Monday, May 25, 2009

What Seymour Made!

Remember Seymour? You know, the weird flower-head growing out of my garden's giant rhubarb plant? Yeah, I named him Seymour, and then proceeded to behead him (the flowering stem is inedible, and saps the nutrients from the rest of the plant... it had to be done!) and kidnap some of the "offspring" (read: stalks) to make these muffins! I figured that with the Spring gifts of the earth clearly being bestowed on us this year, it would be heresy to let it pass me by! I heard the call of the oven and I had

I had a triple berry blend in my freezer and a blackening banana on the countertop, so they became prime candidates for muffiny inclusion too. Then it was just dry + wet, and into the oven went the fruit, veggie (cause you know that's what rhubarb is!) and whole grain batter-filled paper cups. I then had to resign myself to waiting... for what seemed like forever... while these baked up, perfuming the whole house with a sweet bran aroma. When the time came and I pulled them from the oven, I saw...

SUNKEN MUFFINS

Yes, despite using a muffin recipe with the most basic of ingredients, the weight of the berries and rhubarb overpowered the strength of the batter. Even though they passed the "toothpick test", to be extra safe I broke one apart. Sure enough it was cooked through, just full of stuff. If I was going to serve these to company (they'd probably make delicious brunch fare) I'd simply fill the void with something like a slightly sweetened strawberry cream cheese - you can't go wrong with that!

If you have fresh berries, I highly reccommend using those to cut down on the sinkage. Likewise, if all you have is frozen rhubarb, toss it in a little bit of flour and add the bits to the batter while they're still frozen.

Banana - Berry Rhubarb Muffins
Makes 14
1 large banana, mashed
1/2 cup skim milk
2 tbsp nonfat plain yogurt
3 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup All-Bran cereal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 cup chopped rhubarb (fresh or frozen unthawed)
2/3 cup assorted berries (fresh or frozen unthawed)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F, line muffin cups with wrappers or lightly grease.
  2. In a large bowl, combine banana, milk, yogurt, oil, vanilla, sugar and All-Bran, mixing well. Set aside.
  3. In another bowl, whisk together flours, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
  4. Stir dry mixture gently into the wet ingredients to just moisten, then fold in the rhubarb and berries until the flour is just mixed through. Do not beat.
  5. Portion into the prepared tins and bake 30 minutes.
  6. Cool in the tin 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 123.6
Total Fat: 3.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.2 mg
Sodium: 14.4 mg
Total Carbs: 23.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
Protein: 1.9 g

I still have a glorious glut of the stuff in my garden, with an entire season ahead of me! I'm hoping I can find enough nibblers to test out some ideas I have going!

1 comment :

  1. Yeah - sometimes things sink, but oh well! Glad they were yummy anyway!

    ReplyDelete

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