Bake 52: Bran Muffins

Week 2 of Bake52!  50 to go. :)  

This week Valerie was our host and she chose Bran Muffins.  I understand her choice.  She picked right after the holidays and I think everyone was probably feeling like some healthy food!  I know I was.  

It pains me to admit that I am not sure I have ever made bran muffins.  It's just never been on my radar.  And that's one of the reasons I wanted to do the baking group.  I want to make things that I normally wouldn't make.  This week was perfect for me since it probably wasn't a recipe I would have picked and we all ended up really liking them.  

Tyler even said he liked them and wasn't expecting to.  I did take the recommendation of some of my fellow bakers on Facebook when they said to add chocolate chips and added them to half of my muffins.  Those were gone the quickest, are you surprised??  I wasn't.  We still had raisin-bran muffins left the next day and they were still pretty good.  Not as good as they were right after being baked but that is probably true of most things baked.

I chose to use the Original All-Bran Cereal in my muffins because that was the only one of the three options I could find at the store.  The recipe calls for half of the cereal to be processed in the food processor and half to be left whole.

 I got a gift certificate for Christmas and I bought these little spatulas because they were cute, but they have ended up being so handy.  I also bought a shot-glass size measuring cup to replace the one that made a trip down the garbage disposal right before Christmas.  It was a sad day.  A day of mourning.

 After whisking all the wet ingredients together, I was meant to let the cereal soak in it for 5 minutes.  I might have let mine soak a bit too long.  I had to go change my laundry though.  There is nothing I hate more than having a community laundry room and fearing someone will throw my clean clothes on the floor.  The timing was just terrible.  It might have sat for about 10 minutes.

 I don't know if it's because it sat for too long or if it's normal but I was a little worried when my muffin batter  more resembled cookie dough.  Oh, I wasn't too worried because I also just got this little scooper that I have been wanting to try out.  I tell ya, when life gives you lemons....

So half my cookie dough/batter got rasins and half got....

 The chocolate chips.  I mean, it looked like cookie dough anyway!

 And you want to know what was the perfect size for my new little scooping friend?  That's right, the mini muffin pan.  I am not sure why I am obsessed with making everything mini.  Maybe all my Bake52 posts will utilize this pan.

 Of course our favorite was the chocolate chip,

 but it kind of negated the purpose of the bran muffin.

Which led me to wonder just how healthy these muffins were anyway.

Have you guys heard of caloriecount.com?  I think it might be my new favorite website.  Well, if you ever wonder how many calories is in something, a particular recipe, they know.  You enter all of your ingredients and the serving size and this is what you get.  I didn't add the chocolate chips to the recipe, because let's face it, when you start throwing those in, we know you don't care about the calories.
This first number is for the mini-muffins.  The second is for the regular-sized muffins.  I like how it gives a nutrition grade too.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 42 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 106 Calories from Fat 27

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 3.0g 5%

Saturated Fat 1.7g 9%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 21mg 7%

Sodium 167mg 7%

Total Carbohydrates 18.5g 6%

Dietary Fiber 1.9g 8%

Sugars 9.0g

Protein 2.6g

Vitamin A 3% • Vitamin C 2% Calcium 5% • Iron 7%

Nutrition Grade C+

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• High in vitamin B6
• High in vitamin B12

Bad points

• Very high in sugar
• Contains alcohol

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 105 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 265 Calories from Fat 69

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 7.6g 12%

Saturated Fat 4.3g 22%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 53mg 18%

Sodium 416mg 17%

Total Carbohydrates 46.4g 15%

Dietary Fiber 4.7g 19%

Sugars 22.6g

Protein 6.6g

Vitamin A 8% • Vitamin C 5% Calcium 13% • Iron 18%

Nutrition Grade C+

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• High in vitamin B6
• High in vitamin B12

Bad points

• Very high in sugar
• Contains alcohol

I am going to add a link to my sidebar for this website too.  Not because they pay me (I wish) but because I love it so much and think it's such a great tool.  I used it quite a bit about a year ago and it's even improved since then.

If you'd like to get a hold of the recipe for yourself, Valerie (thanks for hosting this week!!) will be posting it HERE.

You can also check out what the other bakers did by going to the Bake 52 Crew page and if you want to know more about the group, check out the Bake 52 page.