Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Most Amazing Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins

The following is a single recipe for them. I ALWAYS double it though. I've tripled it before but it was so much batter. I had a hard time mixing it.

PREHEAT OVEN to 350

 I've tried generic bran cereals and Fiber One and they just aren't as good in this recipe.

2 cups Kellogg's All Bran ORIGINAL. (NOT Flakes)
1 cup Kellogg's Bran Buds
1 cup boiling water
Mix boiling water with both cereals. Let soak for 5 minutes or so.

Mean while, mix the following ingredients together in a mixing bowl:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup oil
2 cups buttermilk

Add the soaked cereals to the mixing bowl and mix well.
Add chocolate chips to batter. I've never measured. Jed likes his with more chocolate than me. I like it when each muffin has 3 or 4 chips.

Spray your muffin pans with Pam (or whatever non stick spray you use) and fill the cups about 2/3 full.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Here is my HUGE secret to making them taste the best:
When they come right out of the oven and are cooled, I don't really love them. They aren't nearly as moist.

Here is what I've found. When they are still a little warm place the in Ziplock bags. (make sure they are freezer bags). Give them an hour or more in the baggie. The warmth softens the outer part of the muffins.
Also these freeze AMAZINGLY well. When we are finished with one baggie, I pull out another and leave on the counter. You can also warm them in the microwave at 50%.
ENJOY

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Crepes Filling

FILLING:
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz. container Cool Whip
2 packages of Sugar Free White Chocolate
The powder at the bottom of my Thrive Freeze Dried Strawberries can. It give it a slight strawberry taste and a pretty light pink color
A couple dashes of Vanilla extract and Almond extract
A couple tablespoons of powdered sugar to help with the tartness from the strawberries
3 c. milk
Rehydrated  Thrive Strawberries and sprinkled it lightly with powdered sugar
Cream cream cheese and strawberry powder until smooth. Mix pudding as directed using 3 cups milk. Mix together cream cheese, pudding, and the extracts. Fold in Cool Whip.