Zucchini Fritters

I made zucchini fritters on Saturday as part of dinner and didn’t have time to post them until today. When the zucchini is abundant in the summertime I am always looking for ways to use zucchini. Summer squash are some of my favorite vegetables.

These fritters are whole grain and lower fat than traditional recipes. Both my husband and parents love it when I make fritters of any sort which is why you are seeing another version so soon after the corn fritters. We didn’t have any leftovers and I only ate two fritters so I guess the family really enjoyed them.

Zucchini Fritters
Makes 4 entrée sized portions – 16 fritters

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole-wheat pastry flour
¼ cup of finely ground white cornmeal
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, toasted
1 teaspoon of oregano, dried
1 ½ teaspoons of egg replacer
2 tablespoons of warm water, to dissolve egg replacer
1 cup of almond milk
2+ cups of zucchini, shredded (from 2 zucchini)
2 tablespoons of canola oil, for cooking cakes

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees to keep the cooked fritters warm while you finish.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, cumin and oregano and whisk to thoroughly combine. Set this bowl aside.

Combine the egg replacer and warm water and whisk to dissolve the egg replacer. Add the almond milk to the wet ingredients and whisk again.

Stir the zucchini into the dry ingredients to coat them with flour. This will help the zucchini not sink to the bottom of the batter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. If the batter is dry add a little extra almond milk or water until the batter resembles pancake batter. Don’t overbeat the batter or your fritters will be tough.

Heat a cast iron pan or griddle over medium heat and coat with a little of the canola oil.

Dollop the fritter batter on the hot griddle in approximately ¼ cup measures. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the fritter and then flip and cook the other side.

You can keep the fritters hot in a 200-degree oven while you cook the remaining batter.

Serve hot with tofu sour cream or muhammara.

Nutritional Information (assumes 4 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 223.29
Calories From Fat (35%) - 78.6

Total Fat - 8.93g
Saturated Fat - 0.71g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 645.67mg
Potassium - 477.13mg
Total Carbohydrates - 32.88g
Fiber - 5.82g
Sugar - 1.98g
Protein - 6.36g

Comments:

This traditional American fare is a favorite at my house. My husband grew up eating this food and my Southern grandmother used to make things like this all time. I think they are traditionally fried in butter but I don’t like to cook with Earth Balance. Sometimes I add caramelized onions or garlic to the fritters and that makes them a little sweeter.

Corn Sticks/Corn Bread

With the dinner we had tonight corn bread seemed like the appropriate accompaniment. Not that anyone needs this, but I have a cast-iron pan shaped like little ears of corn that was begging to be used this evening. Removing the corn sticks from the pan is a little tough, but they are so cute …. I just had to use it.

This recipe is a modification of a recipe in Mark Bittman’s book How to Cook Everything. My version uses whole-wheat flour (of course), and doesn’t use egg or buttermilk but other than those changes the recipe is the same.

Corn Sticks/Corn Bread
Makes 10 sticks (approximately 1 1/2” by 6 “)

Dry Ingredients:

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of white cornmeal, finely ground
¼ cup of whole-wheat pastry flour
¾ teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
½ cup of corn kernels

Wet Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of golden flaxseeds, freshly ground
¾ - 1 cup of almond milk
1 tablespoon of canola oil

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If using a cast iron pan you can coat it evenly with oil and heat it in the oven or on top of the stove. I used a corn stick pan and heated it in the oven.

Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to evenly distribute the ingredients. Add the corn kernels and toss them in the flour so that they are coated with flour. This flour coating will keep the corn from falling to the bottom of the batter. Set this bowl aside.

In a separate bowl combine the ground flaxseed, almond milk (start with ¾ cup) and canola oil and whisk to combine.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to form a uniformly moist batter. The batter should be the consistency of pancake batter (thick, but spoonable). If you can’t easily spoon the batter add a little more almond milk until the batter is the correct consistency.

Remove the cast iron pan from the oven and spoon the batter into the pan. Return the pan to the oven.

If using a corn stick pan begin checking the sticks for doneness after 15 minutes. They are done if you insert a toothpick into the middle of the pan and it comes out clean. If using a cast iron skillet begin checking it for doneness after 25 minutes.

