Healthier Pumpkin Bran Muffins

As part of my never-ending quest for healthier baked goods, I altered a standard bran muffin recipe to come up with this spicy edition. It's a lower-fat product, which means that they won't stay fresh as long. After a day or so, freeze any leftovers. They're at their best warm, spread with either butter or cream cheese mixed with a little honey or orange juice for flavor. Also, if you're not used to eating much fiber, be sure to drink some extra water. This is a *lot* of bran. Check your pumpkin; you don't want to use "pumpkin pie filling". If pumpkin isn't available, frozen squash is an excellent substitute. You could also use another fruit puree, like apple or fig.

2 cups 100% bran cereal
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup nonfat milk
1/3 cup water
1/8 cup orange juice concentrate
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg and one extra egg white
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the above in a large bowl. Let sit for at least an hour to let the bran soften. This can be refrigerated overnight if you wish.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a separate bowl, stir together until all lumps are gone:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Quickly combine the flour mixture with the bran mixture, being careful not to overmix. Muffins are toughen quickly because the gluten in flour starts to develop as soon as it hits the moisture in the rest of the batter. To avoid toughness, mix just enough to get rid of pockets of flour.

Scoop into muffin tins lined with papers (or sprayed with something like Pam) and bake for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out just a tiny bit sticky.

Comments

[athena]

hm! i think i might make these. how many muffins does this make?

[Kaetchen]

This usually comes out to 12, athena. I use a 1/3 cup scoop, but just make sure the batter is roughly even in all of the cups. Hope you like 'em!

[nanoushke]

Made these yesterday. Didn't have any o.j. concentrate so used o.j. plus orange zest. Used w.w. pastry flour instead of white to bring fiber content up to 5 per muffin. Yum!

[brenda]

I made these pumpkin bran muffins today. I used all-bran cereal and when it came time to stir together the dry and wet ingredients it was like stiring together two dry ingredients. The bran was still in little pellets and had absorbed everything. I had to add more liquid just to stir it. When baked they were kind of like sponges. Any idea what I did wrong? Did I use the wrong bran? I'm really trying to find a good pumpkin-bran muffin recipe

[Jessica]

These turned out really well for me. I was having a hard time mixing the wet and dry ingredients together so I put them in my kitchenAid and they were mixed in just a few seconds!

I think these would be great with pecans or almond slices on top. I also plan to substitute some of the oil with flax seed next time.

Oh, and I used mini loaf pans for this.

[Julie Vieselmeyer]

I was so excited to find a pumpkin bran muffin recipe- I got the best of both world's. Do you have the nutrition facts for the muffins? I ended up with 12 servings. The muffins taste great with a spicy apple butter!

[tokiujosa]

Hello

I see first time your site guys. I like you :)

http://niko.onecoolhost.info/cock-008.html


Bye