A new recipe...

I was on a bit of a mission today.  Taking pain mediation has made my already too slow bowels even slower.  So, instead of making another batch of baked oatmeal, I wanted to make bran muffins.  And I wanted those muffins to be made with Fiber One Cereal.  In the recesses of my mind, I hold the knowledge that I once made Fiber One bran muffins and they packed a wallop.  Just what I need.

I went searching for a recipe and found one that I could use as a base, but it had "healthy" alternatives on it, such as skim milk and egg substitutes.  I am not afraid of using eggs since it has clearly been established that all that hype about cholesterol was just hype.  Eggs are healthy.  Use them in cooking.  Eat them.  They are a good gift from God.

I had a bit of a snafu whilst I was cooking.  After I put the first tray into the oven, I realized that the recipe called for the oven to be at 400 degrees.  I had used my default 350 degrees when I set the oven.  SIGH.

I posted a frantic culinary-help-me on Facebook and my dear friend Emily came to the rescue.  She also said to think of this as a cooking experiment, since I had another tray (and then some) to cook.  I could cook the second tray at 400 degrees and note the difference.  She also told me that I'd probably have to sacrifice a muffin to cut into it to see how they were baking at the lower temperature.  This was 25 minutes.  The muffin was still a bit dense, so I cooked the other 11 for another 5 minutes.  This one, I ate with honey butter.

I love that I learned to make honey butter.

The ones on the left were the ones that I baked at 400 degrees.  This article explores the differences of cooking temperatures.  The higher temperature make the muffin tops a higher dome.

I wondered if you would see the difference in the liners, which I didn't use on the second tray.  So, I used liners, but at 400 degrees, for the final three muffins I had to bake.  Pretty big difference, eh?  I used the same amount of batter in both.

I am pretty pleased with the recipe that I ended up with during this process.  I decided to call them Bran Cereal Muffins, instead of just bran muffins because I want to eventually make bran muffins completely from scratch with the oat bran I have on hand.  As I said, I had to make some substantial changes to get what I wanted:  a flavorful, moist bran muffin.  I changed the type of milk and sugar and flour.  I dropped the egg substitute for real eggs.  I added spices and flavoring.  And I added dried cranberries.  I thought that the muffins turned out fantastic ... if you like bran muffins.  Most folk, I know, would be using raisons instead of dried cranberries.  I know that is more traditional. I just prefer dried cranberries, and I am the one eating these.  So, if you want to try the recipe and want to swap out the cranberries for raisons, it will not hurt my feelings!

Of course, I had to try the ones baked at 400 degrees just to see how they tasted. That's two bran muffins in one evening.  I have hopes for tomorrow.  At least I am trying to have hopes.  Hoping is not my strong suit.