Nutritional Information (per stick):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 71.61
Calories From Fat (35%) - 24.83

Total Fat - 2.83g
Saturated Fat - 0.24g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 165.53mg
Potassium - 67.46mg
Total Carbohydrates - 10.62g
Fiber - 1.8g
Sugar - 0.31g
Protein - 1.71g

Comments:

This recipe results in a moist, tender and flavorful cornbread. We didn’t use butter or oil on these at dinner tonight, and they didn’t need it. If you want to take this recipe over the top you can make a little orange/agave/Earth Balance.

My husband told me this was his favorite part of dinner this evening. I guess that says it all.

If you want a little more flavor these would be fabulous with a little hot crushed peppers, pickled jalapeno or even some finely diced roasted red peppers. Chili powder, cumin or minced cilantro would also be good in this recipe.

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Pancakes Topped with Banana

My husband wanted pancakes this morning so that is what we had. I decided that we were going to ignore the fat restrictions this morning and go for it.

I haven’t made pancakes in a long time (possibly years) so I needed a starting recipe. I used my ancient New York Times Cookbook (copyright 1961) and started making changes. The resulting pancakes are nothing like the original, but it worked so what the heck.

Of course I used whole-wheat pastry flour in place of white flour. I don’t keep white flour in the house, so that wasn’t going into breakfast. I used ground flaxseeds in place of egg, canola oil in place of shortening (and less of it), and almond milk in place of whole milk. Then I added peanut butter, cinnamon and ginger.

I changed so many things I really wasn’t certain how these would work. Shockingly, these turned out great. I liked the peanut butter taste in the pancake, combined with the banana on top. I don’t really think the peanut butter on top was necessary so I may omit it next time.

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Pancakes Topped with Banana
Serves 2 big appetites (makes 8 – 5 inch pancakes)

Dry Ingredients:

¾ cups of whole-wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
½ teaspoon of cinnamon, ground
¼ teaspoon of ginger, powdered

Wet Ingredients:

2 tablespoon of golden flaxseeds, freshly ground
1 ¼ cups of almond milk – or enough to get the correct consistency, don’t add all at once
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2 tablespoons of peanut butter

Topping ingredients:

2 tablespoons of peanut butter
1 banana, sliced
1 teaspoon of agave, or to taste

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients and whisk to evenly distribute the leavening agent (baking powder). Set dry ingredients aside.

In another bowl combine the wet ingredients (using only ¾ cup of almond milk at first) and whisk to completely saturate the flaxseeds and to distribute the peanut butter.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients together and stir to combine. If you have any large areas of flour that are still dry add the remaining milk a little at a time until you have only small lumps of flour. Don’t beat your pancake batter to remove all the lumps, this makes a tough pancake and you don’t want that. How much milk you will need to use depends on the moisture in your flour. I keep my flour in the freezer so it tends to be very dry and therefore I need more liquid than most recipes call for.

Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium high heat. I used a cast iron griddle that I lightly wiped with a tablespoon of canola oil on a paper towel.

Dollop the pancake (approximately 1/4 cup per pancake) on the hot griddle and cook on the first side until bubbles form on the top of the pancakes (about three or four minutes depending on the pan you use and your heat level). The bubbles are an indication that it is time to flip the pancakes. Cook on the other side until the bottom is lightly golden (about another 2 minutes). It is best if you flip the pancakes only once.

I served this immediately with a bit of peanut butter, sliced bananas and a drizzle of agave. Yummy!

Nutritional Information (assumes 2 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 608.98
Calories From Fat (53%) - 321.59

Total Fat - 37.28g
Saturated Fat - 5.04g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1084.9mg
Potassium - 732.41mg
Total Carbohydrates - 59.89g
Fiber - 13.19g
Sugar - 10.48g
Protein - 17.59g

Comments:

My husband, who is not prone to gushing, thought these were “very good”. He liked the texture and the flavor, but thought they needed more agave on top (he does have a vicious sweet tooth though). We like the peanut butter and banana combination at our house so it should be no surprise that these were well received. This is definitely a breakfast that will show up again at our house.

Whole Wheat Corn Fritters with Fresh Tomato and Corn Salsa

I have been promising my husband I was going to make corn fritters for a couple of weeks now since we made the traditional version in cooking class. Tonight was the night I finally kept my promise.

