A Muffin With a Carbon Footprint

Living four vast provinces east of my parents makes it nearly impossible to skip home on any given day for an afternoon snack, a hearty meal, or heck, just a baked good. It forces you to recreate the recipes you remember from childhood or to visit your local baker weekly hoping to find something that might suffice.

However at the end of the day, you may just not have added enough flour, or the baker may have used currants instead of raisins...It's just not the same.

The distance between my parents and I has unknowingly developed a "meals on wheels" program, rather a "fare in air" one. It doesn't happen very often, obviously. But when that brown box arrives with my name on it, you can only imagine how ecstatic I am.



Around the age of 12 I thought it would be a great idea to give up sugar. That's right. Sugar. What 12-year-old in their right mind would say no to the "oh-so-sweet, makes-you-feel-good-about-yourself-when-you're-down" tasty treat? Well, me.

I read the ingredients on nearly every packaged product in the grocery store and if there was any word with "ose" as its suffix it went right back on the shelf.

As a result, my oversupportive mother began whipping up dishes and baked goods sans sugar. I was in heaven...Specifically, molasses heaven. After a few alterations, she had created the most incredible raisin molasses bran muffin I had ever laid eyes on.



Even though it is similar in appearance to a bear's feces and it could be mistaken for a meteor rock from far away...These muffins are amazing.

So every now and then, that is what she sends me. A large batch of molasses muffins...Which unfortunately having travelled nearly four hours via air, and then another three hours around the city, carry with them a carbon footprint.



Now, I will not now or ever turn down a parcel (especially of muffins) from my mother; however, if I want them whenever the craving hits I will just have to learn to make them myself!

So, here it is. I give you the recipe that's better than prune juice, that has showed up at nearly every family gathering, that's been shipped to me for the past five years, and finally, that got me through my sugar detox.

Raisin Molasses Bran Muffins

* Makes 12 muffins, but can easily be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled.

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bran
¼ cup wheat germ
1 cup molasses
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
½ cup oil (canola and olive oil combination)
½ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup raisins

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a muffin tin with muffin cups or lightly grease.
2.In a large bowl, add all dry ingredients (flour to baking powder) and thoroughly mix.
3. In a smaller bowl, blend egg, oil, milk, and vanilla.
4. Add wet to dry. Fold.
5. Add raisins. Fold.
6. Dispense into cups and bake for 20 minutes at 375 or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.



Let cool...Or not. Make yourself a cup of coffee, and enjoy!

Do you ever receive baked goods via air? Or, what favourite childhood recipe would you love to see land at your doorstep?