Hi friends, I'm back after a small hiatus. I'm not baking as often as I used to because I'm trying to shed some pounds. I have lost quite a few and don't want to sabotage it by getting tempted. Finally I did bake some coffee flavored muffins and pumpkin biscuits last week, but was not satisfied with the result. My family and friends did like it but I was not comfortable posting it here because I felt it was not the best. You know me, I don't post recipes just for the sake of posting. But this usually happens to me. When I bake after a long break the first few things I try doesn't turn out good. So I was not surprised when it happened this time too. I was patiently browsing a few recipe sites to find a recipe that would break my "baking curse" and that's when I found the winner.
Tim Horton's is the Canadian version of Dunkin Donuts and we like the taste and flavor of the wheat carrot muffins there. It's not too sweet and has a mild orange flavor which we like in our baked goods. I have wanted to create an egg free and even healthier version of those carrot muffins for quite sometime now. So I didn't think twice when I found this high fiber carrot bran muffin recipe here. Even though I have posted carrot muffins recipe here before, I wanted to try the whole wheat version of it with bran cereal. So I made a couple of changes to make it egg free and for better taste too.
Recipe
High Fiber Carrot Bran Muffins
Ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS:
- 1 and ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 and ½ cups bran flakes (All Bran)
- ½ cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 zest of orange
- 1 cup grated carrots
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
WET INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups buttermilk
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
SUBSTITUTES:
- whole wheat pastry flour - equal parts whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour
- bran flakes - any high fiber cereal of your choice
- coconut palm sugar - brown sugar
- carrots - zucchini apples, pear, beets would also work
- raisins - any other dried fruit of your choice
- walnuts - any other nut of your choice
- buttermilk - diluted yogurt or 2 cups of non-dairy milk mixed with 2 teaspoons of vinegar
- avocado oil - any oil of your choice
- apple cider vinegar - white vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F/200C for 15 minutes. Line muffin pan with paper liners or grease it lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.
- In another medium sized bowl, stir together the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mix and combine until just mixed. Do not over mix the batter.
- Scoop out the batter, preferably using a big ice cream scoop and fill it in the tins.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean. Mine was done in 20 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a cooling rack for the muffins to cool. After about 5 minutes take the muffins out of the pan and cool it completely on a wire rack before storing it.
My Notes
- The original recipe had used 1 and ¾th cups of buttermilk and an egg. I increased the quantity of buttermilk by another ¼ cup to replace the egg. If you happen to have orange at home you can use ¼ cup of freshly squeezed orange juice instead if you like orange flavor. Using the zest alone, gives it a mellow orange flavor.
- If your want to create a vegan version of these muffins, then substitute the buttermilk with diluted non-dairy yogurt or mix 2 teaspoons of vinegar with 2 cups of non-dairy milk. Omit the teaspoon of vinegar in that case.
Taste & Texture
- These whole wheat carrot muffins turned out perfect. The texture was great, especially with the crunchiness of walnuts and it smelled good too from the cinnamon and orange zest. These muffins are not too sweet. If you want it sweeter then use 1 cup of raisins like the original recipe. I wanted walnuts in the muffins so used ½ cup each of raisins and walnuts. Do not try to eat these muffins or any other whole grain muffins warm because it needs to cool down completely so that it does not taste like "healthy food". The flavors have to settle for it to taste better. So I personally prefer eating them the next day.
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Caroline says
Wow are these ever good! I added 3 TBSP of flax meal to boost the fiber. Otherwise made exactly as recipe stated. Going in my "go-to" breakfast file! My batch made 17 muffins - 3 g of fiber per muffin.
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the feedback, Caroline.
michael melanson says
you can also make buttermilk by adding 1 tbsp vinegar to one cup milk
Margaret says
how much fiber is in each muffin?
Madhuram says
I will try to update the nutrition information shortly.
Cindi Waters says
I'd be interested in trying this recipe, but I'd like to know how many calories and the fiber count it contains. Thank you, and thank you for posting it!
Madhuram says
I will try to update it, Cindi.
fareeda says
I just made these muffins for tomorrow's breakfast. Wow...the texture was so soft and moist and delicious. The only change I made was using stevia for the sugar.
Thanks
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Fareeda. Now I want to try stevia too!
Jenna says
I found a discrepancy with the cook time... I followed the 12 minutes it shows on the top and they were the best muffins I ever made! I would be afraid to go a full 20 now
Madhuram says
Sorry Jenna, there has been a mistake in the recipe. I think it's 20 minutes as mentioned in the instructions. Such dense muffins do require that sort of time to bake completely. Do the toothpick test to make sure if you think that your muffins were done in 12 minutes itself.
Rita says
Perfect!!! I used oatmeal instead of bran flakes. Substituted raisin with cranberries. Lovely!!!
Madhuram says
That's great Rita.
Archana Pradeep says
Hello Madhu, No words to express the combo of this recipe. It was a very big hit in the family. texture is amazing and very soft. simply superb and very easy..
Madhuram says
You're welcome Archana.
Hari Chandana says
Wonderful combination.. bookmarked!!