My version of the corn fritters was made with whole-wheat pastry flour to increase the fiber and nutrition. I added a number of spices to the corn fritters to add a bit of complexity to the pancakes. I crisped the cakes in small amount of oil in a cast iron pan. The corn fritters were starting to get too much color so I finished them in a 300 degree oven to finish the inside of the corn cakes without burning the exterior.

My husband could have eaten the entire batch of corn fritters by himself tonight. If your family includes big eaters you may want to double or triple this recipe.

Whole Wheat Corn Fritters
Serves 2 or 1 hungry man

Dry Ingredients:

½ cup of whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons of white corn meal
¼ teaspoon of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of kosher salt
¼ teaspoon of cumin seed
1/8 teaspoon of oregano, dried
1/8 teaspoon of ancho chili powder
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Wet Ingredients:

¾ teaspoon of egg replacer (ENERG)
1 tablespoon of warm water
¼ cup of almond milk
enough water to make a pancake texture batter
1 cup of corn kernels, fresh from the cob or frozen and drained
2 tablespoon of fresh cilantro, minced

½ tablespoon of canola oil to cook the cakes

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees to hold the corn fritters while you finish the over components of the meal.

Mix the dry ingredients and set them aside.

Combine the egg replacer and warm water and whisk to combine. Add ¼ cup of almond milk.

Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients and stir to form”pancake” dough. I keep my flour in the freezer so it tends to be more dry. While the original recipe called for ¼ cup of liquid I had to use ½ cup total liquid in my recipe tonight.

When the pancake batter is the correct consistency, add the corn kernels and cilantro and mix to combine.

Heat a cast iron pan until it reaches approximately 350 degrees. Add half the oil so that it lightly covers the bottom of the pan. Drop approximately 2 - 3 tablespoons of batter onto the pan for each fritter. I cooked 4 corn fritters in the pan at a time. Each fritter cooked for approximately 3 minutes per side. I removed them from the pan when they reached the appropriate golden color. Cook the final 4 fritters using the same method.

My fritters were the appropriate color on the outside but were not cooked completely through so I turned the oven to 350 degrees and baked the fritters for 15 minutes to ensure they were done.

Serve hot with a little salt and pepper to taste. I served my fritters with the corn and tomato salsa below.

Nutritional Information (assumes 2 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 206.62
Calories From Fat (22%) - 45.07

Total Fat - 5.15g
Saturated Fat - 0.46g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 325.59mg
Potassium - 288.45mg
Total Carbohydrates - 37.58g
Fiber - 5.6g
Sugar - 1.58g
Protein - 6.27g

Corn and Tomato Salsa
Serves2

Ingredients:

½ red onion, finely minced
2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar
1 large red tomato, finely diced (approximately 2 cups)
1 cup of corn kernels, cut from the cob or frozen and defrosted
¼ cup of fresh cilantro, minced
¼ teaspoon of oregano, dried
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Combine the red onion and vinegar to reduce the sharpness of the onion. Allow the onion to sit in the vinegar at least 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and toss to coat. Taste for seasonings and correct before serving.

When you serve this salsa use a slotted spoon so most of the vinegar stays in the bowl.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 101.98
Calories From Fat (7%) - 7.47

Total Fat - 0.9g
Saturated Fat - 0.1g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 211.66mg
Potassium - 548.13mg
Total Carbohydrates - 23.7g
Fiber - 4.24g
Sugar - 6.07g
Protein - 3.71g

Comments:

The corn fritters turned out much better than I expected. When I make them the next time I will increase the cumin and oregano. I also may add a little drained shredded zucchini to the fritters. I think I would like the texture of the zucchini and the increase in vegetables in the fritter. If you have a few fat calories to spare cilantro oil drizzled over the top of the cakes would taste great and look nice.

The salsa was nice and refreshing. It would have been better with avocado, but I didn’t want to add the fat to dinner tonight. A little drizzle of oil would also have been nice in the salsa, but I didn’t add it for the same reason. Fresh diced cucumber or green pepper would have also been nice in the salsa if you have it handy.

Overall we were happy with the fritters and the resulting nutritional statistics.

