Almond Butter & Jam Bran Muffins

The other recipe in the running from my late-night recipe hunting? Peanut butter muffins. Except, using almond butter, of course! I still had a tiny bit left of the all-natural, unsalted kind that I wanted to use up. And after making those almond-butter cookies, I can’t get enough of almond-butter or peanut-butter baked goods! I was skeptical of  my hunt, because as usual, I wanted it to be a nutritious good that could pass as a breakfast or a fulfilling snack. Cause I get a kick out of that. And hey, maybe I could find a recipe for a pb&j bran muffin? Not quite. But hey, since when don’t I adapt a recipe? I found one for whole-wheat peanut butter muffins, and decided to tweak it a bit. Here’s what I came up with! They are so. dang. addictive. Please – do no make mini-muffins. You will be popping them in your mouth every time you go near the kitchen. (I learned that lesson early-on in my baking career 🙂 )

Once again, I’m going to type the recipe exactly as I made it – and make notes at the end.

Ingredients:

–1/4 c. Spelt Flour

-3/4 c. Whole Wheat Flour

-3/4 c. Wheat Bran

-2 Tbs. milled golden flax

-1 Tbs. Baking Powder

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

-1/3 c. sugar/evaporated cane juice/stevia

-1 1/4 c. almondmilk

-1/3 c. all-natural, unsalted, unsweetened almond butter

-1 Tbs. maple syrup/honey/agave

-1 egg white

-1 Tbs. butter or buttery spread, melted

-1 Tbs. pumpkin puree/applesauce

-1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

-jam, preserves, or jelly of choice

-additional almond butter or peanut butter and almond milk, for glaze

Destructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*.

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, including sugar.

3. In a separate, smaller mixing bowl, combine wet ingredients except for jam/jelly. It may take a bit to get the almond butter incorporated – just do the best you can. It will work out once you combine wet and dry.

4.…which you should do now.

5. Be careful not to overmix – stir just until combined. Spray 12 muffin cups well with non-stick spray (make sure you get them good!) and fill each cup half-way with the batter.

6. Line up your soldiers:

And place a dollop in the center top of the batter.

6. Top with the remaining batter – I actually got a perfect twelve medium sized muffins.

7. Bake for twenty minutes. Once baked, remove from muffin tin and allow to cool. Or just eat half of them warm – that’s a more logical thing to do, really.

Obviously, I’d already helped myself.

Serving Suggestion: Drizzle with a mixture of almond milk and/or greek yogurt and almond butter and additional jam or preserves.

What are my thoughts, and what would I do differently?

-Once again, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome based on all of my changes! I tend to get nervous when baking without any white/all-purpose flour just because I’m afraid they’ll come out dense and ugly, even if they taste fine. These came out quite light, and the peanut butter and bran flavor was quite pleasing. And they smelled like heaven while baking. Yes, heaven. (p.s. good batter here, ladies. and I’m not a batter fan! hey – just had to check the spice prportions!)

–They do, however, have a mild-moderately strong bran flavor (which I love) but if you’re on the fence about bran, either cut back on the whet bran and use some oat bran, or cut back on the wheat bran and use more whole wheat flour.

-Because of the wheat bran and all-natural almond butter, they are also not super sweet – you could easily get away with using your normal, slightly sweetened peanut or almond butter. Made like this, they’re fine for me, but again, I don’t like my baked goods super sweet. That and they’re fine with a dollop of additional jam.

-I used maple syrup, but I think honey would be really good too – will use that next time I think 🙂 Peanut butter, banana, and honey muffins, anyone? Oh, snap.

-Don’t be afraid to use a good amount of jam in the center – I just used a tiny bit, I was nervous it’d get all oozy and messy. I’ll use more next time, though, as this wasn’t an issue.

-One last thing? You could easily do without the spelt flour. After making the scones, I just had a tiny bit left and decided to use it up 🙂

Based on These nutrition facts:

-110 calories, 6g total fat, 2.5mg cholesterol, 30mg sodium, 115 mg potassium, 12.5g carbohydrates, 3.5g fiber, 4g protein (based without jam, depends on your ingredients and adjustments, too)

next time I think I’d add a nut-topping, maybe some chia seeds, more flax, or…?

just to amp it up a bit. Or try the whole peanut butter-banana-honey idea of course 🙂

Sooo. I’m off for my lunch date! See you guys tonight 🙂