Veg-Heads Can Bake, Too!

Note to readers: I am not a vegetarian, but I like to learn about dietary habits of all sorts. In addition, I know I have readers who enjoy all kinds of different foods and come from various food backgrounds. Therefore, I thought I would give these muffins a try!

I love to bake and, lately, I have been reading Skinny Bitch In the Kitch: Kick Ass Recipes for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!), a fantastic baking and cooking resource for vegans. If you have not read the prelude to this book, Skinny Bitch, you may want to give it a shot. While I don’t necessarily agree with the authors, Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, angry and get skinny-or-it’s-not-worth-living approach, there is a lot of the interesting information about governmental standards for food processing.

So, anyway, I decided to make the book’s Basic Fruit and Nut Muffins this morning and, after eating two yummy muffins, decided that it was a great recipe to share with you!

Now, as a Skinny Bitch you must decide what kind of muffins you are going to make (see below for variations). I chose the Apple Cinnamon Muffins and, although the recipe says to omit the nuts, I was feeling rebellious and added 1/2 cup slivered almonds. I also threw in a small handful of raisins — YOUR CHOICE!!

Basic Fruit and Nut Muffins

Makes 12 standard-sized muffins

1/4 cup refined coconut oil, melted, or safflower oil, plus more for greasing muffin tins (I used safflower oil.)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup Sucanat or other dry sweetener

1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer (I forgot to buy this, so I used 1/4 cup applesauce instead — another great egg replacement. 1/4 cup applesauce or 1 mashed banana or 1 tablespoon of Ener-G all equal about one egg.)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 1/4 cups soy milk (I used EdenBlend Original Rice & Soy.)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup fresh or dried fruit, diced or chunked if necessary (I diced about 2 small apples and threw in a bit of raisins.)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Now Choose Your Muffin…

*Apple Cinnamon Muffins:

Use apples for the fruit, omit the nuts, and add 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves to the dry ingredients.

*Cranberry Orange Muffins:

Add the zest of 1/2 orange. Use dried cranberries for the fruit and omit the nuts.

*Tropical Macadamia Nut Muffins:

Add the zest of 1/2 orange, combine banana and shredded coconut for the fruit and use macadamias for the nuts.

*Zucchini Raisin Muffins:

Combine shredded zucchini and raisins for the fruit, omit the nuts, and add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger to the dry ingredients.

Now that you have all of the ingredients, it is time to bake! :

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a standard-sized muffin tin or use muffin liners.

In a large bowl, combine the pastry flour, Sucanat, baking powder, salt and egg replacer (If you are not using Ener-G, save the egg replacer for the liquid ingredients). In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy milk, oil and vanilla. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until barely combined. Stir in the fruit and nuts, if using.

Transfer the batter to the prepared muffin tin, dividing it evenly. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

And, VOILA! They should look nice and pretty, like mine:

ENJOY!!