Off You Go

You know how muffins are just so dreadfully sweet sometimes, and much too much like cake? Now, not that I have an opposition to cake or anything, but sweet things in the morning seem to really botch up my mood. Okay, okay -- sweet things are okay, but not sweet foods in the morning. To fix all my problems, I decided to invent the perfect bran muffin. A little sweet, but not too sweet. A little delicate, but also substantial. So, here you go! You will be especially enamored by these muffins if you are the type of person who gets awfully nervous about getting the amounts right in baked goods. You can't mess these up! Well...I'm pretty sure you can't.

These Choose Your Own Adventure muffins (aka Off You Go muffins) were made in a triple batch this morning for my co-worker's last day of work. I found out that they are not only delicious and (semi) nutritious, but also really good at catching the tears that result from losing your terrific office mate. Thanks for all those, um, French moments and impressive (yet impromptu!) dance acts, D!

Keep in mind that this recipe is really flexible. You can mix and match all the fruits and nuts and spices to find the combo that you like best. Honestly, ALL the ingredients can be mixed and matched. Try all wheat flour, or whole oats rather than ground ones. Add fresh ginger, crystallized ginger, or cardamom, or any other spices that you have laying around. Swap the apples for pears, or swap monkey tails for the bananas. As long as you have approximately these same amounts of wet and dry ingredients, you'll be fine!

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 cup bran
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup ground oats
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1 t allspice
1 t ground ginger
1 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup pecan pieces

Mix wet ingredients in another bowl:
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 cup pumpkin or butternut squash puree
3/4 c applesauce
1 or 2 bananas, chopped or mashed
1/3 cup canola oil
1-2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

Add dry ingredients to wet. Mix it up! That's it! Then, into the muffin tins. (Optional: top with oats/brown sugar mixture.) Bake at 400 degrees, for about 17 minutes per pan. Cool for a bit in the pans, then take them out of the tins and cool them while simultaneously scarfing down a few. These store well in the fridge, but they also freeze pretty well. One batch makes about 16 muffins.