Tasty Tuesday: the Quintessential Bran Muffin

December 2, 2008

This is my mom’s bran muffin recipe. It is perfect. Mom used to serve bran muffins with any of her soups, especially on Sunday afternoons after church. Just tonight we ate bran muffins with vegetarian split pea soup. It was perfect.

The very best thing about this recipe is that you can store it in the fridge for up to six weeks. That means that you can bake fresh, delicious bran muffins any morning you feel like homemade muffins! My family LOVES hot-out-of-the-oven muffins and they feel so loved when I make them fresh for breakfast.

So here’s the recipe:

Graham Gems

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Stir together all of the following:

1 c. oil (years ago my mom used Crisco, but doesn’t anymore)
2 c. boiliing water (well, I often cheat and just use the hottest water from the tap)
3 tsp. salt
3 c. sugar
4 eggs
6 c. All Bran, or a mix of bran cereals (I’ve even used GrapeNuts and Wheat Chex in the absence of real bran cereals, and it turned out okay)
5 c. white flour
5 tsp. bakiing soda
1 Qt. buttermilk
2 c. raisins (optional)

Drop by spoonfuls into greased/Pam’d muffin cups, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and the top springs back when you touch it.

Store remaining batter in a tightly sealed container in the fridge. This batter is actually better any time after the second day when the bran has had a chance to start breaking down.

Serve warm with butter, jam, or honey. Serving them with peanut butter makes them more substantial for breakfast.

December promises to be a great month of tasty recipes at My Sister’s Kitchen. Starting later this week, we’ll be revisiting some of our favorite Christmas classics as well as sharing new discoveries.

Barb Kelley

Category Posted in Cooking/ Recipes, restaurants No Comments »

Ask the Mom Squad: Freezing Pumpkin Bread

December 1, 2008

RML asks:

What is the best way to freeze pumpkin bread? Cranberry Bread? How long will it last in the freezer and what’s the best way to serve after freezing (i.e. thaw time & reheating)? Thanks so much. Oh yeah, is there a healthier AND tasty way to make these breads other than using shortening or butter?

Our Food/Cooking Expert, Barb Kelley, says:

The best way to freeze pumpkin or other sweet bread is to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and then put it into a ziplock bag. The key is wrapping the bread as airtight as possible. To thaw it, let it sit on the counter for several hours. If you need to speed the process up, you can unwrap the plastic and wrap the bread in foil. Put the foil-wrapped bread in a 250° oven for 20-30 minutes before serving. My mom swears by the defrost setting on her microwave for thawing brown breads, but I don’t trust my microwave with my baked goods.

You can almost always make bread healthier; the trick is maintaining excellent taste and texture. An easy way to lighten up brown breads is to reduce the sugar by up to one third and by substituting applesauce for up to half the oil. And speaking of oil, you can always substitute oil for solid shortening or butter with a good result. Oil is a healthier option than Crisco!

You can substitute whole wheat flour for 1/4 to 1/3 of the total flour without a huge difference in texture. You can often reduce the salt by half. I don’t recommend eliminating salt altogether because that will adversely affect flavor. Since everyone has a different idea of what is just the right taste or texture, it’s best to experiment.

I really like my pumpkin bread recipe: http://mysisterskitchen.wordpress.com/2006/09/25/perfect-pumpkin-bread/

It does contain a good bit of sugar and oil, but it also makes 5-6 loaves.

Barb Kelley

If you have any other suggestions, ad them in the comments! And if you have a question for the Mom Squad on any topic, send it in! (Click here)

Category Posted in Ask the Mom Squad, Cooking/ Recipes, Tips and Tricks No Comments »

Pumpkin-Growing for Procrastinators

November 29, 2008

I’m going to share a sure-fire way to have beautiful pumpkins in your garden (or perennial bed) next summer. How did I learn this amazing tip? From experience, of course!

It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving, and it’s time to put away the hay bales, pumpkins and cornucopias in your outdoor display! What? You already have? Well, this won’t work for you, then, but keep reading anyway!

My tip is this: procrastinate. Leave it out there till the bottoms of the pumpkins rot. (This really won’t be visible by on-lookers, only you will know.) I actually think that in this picture, the offending pumpkins had already been swept behind the bales. Then get your husband to cover the rotting pumpkins with mulch, because if he picks them up, they will just fall apart. OK - Outdoor decorating faux pas averted!

Now, forget about it until the spring, when you will see this:

Transplant to garden (or huge patch of land- pumpkins sprawl like you would never imagine) Voila! Pumpkin Planting for Dummies!

Bonus tip: To grow cute gourds for the fall, throw all your cucumber and squash scraps behind a big tree on the outskirts of your property. Wait till you see a vine growing up with these funky looking cuke-ish squashy things. Put them in your fall display! There you go!

Do you have any Real Life tips to share?

Category Posted in Just For Fun, Tips and Tricks 2 Comments »