Double Apple Spice Bran Muffins

I have to say that I love bran muffins.  Not the dry flavorless cardboard kind that are so prevalent, but the moist and flavorful kind that come out of my kitchen.  I feel that bran muffins get such a bad view, but they don't have to!  These muffins were such a hit at my house, I think they would have all been eaten had I not put a limit on them!  I started with my favorite bran muffin recipe, and just tweaked it a bit.  I substituted applesauce for the butter and honey, and used brown sugar instead of white.  I also added some shredded apples and apple pie spice.  The result?  Deliciously moist and warm spiced apple bran muffins.  These muffins are amazing warm from the oven, or even later cold from the fridge!

Double Apple Spice Bran Muffins

2 cups wheat bran
1 cup oat bran
1 cup boiling water
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons apple pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
2 large apples, shredded

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Lightly spray 24 regular muffin cups with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, place the wheat and oat bran.  Add the boiling water and stir together.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.  Add the applesauce, brown sugar, eggs, and buttermilk.  Mix well until completely combined.  Add the flour, baking soda, apple pie spice, and salt and stir until just combined. Stir in the shredded apple.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups and bake in the preheated oven for about 13 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.  Remove muffins from the oven and cool on a cooling rack.  Makes 24 muffins.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Zucchini Applesauce Bread

I have found myself with an abundance of zucchini. Like. More than I even know what to do with. So I decided to start off with the classic zucchini bread. Because I am calorie-conscious I decided to try it with applesauce rather than oil (1 C Applesauce = 105 Cal. 1 C Vegetable Oil = 1927. Yikes!).

While this bread was still pretty good, I have to admit that I wasn't absolutely 100% in love with it. It was sort of spongy and I'm not totally sure why. Maybe the applesauce? At any rate, I liked it much more after it had sat in the fridge overnight. The flavor was good and it had just the right balance of warm spices. This bread also had a nice, sweet, sticky, slightly crunchy crust and a dense (albeit spongy) inside. Using oil rather than applesauce may solve the texture issue.

Original recipe adapted from here.

3 1/4 C All-Purpose Flour

1 1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

3 C Sugar

1 C Unsweetened Applesauce

4 Eggs

1/3 C Water

2 C Grated Zucchini

1 T Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon, and sugar.

In a separate bowl combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini, and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry. Fold together.

Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.

Mahlzeit!

-Coriaunty