Aug 12, 2020

One of the first recipes I wanted to share on our new website was a breakfast recipe that you could make once and have on hand for weeks. If you are using our meal template, then you know that we firmly believe in having fewer decisions to make in the morning. Seriously, pick a couple breakfast meals that taste good and seem to get you through the morning well and then just stick with them.

If you have enough ingredients on hand it makes sense to make any kind of batter or dough in bulk.  You can easily freeze pretty much any batter or dough and then thaw when you’re ready to use it so bake what you want off and save the rest to bake fresh later.

Below is a fairly basic muffin recipe that you can add whatever you want to it. It has a good amount of fiber which means they are both filling and seem to hold anything you can mix into them well without falling in.  I love blueberries but you could even add extra cinnamon, nutmeg, shredded carrots, coconut and pecans for a “carrot cake” muffin. I used bananas because I always seem to have ripe bananas around either on the counter or-you guessed it-in my freezer. They add both sweetness and texture because nobody wants a dry sad muffin. I think they are pretty neutral on the banana flavor but I also use bananas as a pancake and waffle base all the time so maybe I’m just used to it.  There is applesauce in there because we had one lonely snack cup of unsweetened applesauce when I made these and I thought “Hey, why don’t we use this up before it gets forgotten?” Don’t feel like you have to go to the store if you don’t have applesauce-add in extra banana or even something like half OJ/half sour cream. (Hint-everyone tries to make baking sound like it is such an exact science but unless you are trying to win the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, you can make substitutions with baked goods too.) 

Make it a Meal: With fruit/nuts, these muffins can stand on their own. Or add a side of boiled eggs, cheese sticks, yogurt, milk and/or fruit.

Yield: Approx. 5 dozen standard sized muffins

Basic Bran Muffins

Wet:
5 large ripe bananas
2 cups brown sugar
½ cup unsweetened applesauce (like a kid’s snack container size)
6 large eggs
¾ cup olive oil
3 cups whole buttermilk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Dry:
5 ¼ cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups wheat bran
1 cup wheat germ
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

Stir-in:
½ cup ground flax seed

Mix Ins: (Optional and totally up to you!)
Ex: Chocolate chips, nuts, blueberries, raisins, carrots, chopped fruit, coconut, etc.

Directions:

Mash bananas well then mix with the rest of the wet ingredients.

In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Stir in flax seed and any mix in’s-berries, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Bake 375 degrees x 12-14 minutes. Makes around 5 dozen or so standard sized muffins. You could also bake in a pan and cut squares out if you’re like me and forgot to get baking spray and just don’t have it in you to grease a gazillion muffin tins individually.

Storage Notes: You can FREEZE this batter. Just let thaw before baking.  A quart sized plastic container usually bakes right at 15 standard sized muffins. This recipe made approximately 52 standard sized muffins WITHOUT any add-ins. So once you add berries, nuts, etc. your yield will be closer to 60 muffins or more. Depending on how many people are in your house, you can make this recipe once a month and have a dozen muffins to bake at the start of every week!