Whole Wheat Waffles with Flaxseeds and Triple Berry Sauce

This morning I decided to make waffles for my husband, but I wanted to make my standard whole-wheat waffle recipe even healthier.

Since flaxseeds contain omega 3’s and have been shown to reduce the tumor size in breast cancer and prostate cancer patients I wanted to add them to the waffles. I added 2 tablespoons only because that is what I put in our morning smoothie (not very technical I know). I reduced the canola oil in the original recipe since I added fat with the flaxseeds. I also substituted almond milk for soymilk because that is the milk we normally have on hand now (and it is lower calorie than soymilk). The cinnamon was added to help our bodies process the sugar from the fruit I added to the top of the waffles.

We did think these waffles were a little heavier than my standard whole-wheat recipe, but we also thought they had good crunch and flavor. I will be tweaking this recipe in the coming months to try to lighten the interior of the waffle a little, but this recipe is good enough as is, provided you remember it is a 100% whole-wheat vegan waffle. I don’t know that it is possible to make whole-wheat vegan waffles as fluffy as white flour waffles. However, you can feel good about feeding these waffles to your family.

Whole Wheat Waffles with Flaxseeds
Serves 2 big appetites or 3 regular eaters

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of kosher salt
¼ teaspoon of cinnamon
12 ounces of almond milk, unsweetened
½ tablespoon of canola oil
2 tablespoons of golden flaxseeds, freshly ground

Directions:

Heat your waffle iron while you make the waffle batter.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon) and whisk to combine. Add the remaining ingredients (almond milk, canola oil and ground flaxseed). Whisk to combine the wet and dry ingredients. If you keep your flour in the freezer and the batter seems a little stick add a couple tablespoons of water to thin the dough a little.

Cook the waffles until to the directions for your waffle iron. Serve them while they are hot. If you are making waffles for a crowd you can hold the waffles in a 200-degree oven on a half sheet pan with a wire rack. The elevation of the wire rack keeps the waffles from getting soggy on the bottom.

I served this with a triple berry sauce and a few sliced almonds on top. The almonds were only added for crunchy texture.

Nutritional Information (assumes 2 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 488.92
Calories From Fat (22%)- 107.62

Total Fat - 12.26g
Saturated Fat - 1.3g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 574.08mg
Potassium - 567.08mg
Total Carbohydrates - 80.89g
Fiber - 15.18g
Sugar - 7.16g
Protein - 19.91g

Triple Berry Sauce for Waffles
Serves 2 (or enough for the waffle recipe above)

Ingredients:

2 cups of frozen berries (I used a mix of blueberries, raspberries and Marion berries)
1 scoop of stevia
¼ teaspoon of cinnamon, ground

Directions:

Add the berries to a saucepan and cook until they begin to give up their liquid. Stir them occasionally to make certain the berries don’t stick. Continue to cook until the berries slump (lose their shape) and the juice that released from the berries thickens. This will happen in 15 minutes (of the time it takes to make the waffles). Add the stevia and cinnamon and turn off the heat. Serve the berry sauce on top the hot waffles.

Nutritional Information (assumes 2 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories 83.45
Calories From Fat (5%) - 3.92

Total Fat - 0.48g
Saturated Fat - 0.04g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1.48mg
Potassium - 113.05mg
Total Carbohydrates - 21.77g
Fiber - 3.65g
Sugar - 14.45g
Protein - 1.09g

Comments:

These waffle aren’t as light and fluffy as white flour waffles. We think they are a nice compromise between taste and health. These waffles get a nice crust on the exterior from the inclusion of the agave and canola oil. They also brown well considering they don’t include egg. I am quite pleased with the 19 grams of fiber and 20 grams of protein in this waffle and berry sauce recipe. I will be tweaking this recipe in the coming months to try to lighter the interior of the waffle, just a little.

Vegan Lemon Curd

(pictured: Vegan Lemon Curd, still quite warm)

Lemons contain limonins that are reported to fight cancer of the mouth, skin, lung, breast, stomach and colon. Lemons are also a good source of vitamin C and are anti-inflammatory. It has been reported that consuming lemons can help with joint discomfort. Overall, lemons are a good item to work into your meals whenever you can.

Lemon curd is one of my favorite desserts. What I never liked was the fat and calories in the original version. This is my version of a low calorie vegan lemon curd. It is great with blueberries or other fresh fruit.

Vegan Lemon Curd
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of soymilk or almond milk
5 tablespoons of agave
2 ½ tablespoons of whole wheat pastry flour (shifted to remove large grains)
2 teaspoons of arrowroot
¼ teaspoon of lemon extract
1 lemon (zest and juice)
2 teaspoons of vegan margarine (earth balance)
scant 1/8 teaspoon turmeric

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except the lemon juice and margarine and whisk over low to medium heat until the mixture thickens. Then add the lemon juice and whisk thoroughly to combine. Add the margarine a teaspoon at a time and whisk thoroughly to combine. Place in a container to cool and refrigerate until needed.

The curd will become much thicker when it is completely cold. Put the vegan lemon curd into a food processor to return it to a soft spoonable consistency. Don’t process any longer than necessary to change the texture, you don’t want the vegan lemon curd to get warm.

Nutritional Information (this recipe versus the standard recipe):

Calories - 106.51 vs. 458.72
Calories From Fat - 29.64 (28%) vs. 235.78 (51%)

Total Fat - 3.29g vs. 26.73 g
Saturated Fat - 0.66g vs. 15.73g
Cholesterol - 0mg vs. 219.58mg
Sodium - 65.68mg vs. 126.51mg
Potassium - 181.1mg vs. 98.27mg
Total Carbohydrates - 15.91g vs. 53.17g
Fiber - 2.97g vs. 0.28g
Sugar - 4.72g vs. 51.06g
Protein - 3.82g vs. 5.1g

Comments:

The texture of this curd when cold and not processed is little too thick. However, the texture without processing would be perfect on lemon bars. If you were looking for a vegan lemon bar filling this one should work well.

Update:

My friend Louis suggested that I post the nutritional information of a standard lemon curd recipe so that everyone could see the difference in all the categories. With the exception of a little more protein every single nutritional measurement on my recipe is far superior to the original. I had to admit I am a little stunned by the difference between the two. I knew that lemon curd wasn't a "health" food but I didn't realize how unhealthy it was.

Whole Wheat Waffles with Strawberry Vanilla Sauce

My husband loves waffles. I have not made them for a few years now because I didn't want to use white flour or sugar, nor did I want to cover them in syrup. I decided I would try to take one of his favorite weekend breakfast foods and see if I could make it into something I would feel good about him eating.

Yesterday I made a strawberry sauce that I sweetened with agave and that was both easy and tasted good. It was a simple matter of pureeing the strawberries and agave and then cooking it down until they became a nice thick sauce. This sauce would be great over vanilla soy ice cream.

This morning I tried making waffles with whole wheat pastry flour and sweetening the batter with agave. To my surprise the healthy waffles turned out great. I admit I was concerned that these waffles would not meet the expectations of my waffle aficionado husband. He thought they had a good texture and nice whole wheat flavor. We both decided the waffles could be used either in sweet or savory applications.

Why did I choose strawberry sauce for the waffles? Strawberries are one of those fruits that I can’t seem to get enough of when they are in season. I love their juicy deep berry flavor. Strawberries are also high in vitamin C and are anti-inflammatory. They have been found to help protect us against cancer and atherosclerosis. In is nice when something that tastes so good is also good for you.

I love sauces of all types, and fruit based sauces are no exception. Most of the sauces that you can buy are full of sugar, or worse, high fructose corn syrup. So I make my own fruit sauces.

This strawberry and vanilla sauce is sweetened with a little agave so that we don’t have that same insulin spike you get with sugar based sauces.

Strawberry and Vanilla Sauce Sweetened with Agave
makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 pound of fresh strawberries, pulsed in a food processor
¼ cup of agave nectar
1 teaspoon of good vanilla extract
pinch of kosher salt
½ cup of water

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in your blender and process until it is smooth. Move strawberry mixture to a heavy bottom pot and cook over low heat, stirring every few minutes, until the sauce is a nice thick consistency. Allow sauce to cool and little and serve. Store leftover sauce in a glass jar with a lid. Freeze the portion you won’t use in a week.

