Sherm's Megamuffins
From CRSWiki
Originally developed by Michael Sherman.
Contents |
Ingredients
18 servings (85 g each).
Wet ingredients
- 4 cup (450 g) frozen strawberries
- ⅔ cup (150 g) nonfat plain yogurt
- ½ cup (110 g) water
- 3 oz (100 g) frozen orange juice concentrate
- 3 large (100 g) egg whites
- 1 large (50 g) whole fresh egg
- 1 medium (70 g) carrot
- ¼ medium (45 g) avocado
Large dry ingredients
- 1 cup (120 g) rice bran
- 1 cup (80 g) psyllium husk
- ⅔ cup (75 g) flax meal
- ¼ cup (60 g) brewer's yeast
- ¾ cup (65 g) soy protein powder
- 2 cup (55 g) dehydrated blueberries (or substitute)
- ¼ cup (30 g) raisins (or dried fruit)
- ¼ cup (30 g) raw wheat germ
- 3 Tbsp (30 g) raw sunflower seeds
- ⅓ cup (20 g) wheat bran
- ¼ cup (20 g) nonfat dry milk
Small dry ingredients
- 1 Tbsp (15 g) potassium-based (no sodium) baking powder
- 1 Tbsp (6 g) powdered cinnamon
- 1 tsp (2 g) ginger
- 1 tsp (2 g) nutmeg
- 1 tsp (1 g) powdered pure stevia extract (sweetener)
- 2 g calcium (elemental) supplement
- 30 mg zinc (elemental) supplement
Substitutions
You can substitute 3 oz (approximately 3 cups or 85 g) of dehydrated cherries, apricots, cranberries, etc. instead of the 2 oz of dehydrated blueberries and 1 oz of raisins. This has no significant effect on muffin nutrition. When I make two batches at once, I use different dried fruit in each batch for variety. Other dehydrated (or just dried, if you can't get dehydrated) fruits would probably also work fine, as long as they provide a total of 300 calories. Reduce the water if you substitute wetter fruit.
Spices are a matter of personal preference. The mix I listed above has gotten the best response so far. You might want to experiment with different quantities, using cloves or allspice, and whatever else you can think of.
Other non-caloric sweeteners could be used in place of stevia (provided they can stand the heat), or you can just leave out the sweetener altogether. I believe Splenda (sucralose) would be a good choice although I haven't tried it.
If you can find high-DHA (22:6) omega-3 eggs, use one for the whole egg. You might also consider substituting a second whole DHA egg for the avocado. Don't use expensive DHA eggs for the whites — only the yolk contains DHA. If all you can get is high-LNA (18:3) eggs I wouldn't bother with them at all.
You can use ½ cup of commercial liquid egg whites (e.g. Egg Beaters or All White) in place of the three hand-separated egg whites.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Spray muffin trays (18 muffin forms, preferably non-stick) lightly with canola oil- or olive oil-based spray like Pam. Then use a paper napkin to spread the oil evenly and absorb excess. I don't use any paper muffin inserts; they seem unnecessary and might stick to the muffins.
- Defrost strawberries in microwave for 3 minutes on full power (this is to avoid destroying your blender).
- Mix together the small dry ingredients (baking powder, supplements, spices and stevia) in a small bowl. If the supplements are not already in powdered form, crush them to a fine powder. Be sure to mix these small ingredients well so that they will end up evenly distributed in the muffins. Set aside.
- Mix together the remaining dry ingredients except dried fruit in a large bowl. These are rice bran, soy protein, flax meal, brewer's yeast, psyllium, nonfat dry milk, wheat bran, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds. (If you don't like crunchy sunflower seeds in your muffins, grind them in a coffee grinder first before adding to the dry ingredients.) Mix thoroughly and break up any lumps (the soy protein is particularly prone to form lumps).
- Pour the small dry ingredients into the large bowl and mix thoroughly until all ingredients are uniformly distributed. Set aside.
- Mix wet ingredients in a blender. These are strawberries, yogurt, orange juice concentrate, eggs, carrots, avocado, and water. Run blender on high to create a smoothie-like texture. This mixture fills my blender to within about an inch (2.5 cm) of the top.
