Oat-Branana Muffins with Cinnamon Glaze (Vegan!)

  • Oat-Branana Muffins with Cinnamon Glaze

    I have no idea why, but I had a hankering to make something with oat bran.  Oat bran sounds terrifically unfun, doesn’t it?
    (Well, wheat germ takes the cake in the “this doesn’t sound like I’m going to love it” department, but oat bran is a close second.  Sorry, I’m forgetting about All Bran.  All Bran wins the blue ribbon, wheat germ takes second prize, and oat bran rounds out the top three of potentially colon-blowing, unappetizing ingredients to throw into a website dedicated to all things good and sweet and sinful.)

    Back to the recipe at hand.

    Despite the rocky start with the whole oat bran word association, I am very happy with these muffins for several reasons:

      1. I am kind of proud of the nerdy name.  “Oat-Branana”… get it? 
      2. These muffins are so freaking good for you.  Yes, the oat bran, oatmeal and whole wheat flour offer their “hello, fiber” benefits, but consider this: honey replaces sugar (that addictive crack of the kitchen), and very little fat is added (canola is a heart-friendly oil).
      3. The recipe is vegan!  (Vegan, with an exclamation mark!)  I’m not vegan.  The Husband isn’t vegan.  But people in this world are vegan, and deserve tasty things, don’t they?
      4. I found a home for the lonely, over-ripe bananas on the counter.  A special (and strange) sense of satisfaction sets in when I work the almost-ready-to-turf bananas into a recipe instead of the garbage.
      5. The taste: I know, I know- who cares it they’re vegan and healthy and that I got to use up two stupid bananas and that they have a cute name.  Do they taste good?  Yes, of course.  I wouldn’t lead you astray.  The glaze takes these muffins to a new level of yum.  (I have to admit- I screwed up when I made these.  I added something excellent but incredibly un-vegan.  Oops.)

    1/2 cup oat bran
    1/2 cup rolled oats (not instant)
    3/4 cup almond milk
    2 bananas, very ripe and mashed
    1/2 cup honey
    1/4 cup vegetable oil (preferably canola oil)
    2 egg replacements (by Ener-G brand, for example)
    1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
    1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
    1 tablespoon baking powder
    3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

    CINNAMON GLAZE:
    1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
    1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    1 teaspoon almond milk (or water), plus or minus

      1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease 12 muffin cups with canola oil non-stick spray (or 1 1/2 tins of mini-muffin cups).
      2. In a small bowl, combine oat bran and oats with milk, and set aside.
      3. In a medium bowl, mash bananas with a fork.  Stir in honey, vegetable oil, egg replacements and vanilla, then stir into oat mixture.  (Follow steps on box of egg-replacement powder to basically substitute for 2 eggs, or for egg alternatives, see Tips below.)
      4. In a separate medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and cinnamon together and then stir into oat mixture.
      5. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups and bake for 18 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  (For mini-muffins, bake for about 12 minutes.  For a large loaf of bread, bake for about an hour.)  Allow to cool in muffin tins for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
      6. GLAZE: stir ingredients together and brush over muffins while still slightly warm.  Sprinkle sugar-in-the-raw granules over wet glaze if you’d like a crunchy something-something.

    Tips:

    • No almond milk?  No worries.  Use any other milk of your liking… soy, coconut… just not moo milk (unless you don’t care about the whole vegan thing).
    • No egg replacer in the pantry?  I know, I know- I just happened to have it but hardly use it.  If you don’t care about this recipe being vegan, then just whip two egg whites until fluffy and use in the recipe.  If you do care, well then.  Add two tablespoons of ground flax seeds to six tablespoons of warm water to mush up, and use instead of the two eggs in this recipe.  (Hold your breath, hoping it works out.  Please tell me if it does.  Or doesn’t.)  You could also use 1/4 cup of silken tofu for each egg you’re replacing, so for two eggs here… I trust you can do that math, smart baker.
    • Bananas must be really ripe.  Promise me you won’t compromise the recipe with pretty yellow-skinned bananas, okay?
    • Chocolate chip fiend?  Yes, I read you.  Omit the cinnamon and just throw in almost a cup of chocolate chips.  Just be careful not to use milk chocolate chips, for sort-of-obvious reasons.  (You could keep the cinnamon in the recipe if you like the cinnamon-choco combo, but I find most don’t love it.)
    • Don’t care if you do the vegan thing and want to add in a super-excellent ingredient?  Try the decidedly un-vegan cinnamon chips from King Arthur Flour.  Highly recommended, but also highly dairy.  Dammit.  (See my latest recipe for disaster here.)
    • The glaze is optional but so lovely.  You know how I feel about glaze, after all.

     

     

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    February 27th, 2013 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , , ,

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