Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Blueberry Muffins :)

I will admit that this is not my finest blogging moment. I am up to my eyes in college work and not at my most organised! I had intended to put this recipe on here after making the goods and putting nice pictures up, but baking is the furthest thing from my activities at the minute - I haven't cleaned the kitchen for..! (As I said, not my finest moment here!)

Anyway, this is a gorgeous recipe and is a great sweet but pretty healthy snack. I usually make them on a weekend and bring one to work with me for morning tea or coffee through the week. I got the recipe from a great little book called Perfect Cupcakes, Cookies & Muffins and have never looked back! If you make them, I hope you enjoy them.

Ingredients
155g processed wheat bran
250ml skimmed milk
125g unsalted butter (room temperature)
220g light brown sugar
1 egg (room temperature)
315g wholewheat (wholemeal) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
125g fresh (or frozen) blueberries

Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Either grease 15-18 muffin cups or set out paper cases on a baking tray.
  2. Put the bran and milk in a bowl and leave at room temperature until all of the liquid is absorbed (usually about 30 minutes).
  3. In a mixing bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer on high speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg.
  4. Add the bran mixture. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then fold them into the wet mixture. 
  5. Stir in the blueberries until evenly distributed.
  6. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cases. Fill roughly two-thirds full. Bake them until muffins are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean from the centre. (Usually about 15 - 20 minutes)
  7. serve warm or transfer to a wire rack to cool.
I have relayed the instructions directly from the book, but I find it easier to mix the milk and bran together, and leave them for a while whilst I do other things. The muffin mixture itself is so quick to make that it doesn't make sense to put the oven on and waste all the electricity.

The recipe also says that the mixture makes twelve muffins, but I have found it makes closer to twenty.

Also, if you don't have an electric mixer, don't worry - you don't need one. If the butter is at room temperature the mixture is very easy to combine. Just make sure it is evenly mixed and distributed.

The muffins are nicer made with fresh blueberries, but obviously that isn't always feasible. Sometimes they won't be available, or may be very over-priced because they've come half way round the world. Raspberries are also yummy by the way!

These make a great snack in the mornings as they are full of bran and wholegrain so will fill you up until lunch, but you still feel you've had a real treat!

Photo from the book! Not my best work!!
Hope you enjoy! :) And if you have any recipes for some healthy (or just yummy!) snacks, please point us in the right direction in the comments box below. Thanks!

1 comment:

  1. These sound really good!!! I am definitely going to give them a try. I will not feel guilty them either! :-DD

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