muffin cups, dividing as evenly as possible. Put into the oven and reduce temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or with crumbs. 

Give them five minutes in the pan, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Feed to children. Eat some yourself.

I’m blogging these for the sake of…education, I guess. I didn’t love these. The texture lacked that fluffiness I like in a lemon muffin, and the flavor was okay but not really enough to make up for it. Maybe a more seasoned baker can take a look and let me know what I did wrong. (Huh? Can you? Please?)

This recipe was all about prep, so I started by zesting and juicing the lemons.  I had one Meyer lemon left from the season, so I used that first and then regular lemons to make up the rest. I used more than a teaspoon of zest, probably 1 1/2 and possibly two. I like lemon.

(Also, I’ve been unhappy with all the shadows in my baking photos as of late, so I started playing with the flash, taking shots both with and without it to see which I prefer. Jury’s still out.)

While the butter was melting (and subsequently cooling), I beat the egg. I wanted everything at hand when it was time to mix the batter.

(See, that one I preferred without the flash, despite the shadow.)

The directions said to add the lemon juice to the milk in a “large glass”, and we happen to have, randomly, an EXTREMELY large glass in our kitchen. Dave’s. No idea why. It’s large, though! I put it next to a can of baking powder so you could see just how large it is.

I whisked the dry ingredients together: all purpose flour (a rarity in my baking), cane sugar, salt, and baking powder.

Then to the less visually appealing mixture, in another bowl: the milk mixture, melted butter, beaten egg, yogurt, lemon zest, and vanilla. Fortunately the recipe was very reassuring about how unattractive this combination could be. (I used the flash so you’d get the full effect.)

It looked better once mixed. I poured it into a well in the center of the dry ingredients. I’m including the no-flash and the flash photos of this, and wish they’d just met in the middle.

I stirred the batter together, being very careful not to overmix. In a light lemon muffin, proper mixing can make or break the texture. I swear, I was careful.

I scooped the batter into muffin cups.

They were done in about 20 minutes, and they smelled lemony and lovely.

I let them sit in the pan for a few minutes, then moved them to a wire rack to cool.

So…I guess I wouldn’t make these again. I didn’t roll them in butter & sugar as the original recipe directed, but a muffin should be able to stand on its own without such things, and these would not have been saved by it. They weren’t terrible; I ate a couple of them over a few days, and so did my co-workers, but I think I’ve used better recipes.

Still, it’s entirely possible that I messed these up, so here’s a link to the recipe and please let me know if you fare better so I can try again. They were fun to make.

LEMON YOGURT SUGAR MUFFINS RECIPE

I know, it doesn’t sound tasty, does it? Wheat Germ Bread. Wheat Germ Bread? How is a person supposed to get excited about that?

Well, taste it. Because once you taste it, you’ll get it, and once you find out how easy it is to make, you’ll make it, and once you start eating it, your taste buds and your belly will smile upon you with gratitude. This bread is just light and lovely.

I found this recipe (via Google) on the TLC site, so it wasn’t embellished by some nice blogger’s adventures, nor was there much detail. The first step was to set aside 2 tablespoons of wheat germ from the total I’d need, but I didn’t think it through and just plopped the two tablespoons’ worth into a small bowl.

The next sentence began with, “Combine remaining wheat germ…” and of course I hadn’t measured the tablespoons out of the the full 3/4 of a cup I was going to need. So I measured out a new 3/4 cup, then took out two tablespoons. I poured that into a bowl along with whole wheat white flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

I whisked that together and set it aside.

Next up, a second bowl for the buttermilk, melted butter, and egg.

I whisked that up, then poured it into the flour mixture.

I mixed it just until incorporated. The batter was nice and light, almost airy.

I scooped it into a sprayed loaf pan, spread it out as evenly as I could, and sprinkled the two tablespoons of wheat germ across the top.

The recipe said to bake it for 40-50 minutes, but at 35 minutes in, the smell was wafting into the living room and I went in to check it. It was perfectly done.

I gave it ten more minutes in the pan, then removed it to a wire rack. It came out perfectly and didn’t break apart until about an hour later when I was moving it around too much trying to figure out the best way to photograph it. I’d already taken a bunch of pictures by then, so I just looked at that as a tasting opportunity.

This bread is really delicious. It’s light, with the slightly grainy feel of a great corn muffin, but the soft touch of a fluffy bread, with enough flavor to make it taste great on its own but not so much that it wouldn’t also be nice to add a pat of butter or a little honey. (It’s only 3 P+ per slice on Weight Watchers, too.)  It was incredibly easy to make, didn’t have any strange ingredients (now that I’m a wheat gem junkie), and came together in no time. Make this bread. Embrace its name and its flavor. You will be pleased.

WHEAT GERM BREAD RECIPE

(I don’t think I need to post my version: just use whole wheat white flour, measure out your wheat germ before taking the two tablespoons out, and start checking at 35 minutes into your baking time!)

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I won’t pretend they’re pretty, but they sure are delicious.

This is a grown-up sort of muffin. The espresso flavor is strong, the oats give the muffins a density that makes them nice and filling, and the only real sweetness comes from the chips. So don’t make these for kids and expect accolades, but hand them off to the grown-ups (young and old) and you’ll make them very happy.

I started with whole wheat white flour, rolled oats, wheat germ, brown sugar (I used coconut palm sugar, but any brown will do), baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon instead of the 1/2 suggested. I added just shy of 3 tablespoons of espresso powder.

I whisked.

