Greetings folks:

I have a recipe for bran muffins that my mom has made for years.
They're a nice moist and tasty muffin, but I'm trying to make them a
bit more healthy - mostly in the direction of less sugar and more
fibre. Not sure if I can reduce the fat in them or not.

I don't have the recipe itself with me, this is just the ingredients
off the top of my head. The recipe is for a rather big batch, the idea
is you make up this giant bowl of muffin mix and keep it in your
fridge, baking it as you require.

It has three cups of sugar (1.5 white, 1.5 brown), five cups whole
wheat flour, a quart of buttermilk, a couple of cups of All Bran cereal
(mixed with a cup or two of boiling water, and left to cool first), a
couple of cups of Bran Flakes, a cup of shortening, some baking soda
and salt, and raisins.

The last time I made them, I replaced one cup of flour with ground
flaxseed, and reduced the sugar by 1/2 cup. They still came out tasting
great with the same moist texture, so I'm thinking of reducing the
sugar by a further half cup next time around. Any other suggestions for
increasing fibre?

Thanks!

KD

On 2006-01-11, KD > wrote:
> Greetings folks:
>
> I have a recipe for bran muffins that my mom has made for years.
> They're a nice moist and tasty muffin, but I'm trying to make them a
> bit more healthy - mostly in the direction of less sugar and more
> fibre. Not sure if I can reduce the fat in them or not.
>
> I don't have the recipe itself with me, this is just the ingredients
> off the top of my head. The recipe is for a rather big batch, the idea
> is you make up this giant bowl of muffin mix and keep it in your
> fridge, baking it as you require.
>
> It has three cups of sugar (1.5 white, 1.5 brown), five cups whole
> wheat flour, a quart of buttermilk, a couple of cups of All Bran cereal
> (mixed with a cup or two of boiling water, and left to cool first), a
> couple of cups of Bran Flakes, a cup of shortening, some baking soda
> and salt, and raisins.
>
> The last time I made them, I replaced one cup of flour with ground
> flaxseed, and reduced the sugar by 1/2 cup. They still came out tasting
> great with the same moist texture, so I'm thinking of reducing the
> sugar by a further half cup next time around. Any other suggestions for
> increasing fibre?

That sounds like it already has plenty of fiber, but reducing the
sugar could definitely make it healthier. Reducing sugar will tend to
make them less moist and tender, though, and there's really no
substitute in that regard. You can try date sugar, which is just
ground dehydrated whole dates -- that's a form of sugar that includes
fiber and other nutrients, since it's the whole fruit. It also has a
nice flavor. It behaves like brown sugar in recipes. You can also
try adding fruit purée, like applesauce or mashed bananas. You'll
need to reduce the liquid a bit.

Beyond that, just keep testing with reduced sugar amounts until you
find the minimum amount of sugar that gives you an acceptable texture,
then quit worrying and enjoy your muffin!

You should also consider the health effects of that cup of shortening,
though -- assuming it's made with hydrogenated oils, then the trans
fats might be doing you much more harm than the sugar. Try using
liquid vegetable oil (canola oil, in particular) instead, or else one
of the non-hydrogenated shortenings from health food stores (mostly
made with palm kernel oil, which is probably better than trans fats
but still pretty bad for your heart) or just good old fashioned
butter. But this recipe should work well with oil or a mix of oil and
a little butter, especially if there's some applesauce in there.

--
Randall

Hmmm, I had thought about the shortening issue, but I thought that
substituting liquid vegetable oil would really foul up the mix. I'd
have to do a major adjustment on the liquids, and if it didn't work
out, that's a lot of muffins to have to throw away! Perhaps I could
substitute the applesauce or bananas for half the shortening, see if
that would work as a good compromise.

Is butter really any more heart-smart than hydrogenated oils such as
shortening?

Thanks!

KD

On 2006-01-11, KD > wrote:
> Hmmm, I had thought about the shortening issue, but I thought that
> substituting liquid vegetable oil would really foul up the mix. I'd
> have to do a major adjustment on the liquids, and if it didn't work
> out, that's a lot of muffins to have to throw away! Perhaps I could
> substitute the applesauce or bananas for half the shortening, see if
> that would work as a good compromise.

Your batter may be thinner with liquid oil, but that won't necessarily
ruin the muffins. Even shortening melts in the oven, but then the
eggs, starches, and proteins set and the whole thing turns solid.
There will be some difference in texture, but maybe not as much as
you'd think. Maybe try making a half-batch to test?

> Is butter really any more heart-smart than hydrogenated oils such as
> shortening?

The jury is out on that. It's a question of saturated fats vs. trans
fats. Both of them raise cholesterol, but in different ways.
Saturated fats tend to raise both HDL (good) and LDL (bad)
cholesterol, whereas trans fats raise only LDL. Obviously, it should
be preferrable to raise both good and bad than to just raise the bad
kind. However, the data on all of this is still quite inconclusive,
so don't take it as gospel truth.

Note that trans fats do also occur in natural fats and oils, but in
only trace amounts. Also, I have recently heard something about
manufacturers using fully hydrogenated oil (instead of partially
hydrogenated), which contains much less trans fat (a fully
hydrogenated fat is fully saturated; trans is unsaturated). These
tend to be too solid to use as shortening, so they then combine the
fully hydrogenated oil with non-hydrogenated oil to soften it. This
seems to be a new idea, I don't know if there is any validity to it or
if it has worked its way into products on the grocery store shelf yet.

--
Randall

KD wrote
>Is butter really any more heart-smart than hydrogenated oils such as
>shortening?
>Thanks!
>Kd

Shortening contains 15-25% hardened vegetable fat( primarily the
stearin and palmitin triglyceride fraction) . But it contains 50-65%
vegetable oil mostly the triolein fraction .The rest are incorporated
either air or nitrogen to confer the aerated shortening texture.

