Hi all,

I LOVE to bake and experiment, as well as make things from scratch and as close to NATURAL as possible. So, when I got a bit tired of oatmeal and too busy to take the time to make it in the morning, here is a tweak on a muffin recipe that I use. I'm not sure if it will fit into everyone's diet, but I thought I'd share anyway just in case it can help someone. I am giving the recipe in a way that gives a lot of flexibility. I continue to tweak it everytime I make it so feel free to tweak it yourself (esp for those of you that like artificial sweetners or light butter or things like that).

*Note: I don't have a food processor, flour mill or anything like that. So I make oat flour by putting some wild-crafted oats in a flat bowl and chop them up with a hand blender. Very effective!!



1 cup oat flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2cup brown rice syrup(BRS) or 1/4cup BRS and 1/4cup Agave syrup or 1/4cup Sucanant or 1/4cup Sucanant and 1/4cup BRS
(Any variation works well or use NO sugar, but I do not recommend Honey--the flavor was off)

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup fat free buttermilk or 2/3 cup fat free yogurt or 2/3 cup low fat yogurt

1/4 cup butter melted or 1/4 cup coconut cream concentrate melted

1/4 cup egg substitute, 1/4 cup egg whites or 2-3 eggs

1-2 Bananas (for bananas, recommend adding about 1Tbsp of imitation maple flavor and banana extract also enhances the banana flavor) or 2-4 Tbsp Polaner All Fruit or 2-4 Tbsp crushed fruit
(you can adjust this or omit this to decrease carb amount if you want)


Optional Topping: mix 1 Tbsp sucanant with 1/4 tsp cinnamon and then sprinkle on top of filled cups before baking
-I recommend this variation if you don't put any sugar in the batter at all

Mix the dry ingredients together and then mix the wet ingredients. Mix the blended wet ingredients into the blended dry ingredients.

Cook at 400 degrees for 20 min.

Makes 12 muffins
-Very Accurate, and if you cut the recipe in half, you’ll get a perfect amount to make 6
-I've eaten them as much as 6 days old, but I would say that they are best within 4 days of making them. They start to dry out a bit after 4 days
-I put about 2 Tbsp or so of batter in each muffin cup. It helps to spray the muffin cups with cooking spray on the inside

You can plug whatever variation you make into http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp to find the calorie break down of the variation that you chose.



Here is the variation that I used this week which turned out really well:



1 cup oat flour


1/2 cup whole wheat flour


1/4cup BRS and 1/4cup Agave syrup


2 1/2 tsp baking powder (I actually accidently put in 2 1/2 tsp baking soda and it didn't affect it at all)


1 tsp cinnamon


1/2 tsp salt


2/3 cup fat free yogurt


1/4 cup coconut cream concentrate melted


2 eggs


2 Bananas with ~1 Tbsp of imitation maple flavor and ~1/2 Tbsp banana extract


Approximate Macronutrients for 1 muffin from my recipe for this week: 180 cal/6.7 fat/26.8 carbs (2.5 fiber)/4.8 pro


*Next Week's Tweak: Use all oat flour, try cottage cheese instead of yogurt and try to cook the muffins at less than 400 degrees for 25 min. to further protect the coconut cream concentrate. I can report back if any fellow baking enthusiasts are interested.

Enjoy

Looks yummy!

Yeah, reports would be welcome

Hi all,

I tried this variation this week:


1 + 1/2 cup oat flour (I ground oats with hand blender)


1/4 cup Brown Rice Syrup


2 1/2 tsp baking powder


1 tsp cinnamon


1/2 tsp salt


2/3 cup low fat cottage cheese


1/4 cup coconut cream concentrate melted


2 eggs


3 Bananas (mashed in the liquids)


~1 TBS of imitation maple flavor and ~1/2 tsp banana extract


I cooked them in muffin cups for 23 min on 350 degrees.

They turned out really dense, thick and moist--I love'em!!!! I really think the cottage cheese had a lot to do with the consistency of the finished product. I'll see how they are after a couple days in the fridge. With the extra banana, I decreased the amount of sweetner that I added (the BRS) and it turned out great!

Next week's tweak--I think I'll see how stevia tastes in them and keep the extra banana.

*Again, alter at will. Here are some suggestions to cover all audiences:

-use egg whites or boxed egg whites
-for those that use artificial sweetners, however much of splenda you think you need
-you can skip the banana and maple extract if you really want to minimize extra calories
-put no sweetner inside the batter, but sprinkle sucanant and cinamon on top of the muffins before baking
-see my original post for other suggestions

I can't wait to eat these tomorrow with my morning protein shake!!! I hope you all enjoy as well!!!

Oh yeah, and feel free to post your suggestions, comments or your variations!