In anothr bowl, I got the liquid ingredients together. There was milk, egg, vanilla, and then instead of using a quarter cup of canola oil, I thought I’d use half canola oil and half yogurt (low fat vanilla). Here’s where I thought I had a really bright idea about how best to measure in my quarter cup measuring up.

I filled it halfway up with oil, then thought it made sense to top it off with yogurt. This is what I do when I’m substituting wheat germ for flour (but not in this recipe, which included the wheat germ in the first place), I just measure it out and then top it off with flour to keep my proportions right.

I filled the cup halfway with oil, and then started plopping in the yogurt. Guess what happened?

It just poured out all over the place. Apparently oil isn’t as complacent as flour or wheat germ. It really didn’t like the yogurt addition one bit.

I cleaned it up, measured as best as I could, and then looked down at the notebook where I was taking notes on my recipe changes. Oops.

Duly noted.

But onward! Once the liquid ingredients were gathered in a bowl, I whisked. The egg was an elusive little thing, but I finally got it all well and properly mixed.

I poured it into the dry ingredients.

(I really am getting better at those shots of pouring now that I don’t use the automatic settings on the camera anymore. This one turned out great.)

Once I mixed, I had a thick, dense batter.

It was time to make it thicker and denser by adding chips. I put in a quarter cup of semi sweet chocolate chips, and then decided that an eighth of a cup of mini cinnamon chips would be nice too. In they went.

I scooped the batter — well, scraped is more like it — into muffin cups. There wasn’t much I could do to make it smooth.

It took about 20 minutes for them to be properly done. They still didn’t look smooth, but they smelled like coffee and chocolate and weekend mornings, even though it was actually a Tuesday.

I let them cool briefly, then moved them to a rack.

I admit it, I was a little nervous about their rustic look. I didn’t wait all that long before opening one up.

Surprise! They were delicious. A dark, coffee-like muffin, satisfyingly filling because of the oats, with bursts of sweetness from the two different kinds of chips, swirling around in a coffee-tinged batter. Good stuff. I brought these to work and people came by for seconds.

CHOCOLATE CHIP ESPRESSO MUFFINS RECIPE (original)

My version of Chocolate and Cinnamon Chip Espresso Muffins (very barely adapted from The Taste Traveller)

(serves 12)

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat white flour
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup coconut palm sugar (any brown sugar will do)
3 tablespoons (scant) espresso powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup 1% milk
1/8 cup canola oil
1/8 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/8 cup mini cinnamon chips

directions:
Heat your oven to 400 degrees — you will reduce the temperature later — and line or grease 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, put together the flour, oats, wheat germ, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk well.

In a medium bowl, put together the milk, egg, oil, yogurt, and vanilla, Whisk thoroughly.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix just until incorporated. Fold in both kinds of chips. If you’d like a thinner batter, you could add more milk, or if you really like coffee you could try that too.

Spoon (or scrape) into muffin cups. Put the tray into the oven and reduce temperature to 375. Bake for 18-25 minutes, removing when a toothpick comes out clean. (You’ll have to work around the chips.)

Let cool in the pan for a few minutes, then move to a wire rack.

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If you like molasses, these are the muffins for you. They’re definitely a little intense. You could un-intense them successfully, I think, by substituting half the molasses for honey, but I found that people really liked the depth of flavor i these and I was surprised by how quickly they were gobbled up.

The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of flour, so I used whole wheat white and then substituted 1/3 of the cup and a tablespoon of the half for wheat germ. It’s my new trick. It doesn’t do a thing to reduce flavor or alter texture but it adds a lot of healthy benefits and I’ve been really happy with the results.

To that I added baking powder, baking soda, salt, almost two teaspoons of cinnamon, and 1/8 of a teaspoon of grated nutmeg. I whisked it all together.

I took out another bowl and put in the oil & molasses. The recipe called for a half cup, which seemed like a lot, and I ran out before I was able to fill my measuring cup. I topped it off with honey, and added a half teaspoon of vanilla. Then instead of using a cup of applesauce, I used low fat vanilla yogurt.

I love using yogurt, but it does make things look weird, lumpy, and gross when you first mix it in.

I poured the gross lumpy thing into the dry ingredients anyway.

And mixed.

Then I got the topping together, mixing cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. (I like that that was the only sugar in the recipe.)

I scooped the batter into muffin cups and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top of each one. Once in the oven, I set the timer for 15 minutes, but ended up adding another 8, incrementally, until I felt confident that they were baked through. They didn’t puff up at all, and they looked awfully dark, but they smelled great, rich and molasses-y.

All in all, an interesting addition to the breakfast collection. They’re really healthy with a strong flavor, dense enough to be substantial without being heavy. I would like to try them with more honey, but I had no trouble getting people to eat them and come back for seconds.

CINNAMON MOLASSES MUFFINS RECIPE (original)

My version of Cinnamon Molasses Muffins (adapted from The Way To His Heart)

(serves 12)

ingredients:
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon wheat germ
2/3 cup + 1/2 cup less one tablespoon whole wheat white flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup molasses, or a mix of molasses and honey
1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

for the topping:
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cane sugar

directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees, you will reduce the temperature later. Grease or line a 12-cup muffin tin.

Whisk together the flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. The best way to measure out the flour & wheat germ is to take a half cup measuring cup, put a tablespoon of wheat germ in it, and fill the rest of up with flour. (The thirds are more straightforward.)

In a second bowl, whisk together the oil, molasses and honey, yogurt, and vanilla.

Pour this into the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated. In a small bowl, stir 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon into a tablespoon of sugar.

Scoop into muffin cups and sprinkle the topping on each one.

Reduce the oven temperature to 375 when you put the tray in. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack.