Low-Fat Blueberry Bran Muffins

This sunday afternoon, I somehow got inspired to make some muffins. Then I thought hmm, I havn't made HEALTHY muffins in a while. Esspecially how EVERYONE is trying to keep their new years resolution to eat healthier, why not try and make something a bit healthier for once??

So I went to Allrecipes and searched "Healthy Muffins", and saw these. I also noticed how it was the highest rated healthy muffin recipe with almost 300 ratings. And I knew I had a bunch of blueberries in my fridge...so off I went!

These were extremely easy to put together, and they will be coming with me to school tomorrow morning and will be feeding 30 hungry fellow dance team members of mine...not to mention since these are healthy muffins, each 1 of them are under 100 calories! SCORE!

Low -fat Blueberry Bran Muffins

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 cup nonfat milk

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce(nonfat frozen yogurt could be used if you don't have the applesauce)

1 egg

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffins cups or use paper liners. Mix together wheat bran and milk, and let stand for 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl mix together applesauce, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat in bran mixture. Sift together all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into bran mixture until just blended. Fold in blueberries. Scoop into muffin cups.

3. Bake for 15-20 min. or until tops spring back when lightly touched. ENJOY!

P.S. I know my team will be EXTREMELY surprised when I tell them I baked something healthy!...i'll let you all know what they think =]]

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

Sorry!! I know, I havn't been doing many TWD's lately.

It's just been SO hectic, I havnt had time to do much "planned" baking.

But, i'm back now! And soo happy that I am!

**This weeks TWD was chosen by Kelly of Sounding my Barbaric Gulp

And let me just say, this was the best recipe to come back on.

Pumpkin Muffins are my FAVORITE type of muffin. Sure I love blueberry, and banana and all that jazz, but there's something about the spicy, yumminess of a nice, hot pumpkin muffin, especially in the fall. 

This recipe was verrrry good!

Ive never been let down by any of her recipes, and ive tried 5 million different pumpkin muffin recipes!...although, im still on the lookout for that one AMAZINGLY spicy recipe, Dorie's really did NOT dissapoint.

If you want the recipe go check it out on Gretchens blog, and go look at all the other wonderful Dorie bakers!!

**Correction: These were picked by Kelly from Sounding my Barbaric Gulp!!

Sorry guys!

<3

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I kid you not, these may have been one of the BEST muffins i've ever made breakfast wise.

And i've made A LOT of muffins.

This is of course, another Dorie recipe, and I just have to say, that not ONE of those recipes in that book has failed me. Literally everything in there has just been absolutely amazing.

Anyways, I was in the mood to bake something, and i've seen other blogs making these, and they seemed to be getting great reviews. And I LOVE lemon poppy seed muffins, so I was excited to see how these turned out. 

Like I said, absolutely delicious! They were perfectly light, and fluffy, and would be a great little snack, but even better for breakfast with some jam.

In the book, it includes icing, I however, happened to have no confectioners sugar on hand today, so I had to skip the icing =/...but i'm sure the icing would've been really tasty. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from my home to yours"

For the muffins-

2/3 cup sugar

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 stick(8 tblsp.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 tblsp. poppy seeds

For the icing-

1 cup confectioners  sugar, sifted

2-3 tblsp. fresh lemon juice

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.

Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough- a few lumps a better than overmixing the batter. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a think knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Cool the muffins completely on the rack before icing them.

To make the icing: Put the confectioners sugar in a small bowl and add about 1 1/2 tblsp. of the lemon juice. Stir with a spoon to moisten the sugar, then add enough additional lemon juice, a dribble at a time, to get an icing that is thin enough to drizzle from the tip of the spoon. You can then drizzle lines of icing over the tops of the muffins or coat the tops entirely, the better to get an extra zap of lemon.