Whole Wheat Waffles sweetened with Agave
Makes enough batter for about 2 big waffles – serves 2

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon of sea salt
8 ounces soymilk (can be vanilla or plain)
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 teaspoons of agave

Directions:

Preheat your waffle iron and spray with nonstick spray if it isn’t a nonstick waffle iron. In a medium bowl, mix everything together and whisk gently until incorporated. If you keep your flour in the freezer to extend its life you may need to add a little extra soymilk to achieve a nice batter

Pour mixture into waffle iron and cook until golden.

Serve with a little earth balance, strawberry sauce and sliced almonds.

Nutritional Information (per waffle doesn't include the sauce):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 439.45
Calories From Fat (21%) - 94.14

Total Fat - 10.7g
Saturated Fat - 1.04g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 478.97mg
Potassium - 516.55mg
Total Carbohydrates - 75.42g
Fiber - 12.6g
Sugar - 5.25g
Protein - 16.12g

Comments:

This is a nice basic waffle. I will be playing around with this recipe this weekend to see how I can enhance the flavor. I am considering adding chopped nuts or a little oats to the batter. I may also add some spice to the batter. Overall the waffle recipe exceeded my expectations. I wasn't sure what would happen with all my healthy changes but the waffles were great.

The strawberry sauce is full of strawberry flavor, and the vanilla is a noticeable background note. The sauce is not very sweet, which is my preference. I try to keep our agave consumption to a minimum. If you like things sweet you can do what my husband did and drizzle a little agave on the waffle.

Carrot Cake Bran Muffins

In keeping with my prior post regarding breakfast I thought I should post a breakfast recipe. These muffins are moist and surprisingly tender given the amount of bran they contain. The secret to making these muffins moist is to soak the bran for at least 30 minutes. I frequently combine the bran and soymilk in a covered container and put it in the refrigerator overnight and make the muffins the next day.

If you are looking for a healthy whole grain muffin this one has a lot of flavor, and is much better for you than most muffin recipes you will find. Don't be put off my the amount of bran in the recipe. The muffin will not be hard or dry if you soak the bran as the recipe indicates.

Carrot, Raisin and Walnut Bran Muffins

Makes 12 large muffins

Wet Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups of millers bran
2 cups of vanilla soymilk
1 T of egg replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons of water (or 2 eggs)
1/3 cup of canola oil
1/3 cup of applesauce (no sugar added)

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
2/3 cup of light brown sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 large carrot shredded
¾ cup of raisins
½ cup of chopped walnuts

Optional Ingredient:
½ cup of drained canned crushed pineapple, no sugar added (required if carrot cake like muffins are the desired outcome)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin pans (makes 12 large muffins). If using metal pans they will need to be greased and floured. If using silicone pans place on half sheet pan, there is no need to grease or flour. Set pans aside for later.

Mix bran with soymilk and stir to thoroughly combine. Add remaining wet ingredients and stir again to combine. It is important to thoroughly soak the bran before making the muffins. The soaking seems to be what keeps the muffin from being gritty or dry. I have soaked the bran overnight which works great if you are the organized type.

In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon). Stir to thoroughly distribute the ingredients and break up any lumps of brown sugar. Add the carrot, raisins and walnuts and toss to coat the ingredients in the flour. If using the optional pineapple add it here. The pineapple makes the muffins sweeter and more like carrot cake. The muffins are good either with or without the pineapple.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients until the dry ingredients have been thoroughly combined. If you keep your flour in the freezer you may need to add as much as ½ cup of water the bowl the ingredient completely combined. This will not change the final texture. Do not mixture too long or your muffins will be tough.

Place mixture evenly in the 12 prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the interior cupcakes comes out clean. I typically check the muffins at 20 minutes, and put the pan back into the oven (in the opposite direction), for an additional 7 minutes.

When the muffins are done, cool them in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before removing to a rack to thoroughly cool.

If you try to remove them too soon they will stick to the pan (at least that is what happens in silicon). Store in a closed container in the refrigerator. These muffins will last a week in the refrigerator or a month in the freezer if individually wrapped and sealed in a freezer bag.

Comments:

I have been using this recipe for two years. I make these muffins for my family, and for my parents (who are not concerned with healthy food). Everyone has enjoyed the muffins, and requests them with great regularity (pun intended). If you are looking for a high fiber muffin without egg and milk this one is very good.