Spiced Bran Muffins

Baked Goods ... yum!!! Baked goods have always been a weakness of mine since I was a little girl. As a teenager I worked at the best Italian bakery in the town I grew up in, our master baker was trained by the famous "Mike" of Mike's Pastry in the North End of Boston ... so you can only imagine what yumminess that was baked daily and eaten daily by myself and all my co-workers. So as I got older I find I am still drawn to bakeries all the goodness that comes out of them, weather healthy or not. And that is where these spiced bran muffins come into play.

I think I have mentioned before that I am an avid reader of Real Simple Magazine, Daily Thoughts, and Weekly Recipes. Everyday I eagerly await for my email to come in and see what Real Simple is delivering me. The recipes though seem to only come once a week ... but when they come I think of when I can make it, who I want to make it for and how can I alter this recipe and make it all my own.

Then this recipe came, Spiced Bran Muffins, I was so excited about making muffins that are 262 calories and have 3g of fiber per muffin. I have just found healthy baked goods ... these are muffins I had to make.

This is what I did ...

Ingredients
1 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup gluten free all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup Greek plain yogurt

1/3 cup molasses
1 cup currants (or raisins)

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oat bran, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and salt; set aside. In a second bowl beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high until smooth. Add the eggs and beat to combine. Add the yogurt and molasses and beat to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated. Fold in the currants.

Spoon the batter into a muffin tin lined with paper liners. Bake until cooked through and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

Serve with butter or jam, if desired . YUM!!!

Of course there are ways to make this recipe gluten-free and even lactose free, this time not too much changing. When I do I will update this post and what was changed.