- Pour blender mix into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly by hand until you have a uniform mixture. This is hard work for about 5 minutes. Make sure there are no dry spots left.
- Finally, add in the dehydrated blueberries and raisins (or cherries, dried apricots or whatever) and mix until uniformly distributed. This must be done last because otherwise bits of dry powder will hide inside the crevasses of the dried fruit, to be discovered unpleasantly in the final product.
- Quickly distribute the now-rising dough evenly into 18 medium-size muffin forms, which should be overfilled by the mixture. The best method I've found for this is to use an ice cream scoop of the kind that has a lever and a built-in scraper to make the sticky stuff fall off. One heaping scoop in each muffin form should just consume all the mix (this takes a little practice). Make sure that every muffin ends up with some of the dried fruit in it. Don't pat the muffins down if you can avoid it, because that pops some of the bubbles created by the leavening — just plop the dough into the forms and leave it alone.
- Cook in preheated oven for 40 minutes. If you make two batches swap them top-to-bottom in the oven after 20 minutes since it is always hotter at the top and you want both batches to get the same amount of heat.
- Remove from oven and let stand until cool enough to touch (5-10 minutes).
- Pack in zippered plastic freezer bags to retain moisture. Keep refrigerated or frozen. I put them straight into the freezer.
- To eat, microwave a frozen muffin 60 seconds on high. I find they taste better after freezing and microwaving than they do when eaten hot out of the oven.
Baking two batches of muffins from start to finish including clean-up takes me 2½ hours. Cooking one batch takes almost as long, so you might as well do two at a time if you decide to make these a staple in your diet. 36 muffins lasts me from about a month to six weeks.
Ingredient notes
Try hard to get rice bran — it is probably the most important ingredient for nutrition. Buy it in sealed containers if possible, though open-bin rice bran is better than nothing! I can get Ener-G rice bran at a local health food store. You can easily get it by mail from their website. Look under "flours" to find the rice bran product and buy the 8 oz (227 g) size which costs less than $2! You can also order the product by telephone (1-800-331-5222). The recipe calls for exactly half a package (a heaping cup) for each batch of 18 muffins. Keep this product refrigerated if you buy extra.
Frozen strawberries are at my local supermarket. Organic ones were available at the health food store but were more expensive and noticeably lower in vitamin C. Of course fresh is always an option!
For the orange juice, buy a 6 oz cardboard can and cut it in half with a serrated knife. Then put the unused half in a baggie and stick it back in the freezer for next time. If you make two batches, as I do, then you use both halves of the can in one baking session — very convenient!
For the protein powder, try to find some with as few extra ingredients as possible. Unfortunately a lot of commercial protein powder has sweeteners and flavoring; you don't want that. Just plain old soy protein isolate if you can get it.
I use a commercially-prepared flax meal for convenience. You can easily make your own with flax seeds and a coffee grinder. But don't use the same grinder for coffee. Don't use plain flax seeds without grinding because they will not digest well and you won't get those all-important omega-3 fatty acids where you want them. Don't use flax oil because it won't survive baking.
If you have to use a sodium-based baking powder, that's OK. Also, try to find aluminum-free baking powder if possible but there is no need to panic if you can't.
If you choose to use supplements, as I did for calcium and zinc, please note that the amounts listed are *elemental*. You may need a larger amount of supplement to provide the required elemental amount. I use 6 calcium carbonate powder capsules of 1 g each to get a total of 2 g of elemental calcium.
Nutrition facts
| Per serving (85 g) | |
|---|---|
| Calories (kcal) | 150 |
| Carbohydrates | 22 g |
| Protein | 10.2 g |
| Fat | 5.2 g |
| Omega-3 PUFAs | 0.8 g |
| Omega-6 PUFAs | 2.1 g |
| Vitamin A | 26 % |
| Vitamin C | 32 % |
| Vitamin E | 28 % |
| Calcium | 20 % |
| Magnesium | 49 % |
| Fiber | 8 g |
