muffing peach granola
Oct. 24th, 2005 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alenxa_classicMade my recipe-less Fruit & Vegetable Muffins on Saturday and can't for the life of me remember all the details of what I did this time. The formula started as an experiment in low-fat healthy muffins and has morphed a little every time I make it. Originally I put in 1/2 cup of everything except yogurt and oil, which were 1/4 cup each, and cinnamon and baking soda, which were a teaspoon apiece. And one egg. The other basics are applesauce, mashed banana, brown sugar, grated carrots, grated zucchini, raisins, flour, whole wheat flour, and rolled oats. Straight half-cups of all of the above gives a dense, sweet muffin that comes easily out of the pan. They were actually too sweet, and seemed a bit oily, so the next iteration had a full half-cup of yogurt and 1/2 cup of 10-grain hot cereal mix that I soaked in it, plus 1/2 cup of nuts. These muffins stuck to their cupcake liners and had too much chew. They'd probably have worked with a little extra oil and more grated veggies, but then they'd have filled every muffin pan in the apartment and thus wouldn't have fit into the oven all at once.
So this time, having successfully made bran muffins a couple weeks ago, and wanting K to be able to try these, I tried 1/2 cup of All-Bran instead of the soy-containing 10-grain. I also used up 1/4 cup of hopelessly crystallized honey for half the sweetener, upped the oats to a full cup, and just grated in two carrots and a zucchini without measuring. Unfortunately, even with the extra oats, the extra moisture left the centers a little soggy, but the muffins taste fine. Maybe add some rye flour for extra grain and variety next time. And I learned a lesson about soaking All-Bran: recipes say to add it to milk or water or egg first for a reason. If the first liquid that touches it is oil, it won't soften. I had done all my dry measuring first and wanted to measure the oil before the honey so the cup would be greased, so I poured the oil into the cereal. Even after I added the yogurt and honey and let it sit for 15 minutes, the cereal refused to break down. The bran-muffin mixture had only taken about 10 minutes, and I'd added milk, then egg, then oil, mixing each time. So, next time, adding it to the yogurt and applesauce, or just using the 10-grain.
The failure of the weekend was these Sweet Potato Cinnamon Muffins. They smelled great and mixed like a dream, but when I opened the oven door, they were completely sunk in their muffin cups. Fallen like last week's pop idol. And not cooked through, either. I supposed that could have been due to lowering the oven temp 25 degrees to account for my dark pan, but that's actually prevented more problems that it's caused since I started doing it, so I doubt that's the problem. I couldn't figure out what to do with them, so I left them out till we got back from Carmina Burana, then put them on an air-bake cookie sheet (the bottoms were pretty well browned) at the full 450 for 10 minutes. That burned the top edges of the craters but mostly solidified the insides. Unfortunately, when I tasted one, it was inedibly salty. Possibly unsalted butter would have helped with that, but the recipe called for a full teaspoon of salt and I'd put in all of two pinches. I'm coming to the conclusion that this recipe is just hopelessly wrong and in need of professional rehabilitation. If anyone thinks otherwise, let me know before I email the webmaster.
So now I have 11 paper cups of salty sweet potato glop, which I may end up making into some kind of bread pudding to avoid wasting food. With luck, the other 1/2 cup of sweet potato will not go to waste in the Emeril-created bread recipe I found. And the caramel swirls in the apple muffins now baking merrily won't get too burny. Bam, or something.
So this time, having successfully made bran muffins a couple weeks ago, and wanting K to be able to try these, I tried 1/2 cup of All-Bran instead of the soy-containing 10-grain. I also used up 1/4 cup of hopelessly crystallized honey for half the sweetener, upped the oats to a full cup, and just grated in two carrots and a zucchini without measuring. Unfortunately, even with the extra oats, the extra moisture left the centers a little soggy, but the muffins taste fine. Maybe add some rye flour for extra grain and variety next time. And I learned a lesson about soaking All-Bran: recipes say to add it to milk or water or egg first for a reason. If the first liquid that touches it is oil, it won't soften. I had done all my dry measuring first and wanted to measure the oil before the honey so the cup would be greased, so I poured the oil into the cereal. Even after I added the yogurt and honey and let it sit for 15 minutes, the cereal refused to break down. The bran-muffin mixture had only taken about 10 minutes, and I'd added milk, then egg, then oil, mixing each time. So, next time, adding it to the yogurt and applesauce, or just using the 10-grain.
The failure of the weekend was these Sweet Potato Cinnamon Muffins. They smelled great and mixed like a dream, but when I opened the oven door, they were completely sunk in their muffin cups. Fallen like last week's pop idol. And not cooked through, either. I supposed that could have been due to lowering the oven temp 25 degrees to account for my dark pan, but that's actually prevented more problems that it's caused since I started doing it, so I doubt that's the problem. I couldn't figure out what to do with them, so I left them out till we got back from Carmina Burana, then put them on an air-bake cookie sheet (the bottoms were pretty well browned) at the full 450 for 10 minutes. That burned the top edges of the craters but mostly solidified the insides. Unfortunately, when I tasted one, it was inedibly salty. Possibly unsalted butter would have helped with that, but the recipe called for a full teaspoon of salt and I'd put in all of two pinches. I'm coming to the conclusion that this recipe is just hopelessly wrong and in need of professional rehabilitation. If anyone thinks otherwise, let me know before I email the webmaster.
So now I have 11 paper cups of salty sweet potato glop, which I may end up making into some kind of bread pudding to avoid wasting food. With luck, the other 1/2 cup of sweet potato will not go to waste in the Emeril-created bread recipe I found. And the caramel swirls in the apple muffins now baking merrily won't get too burny. Bam, or something.
