This morning, a Tupperware of leftover pureed pumpkin was staring at me and screaming “please don’t let me go to waste!!”. After considering some options, I chose to save this poor puree’s life and transform it into muffins. Because regular muffins are just not challenging enough to make, I decided that a twist must be added, and accepted a self-appointed mission to create dairy-free, egg-free, wheat-free, but definitely not delicious-free muffins! Round 1 was a success…I altered the bran muffin recipe on my flax meal bag to eliminate white flour, milk, and egg ingredients, and added in some pumpkin. Not bad. But then…
…what could be done to make even better muffins?
I swapped out brown sugar for honey and rice syrup (and cut the total sugar in half)…took out the pumpkin (mostly because I had used it all up in the last batch), added grated apple, fresh nutmeg, less liquid, and voila! Moist, slightly sweet, nutritious, liberated muffins…
Free Muffins
(dairy-less, wheat-less, egg-less)
These call for:
3/4 c. ground flax meal (plus 2 T. for egg substitute)
2 eggs (or substitute w/ 2 T. flax + 6 T. water…let sit in small bowl for 2 minutes)
1 c. oat bran
2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 of a grated nutmeg (or 1-2 t. ground)
2 t. cinnamon
3 T each honey and brown rice syrup (or 6 T of either)…molasses, agave, or syrup will do!
…if you do not have a liquid sweetener, use sugar/brown sugar and add 1/4 cup more liquid*
1.5 c. grated carrot (about 1 medium)
2 grated apples (medium-sized)
1/2 c. raisins (optional)
1 c. crushed nuts (or go nut-free for even freer muffins!)…I used walnuts
1 t. vanilla
1/4 c. liquid* (I used almond milk)…juice, milk, or water will do!
Preheat your oven to 350F and grease a muffin tin (makes about 12-15 muffins).
In a small bowl, prepare “egg” w/ 2 T. flax and 6 T. water, and let sit 2 minutes…or beat two eggs.
Add liquid* and vanilla to the egg and set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together 3/4 c. flax, oat bran, baking soda and powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, sweeteners, grated carrot and apple, (raisins), and (nuts).
Add small bowl to large bowl with rubber spatula and mix to just combine and moisten evenly. Spoon batter into muffin tins, and bake for 20 minutes, until knife inserted into muffin comes out clean.
Serve with nut butter, tea, coffee, juice, jam, or by themselves.
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