Book #4: Wild About Muffins by Andrea Clubb

Wild About Muffins by Andrea Clubb

This is one of my go-to muffin books.  After all, when I'm thinking of muffins, there are a ton of cookbooks with muffins in them, but this one has so many variations--even savory, why look anywhere else??  I think this was a bit before the (current) health craze (from 1985), as you may see with excessive amounts of oil or butter.  It does however include many whole wheat and other flour recipes.

Today I made "Blueberry Bran Wheat Germ" muffins.  I was figuring out what to do with my extra bran flakes.  I actually used the cereal and removed the raisins (what is scary than biting into something thinking it's a blueberry and it is actually a raisin...).  I wasn't sure if it was ok to use the flakes, so I tried to crunch them up a bit.  I found as I was mixing ingredients some big brown spots.  I thought I had missed some raisins, but instead, they were clumps of brown sugar.  Note to self: always smush that up first!  What a pain to try to break them up later.

I experimented with a new ingredient today...whey!  It was a byproduct of making ricotta...which, no, I don't do regularly.  I'm taking this food science class online (a MOOC--massively open online course) which Harvard/MIT is nice enough to offer FREE.  I finally did the second lab and made ricotta.  Not too difficult!  (But it sure is easier to buy it...)  Anyways, there were 2 cups of leftover whey afterwards, and I had to search to figure out what to do with it.  I ended up substituting it for the buttermilk in the recipe.  

I also substituted olive oil for the oil.  I probably should have gone with coconut oil instead, the olive oil flavored it a little bit.

Now the recipe says 12-18 muffins.  I don't know how it could ever be 12 unless you have super giant muffin tins as I filled mine to the brim and it was still 19.  Granted the sili-cups were smaller.

Now the final product turned out pretty...

Except when I tried to remove them from the tin...too many blueberries maybe?  This is the crumbled mess it made.  Butter made everything better though.

I went searching for this cookbook to see if it was still for sale.  Then I found this book, with the author's name spelled wrong!  What a letdown to finally publish a book and then to have them spell your name wrong.  I don't know how that could get it out, so maybe it's only a draft.

Since this cookbook is only available from resellers, here's the recipe.

Blueberry Bran Wheat Germ

Makes 12 Large or 16 Medium
Preheat oven to 400 degrees (200 C) and prepare pan.

In large bowl add and combine well:
3 eggs
1 cup (190 g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (125 mL) oil
2 cups (425 mL) buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup (85 g) raw wheat germ
1 cup (60 g) bran

In smaller bowl combine well:
2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups (250 g) whole fresh or frozen blueberries

Combine wet and dry mixtures and fold together gently until just mixed.  Bake at 400 degrees (200 C) for 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on rack.