Muffin Mania

I had a hankering for muffins the other day and so I tried Everyday Food's Blackberry-Oat bran muffins. I don't know why everything is highlighted in red.  Ignore that.  Sigh.

Blackberry-oat bran muffins by everyday food

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2/3 cup oat bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar, divided
2 large eggs
2 teasoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups chopped blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk together, flour, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

2. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla combined. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in 2 additions, alternating with buttermilk and beat until combined. Fold in blackberries

3. Divide batter among muffin cups and sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon sugar. Bake until a toothpick in center of muffin comes out with moist crumbs attached, 20-25 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack five minutes, then transfer muffins to rack and let cool completely. (store in an airtight container up to 3 days)

I figured that while I was at it why not make more so I made Anna Olson's Strawberry banana muffins as seen here http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Fruit/recipe.html?dishid=7791

                     Ingredients

• 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar, to toss with strawberries
• 2/3 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F and grease or line muffins tins with paper cups.
2. Toss strawberries with 2 Tbsp sugar and set aside. In a large bowl, stir banana, remaining ½ cup sugar milk, egg whites, oil and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir dry ingredients into banana mixture just until blended. Fold in strawberries and spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before turning out.

Both easy to make - here is how they turned out:

The giant chunks of strawberry are very visible!

The blackberries distributed themselves nicely.

Now I should confess - my family doesn't like either one of these.  They grudgingly tried these and either made fake yummy faces or grimaced and ran away.  I guess you have to make do with my ratings only since I actually like muffins.  LOL

This is actually the third time I have made the Banana Strawberry ones.  They are VERY low fat which I think is the reason I keep making them.  :)   These muffins are ok.  They aren't great.  They are quite heavy and need...something.  The base is there but they are lacking something to make them awesome.

The blackberry bran are good.  I will make these again.  Right now these live in my freezer and I dip in a couple mornings a week when I haven't had time to eat before leaving the house.