Butter contains 80% more of the saturated fat dispersed in its own
mixed triglycerides but mostly also of the palmitin and stearin
combination with other fatty acids..Not much air is incorporated also.

If you are watching for saturates butter is likely to contain more
than vegetable shortening. But if you are watching for trans
fats....vegetable shortening is notorious for its elaidin fraction
which is connected to cardiovascular disease

With butter it also contains its own share of transfats...IIRC in form
of conjugated linoleic acids ( CLA) which is found to be harmless( as
there is no evidence yet to prove otherwise...

So you have the facts... I leave it to you to decide< grin> which makes
a better bran muffn healthwise....butter or vegetable shortening..

Hmm...maybe I'll go with butter, as it is so much more appetizing than
a plain old white chunk of fat.

Next batch I will reduce the sugar again and replace some of the fat
with bananas maybe, see what happens. I think I'll leave the fibre
alone - the ground flaxseed probably adds a good amount. Can flaxseed
be substituted for all flour in a recipe? Just curious.

Fibre content is important to me because I'm pregnant. You have no idea
how important fibre is until you're expecting a baby.

KD

On 2006-01-12, KD > wrote:
> Hmm...maybe I'll go with butter, as it is so much more appetizing than
> a plain old white chunk of fat.

Keep in mind that butter is actually only about 80% fat, and the rest
mostly water. Oil, though liquid, contains no water -- oil and water
don't mix, after all. Most shortening contains very little water or
none, but usually a fair amount of air, so that volumetric
measurements give you roughly the same amount of fat as butter, but
less water, more air.


> Next batch I will reduce the sugar again and replace some of the fat
> with bananas maybe, see what happens. I think I'll leave the fibre
> alone - the ground flaxseed probably adds a good amount. Can flaxseed
> be substituted for all flour in a recipe? Just curious.

I doubt that would work in any recipe which relies on flour for
structure. Muffins rely on both flour and eggs for structure.

--
Randall

>Hmm...maybe I'll go with butter, as it is so much more appetizing than
>a plain old white chunk of fat.

Yeah....that is a wise choice...

BTW,,,,I made an error as I was not considering the water part of the
butter when comparing the fat content, I was considering (and focusing
)on 100 % fat vs fat basis.. between shortening and butter.
Maybe my earlier habit ( as an instittutional user ) of comparing
anhydrous milk fat (anhydrous butter) with shortening got the better
of me? <grin>..
Indeed ...for household use
.... water in butter should be part of the equation<grin>.

you might try a vegetable oil instead of the butter. If I recall your
original recipe correctly it is quite similar to one I make to sell. I use
regular vegetable oil in that; I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup, use 1 cup honey
and about 4 cups of raisins. I have made them with only the honey but they
don't taste quite the same and the baking time gets more difficult to guage
properly.
wendy
----- Original Message -----
From: "KD" >
Newsgroups: rec.food.baking
To: >
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 10:04 AM
Subject: Making healthier bran muffins


> Hmm...maybe I'll go with butter, as it is so much more appetizing than
> a plain old white chunk of fat.
>
> Next batch I will reduce the sugar again and replace some of the fat
> with bananas maybe, see what happens. I think I'll leave the fibre
> alone - the ground flaxseed probably adds a good amount. Can flaxseed
> be substituted for all flour in a recipe? Just curious.
>
> Fibre content is important to me because I'm pregnant. You have no idea
> how important fibre is until you're expecting a baby.
>
> KD
>
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On Wed 11 Jan 2006 06:03:43a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it KD?

> Greetings folks:
>
> I have a recipe for bran muffins that my mom has made for years.
> They're a nice moist and tasty muffin, but I'm trying to make them a
> bit more healthy - mostly in the direction of less sugar and more
> fibre. Not sure if I can reduce the fat in them or not.

This recipe was designed to use oil instead of shortening or butter. It
can be doubled if the quantity isn't as much ss you want. I suspect that
you could reduce the sugar by half, but I haven't tried it.

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

2 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3 cups Raisin Bran cereal
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts

In a large bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, and eggs; beat well. Add
remanning ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
(If desired, muffins can be baked later. Cover tightly; refrigerate for up
to 2 weeks.)

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffins cups or
line with paper liners. Fill prepared muffin cups 1/2 full. Bake for 20 to
25 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Immediatly
remove from pan. Yields: 30 muffins.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
__________________________________________________ ________________
And if we enter a room full of manure, may we believe in the pony.


Remove all "xxx's" from address to e-mail directly.

> Refrigerator Bran Muffins
>
> 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
> 1/2 cup vegetable oil
> 2 eggs
> 3 cups Raisin Bran cereal
> 2 1/2 cups flour
> 1 cup sugar
> 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
> 1 teaspoon baking soda
> 1 teaspoons salt
> 1/2 cup chopped nuts
>
> In a large bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, and eggs; beat well. Add
> remanning ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
> (If desired, muffins can be baked later. Cover tightly; refrigerate for up
> to 2 weeks.)
>
> When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffins cups or
> line with paper liners. Fill prepared muffin cups 1/2 full. Bake for 20 to
> 25 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Immediatly
> remove from pan. Yields: 30 muffins.
>
> --
> Wayne Boatwright *¿*
> __________________________________________________ ________________

This is my favorite bran muffin recipe. I've found it's better to bake all
the muffins and freeze them than to save the batter for 2 weeks. I know it
say you can do that, but the batter gets to looking really gross after a
week. Still smells fresh just doesn't look it.

Lynne