Saturday, June 11, 2011

Stressed Students and Spelt

I know – you’re probably sick and tired of hearing me moan and groan about school. Well, this isn’t all a whine-a-thon, I promise! As a group, our student body were sidelined from any sort of realty by our final exam for the Body Metabolism course. While the teacher, thankfully, was a fair, honest and all-around nice person (come on, she baked muffins, cookies and cake for us the day of!) the material on said exam was anything but nice. She had given us due warning, not to mention several “hints” and “gimmes” as to the questions that would show up – so the entire weekend (and Monday and Tuesday) prior found us all practically embedded in our books and notes. The weekdays before the exam saw the attendance levels drop like a rock, too, and by the time we actually started writing the stress level was palpable.

So, to break the ice and ease my own studying stress, I did what I always do – head to the kitchen and crank up the oven. I wanted to make something slightly sweet but not guilt-inducing, hearty and – yes – healthy enough to sate the nutritionist crowds at the Institute. Vegan and whole grain went without saying, and I even made a conscious effort to ix-nay my usual almond milk in favour of a small box of soy so that the few girls in the building with allergies could take part too. Making a bran muffin popped into my head, since I had a ton of it in my pantry, and I knew I could make a decadent and moist version that wasn’t stodgy! They wound up becoming the carrier for pretty much everything under the sun that I could get my hands on (except – gasp – chocolate!), and the result was a decadent, dark, sticky muffin that went like wildfire. My mom managed to grab a single one to bring on a business trip, and apparently it garnered “oohs” from the rest of the coffee-break crowd!

Moist Vegan Bran Muffins
15 muffins
¼ cup ground flaxseed
½ cup hot water
1 cup wheat bran
1 cup spelt bran
½ cup spelt flakes
1 cup whole spelt flour
½ cup psyllium fibre husks
½ tsp stevia extract powder
¼ cup whole flaxseeds
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup Demerara sugar
3 tbsp agave nectar
1/3 cup applesauce
equivalent of 2 eggs in Ener-G egg replacer powder, prepared
1 cup vegan "milk"
1/3 cup canola oil
½ cup raisins, soaked in hot water and drained (reserve 3 tbsp soaking liquid)
1/3 cup chopped prunes

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F, line 24 muffin cups or grease well.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together flaxseed and hot water. Let stand 10 minutes.
  3. In a medium bowl whisk together brans, spelt flakes, flour, psyllium, stevia, flaxseeds, chia seeds, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
  4. In a large bowl beat together sugar, agave, applesauce, egg replacer, flax mixture, "milk" and oil until smooth.
  5. Add dry ingredients and stir in just to combine, then fold in the raisins (with their reserved liquid) and prunes.
  6. Bake for 15-17 minutes.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 190.8
Total Fat: 7.4 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 21.5 mg
Total Carbs: 32.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 9.8 g
Protein: 4.8 g

Moist Vegan Spelt Bran Muffins on Foodista

2 comments :

  1. What a great recipe! I just happened upon your site (looking for your West Coast-inspired muffins from a few years ago). Looking forward to following you for more healthy recipe inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice recipe! That's a long list of ingredients but that must be really good.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for the feedback!