Seriously, fresh muffins are the way to go if you are serving soup for supper, or if you want to make a special breakfast, or if you just need a very comforting baked good without too much guilt.
I always lighten up muffins, and these days I am taking out the sugar, too. I use unsweetened applesauce in place of half the fat in the recipe. The other half of the fat is always going to be half butter and half olive oil - not extra virgin, but just regular so it doesn't have a really olivey flavor. For reducing sugar, use the full amount of honey or molasses, or 2/3 the amount of agave nectar. Adjust the liquid in the recipe down by about 2/3 and then add more as needed to get your batter to the correct consistency.
With those rules in mind, here's the recipe for the love muffins pictured above ... especially dedicated to my friend CaraMia in Merced who has kept after me to blog it. I adapted this from a recipe called "Brown Sugar Muffins" in an old ward cookbook from my mother-in-law's ward in Alaska.
Honey Wheat and Oat Muffins
1/2 c unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c butter, softened
1/4 c olive oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. honey
2 c all-purpose flour
2 c whole-wheat flour (see if you can find Wheat Montana flours; they are awesome but I don't know how available they are outside this state!)
1 c rolled oats (either quick or old fashioned is fine; I keep old-fashioned around because that's what I like best)
4 tsp baking powder
1 c plus 2 tbsp milk (adjust this; your flour may soak up more or less milk. You want a nice soft, gloopy muffin batter)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Heat oven to 375. Mix all ingredients until just combined. A lumpy batter is ok. You don't want to develop the gluten in your flour and make chewy muffins. Place in 24 lined muffin tins. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until tops spring back when touched.
Great for chicken noodle soup nights. I don't know about where you are, but it is still dang cold up here!
Ana Montana
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