Bran!

As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my grandma. Her and I would bake together and this is why I have such a passion for baking. She was an all-around awesome lady in every way, shape & form that a person can be awesome. Baking was just part of this and besides making what is perhaps the world's best apple pie, she also made some kick-ass bran muffins. While I am never able to replicate the deliciousness that was her bran muffins, I have found a recipe for bran muffins I am happy with. I adapted it from one of my "go-to" baking books (which I have mentioned before in this entry), "The Cookie and Biscuit Bible".

I'm having one of "those" mornings that accompany a shitty sleep. Being as baking is a way I cope with anxiety/stress AND I happened to have some ripe bananas on the counter, I decided to bake some bran muffins. I also needed an idea for a blog post for today so I thought I would share this recipe.

• 1 banana
• 2/3 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of flour (the original recipe uses two different types of flour. Feel free to use two different types such as brown rice & spelt, oat & spelt or whatever you desire. Also, you can just use one type and because I suck at math, I'm not going to work out how many cups that is total so just deal with. 'K thanks...)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (again, I am a cinnamon fiend so feel free to use less. I don't know why you would though because cinnamon is AWESOME and you would doing yourself a disserve to use any less than this...)
• 1/2 cup bran (I use real bran but feel free to use All-Bran cereal. Just soak it in the Almond milk and add it to the dry ingredients when you add the wet ingredients. I really don't know if All-Bran will work for this because I've never actually tried. So, if you try it, please let me know if it actually works. If not...sorry...whatevs...)
• 1/3 cup of walnuts
• 2 tablespoons of molasses
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 egg or equivalent egg replacer powder

1. Turn the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Mash the banana. Add the molasses, almond milk & egg replacer powder. Mix together. 
3. Mix the dry ingredients together. 
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix together.
5. Pour into muffins tins. Makes about 12 muffins.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean. 
7. Enjoy.

A few notes...

• Instead of one banana, you can use a 1/4 cup of pumpkin. If you do this, add ginger and pumpkin pie spice to the recipe AS WELL AS the cinnamon. Just add to taste basically. I think I usually add between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon of each. Basically, a 1/4 cup of any fruit puree would work for this. 
• THESE ARE FREAKING DELICIOUS WITH PEANUT BUTTER OR APPLE BUTTER (the natural stuff. Not the shit that has high-frutose corn syrup/glucose-fructose/fructose-glucose).

One change I want to try and make to this recipe, is to find a source of fiber instead of bran. I'm thinking psyllium husks, since (and please don't quote me on this) this is a gentler source of bran. Bran can be harsh on some people's digestive tracts and I'd like to find something else to use. Any suggestions?

If you end up trying this recipe, please let me know what you think of it and if you make any changes.

Have a good day :)