Sharon Y. Cobb, www.SharonYCobb.com
Always looking for nutritious and delicious muffins to bake for Robert to take to work for afternoon tea, I found this recipe in the March 2013 issue of Health magazine. It makes yummy muffins and uses some very interesting ingredients. Since cranberries are not sweet and can be very bitter, when I first saw them in the recipe, I thought, “Yikes, that’s going to be one tart muffin.” But the sugar in the batter offsets the tartness and creates a well-balanced, tasty muffin. And this recipe uses olive oil instead of plain vegetable oil. It makes the muffin really moist!2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (I used King Arthur)
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cardamon
½ tsp. salt
1 orange
¾ cup sugar
2 large egg whites
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt
2 cups grated carrots
2 cups fresh, or thawed frozen cranberries, divided
¼ cup shelled pastachios, finely chopped
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tin with silicone or paper liners.
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients (through salt).
2. In another bowl, grate 1 tsp. orange zest and squeeze ¼ cup juice. Whisk in the sugar, egg whites, oil and yogurt.
3. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, until just moistened. Don’t over mix or muffins won’t rise well.
4. Fold in grated carrots and 1 ½ cups of the cranberries, reserving ½ cup for the muffin tops. (Has nothing to do with muffin tops around your waist when wearing skinny jeans. Oh, wait, maybe it does.)
5. Divide batter among muffin cups lined with silicone or paper liners. Top with chopped pistachios and remaining cranberries.
6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes. (Mine took 25 minutes.)
7. Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Take muffins out of pan and cool completely on rack.
Yield: 12 Yummy Muffins